The Things They Carried

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The Things They Carried
From the “Man I Killed”, the soldiers are emotionally affected by the killings they do. O’Brien is confused and is guilty of killing a young man whom he thinks is a scholar (Colella 58). After committing the murder, he seems to be negotiating his feelings by imagining the victim’s life. O’Brien regrets killing the man since knows he has brought all the man’s activities to an end such as his schooling. In “Ambush”, O’Brien is always writing war stories and this explains how great the war had an impact on him. Surprisingly, in these two chapters, the soldiers are emotional about the killings and seem to regret their involvement in wars. A soldier is assumed to be used to killing people but this describes the opposite side of it. O’Brien takes a lot of time in staring at the lifeless body and imagining the life of the victim.
The short-term effects that the soldiers had in killing a man was of having guilt for the murder they caused while the longterm effects include directly confronting death and imagining that the people they killed are alive again. In “Ambush”, O’Brien imagines the man he killed is walking and at times sitting down as he reads a magazine. The soldiers coped with their memories and experiences of the war by sharing their stories with others; either through writing or by word of mouth (Colella 57).
In conclusion, the war had psychological and emotional effects on the soldiers. The effects were longterm and even years after the end of the war, they could recall the men they killed.

These experiences sensitize soldiers to be prepared to handle deaths and even if they are mentally haunted, they could relieve their emotions by sharing with others.
Work Cited
Colella, Jill. CliffsNotes on O’Brien’s The Things They Carried. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011.