The Soldiers Burdens Throughout the book The Things They Carried we met many different characters with many different thoughts and issues. We learned that no matter the background of the soldier, they all had things that they had to deal with constantly besides the fear of death and war. I will be sharing stories of three different soldiers who had to deal with these issues heavily. They are Tim O’Brien, Norman Bowker, and Rat Kiley. These three soldiers have done extraordinary things for the war but picked up a few not so good memories as well. Coming back from war was an easy thing to do for some of them but others couldn't handle normal life anymore. Tim O’Brien was the author of the book and faced fear and adversity several times. He once …show more content…
He was the main medic for the platoon and when battles would happen he would work on the battle field treating the wounded soldiers. His job was very crucial and he was loved by all of the soldiers, but a person can only see so many dead or near dead bodies before it starts to take a mental toll on them. He started to go crazy. For a while the solders were forced to stay low and hidden during the day but move during the darkest points of the night. The soldiers stated that it was so dark that you would occasionally reach forward and touch the guy in front of you to ensure that you had not been lost. During this period it caused Rat Kiley to get crazier and crazier. One night “He couldn’t stop talking about the bugs, for instance: how the worst thing in Nam was the god-damn bugs. Big giant killer bugs that were chemically altered by napalm and defoliants and tear gas and DDT. He claimed the bugs were personally after his ass” (O’Brien 209). Not to long after he had made that comment he shot his self in the foot and was released from the war. None of the soldiers were mad or could blame him since they knew all of the stuff he had been