preview

PTSD In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

Decent Essays

Tim O’Brien wrote many novels including the mysterious fiction novel, In the Lake of the Woods but is mostly known for his most popular novel The Things They Carried. In the Lake of the Woods is a novel about a couple who recently rented a cabin that is near a lake to get away from everyone and everything that is wrong with their lives. John Wade, who was running for U.S. Senate, lost the election due to his past actions in the Vietnam War at My Lai. Kathleen Wade is the spouse of John Wade, who supported john in every way for his dream of becoming a U.S. Senate. The story shows the struggle a Vietnam veteran has to go through to live a normal life. O’Brien, once again, brought the repugnant Vietnam War back into one of his novels but this …show more content…

Man versus self is a force created by one man and is fighting that one man, in other words it would be John Wade versus John Wade. John is faced with the terrorizing mental illness known as PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD occurs when someone gains a tragic experience that has emotionally or mentally scared them for life. Even though the author never states that john has PTSD it is shown throughout the story. In chapter eight: How the Night Passed, John goes through psychotic phase where he is naked and starts talking to go and how much he hates him. He said to himself multiple times, “Kill Jesus” (O’Brien 49), and he tells God he wished he existed so he could kill him too. While John is doing this he is imagining that he is killing Jesus by “kicking and gouging. He’d go for the eyes. Yes, he would. Tear out the eyeballs-fists and fingernails-just punch and claw and hammer and bite. God, too.” (O’Brien 47). During this time it is obvious that John is having a psychotic meltdown due to all the things he saying and doing. While he is saying and imagining these things, John is boiling water to make tea but he ends up taking the boiled water and pours it directly onto the plants in the cabin to make them die instantly. John at the moment is having a grand old time making these plants suffer just the way that everything else in the world is making him

Get Access