Currently there are many resources offered in America to those coping with a personal or interpersonal problem. The degree of stress varies from person to person which determines what form of management is needed. A CEO of a large corporation, for example carries a great deal of weight on their shoulders. The company has high expectations of a person in this position and the responsibility level is incredible. Having such responsibility elevates the level of stress and possibly the need for regular counseling. Since America offers many forms of support, a person with a high degree of stress has the ability to satisfy this lifestyle and find relief. On the other end of the spectrum a college student can feel stressed over a simple writing assignment. Having low self-esteem, the student is doubtful they have the ability to achieve the goal and often will worry about succeeding. With the need for guidance the student can attend a few meetings with a writing center, offered by the college, and accomplish the goal. These examples are a small fraction of how stress and other emotions linked to stress can be manages. Tim O’Brien, author of The Things They Carried, illustrates how these options were unavailable to the American soldiers fighting in the Vietnam War. The men of Alpha Company were exposed to conditions that affected them both mentally and physically, which heightened the level of their own uncertainties. The men were forced to rely on their own creativity in order to survive from day to day. The novel illustrates how they coped with the pressures of war by carrying personal things, retaliating against the enemy and humor.

Americans have many resources to cope with personal or interpersonal problems. A quick web search will call up counselors and support groups for all kinds of griefs. I used to scoff at such programs until I was faced with the sudden death of my husband. The overwhelming feeling of loneliness was impossible to overcome: I felt numb. After trying to manage my sorrow alone, a friend suggested a bereavement group, and I reluctantly signed up to attend a local session. Surprisingly, Walking into a room filled with people that shared these depressing emotions, was comforting, in a morbid sort of way. After listening to others describe their experience I felt less lonely. There is comfort knowing that a person is not alone in the battle to find peace within. I began to realize the importance of developing coping mechanism to traumatic events.  Unfortunately, not everyone can get to a therapy group.  For instance, the soldiers in Tim O’Brien's The Things They Carried illustrate what can happen to soldiers who don't have the option of therapy sessions. The men of Alpha Company were exposed to conditions that affected them both mentally and physically and  heightened their own insecurities. The men were forced to rely on their own creativity in order to survive from day to day. The novel illustrates how they coped with the pressures of war by carrying personal things, retaliating against the enemy, and humor.

Do You See What I See?

The world of magic is shrouded in mystery and deception.  The magician performs a trick and the audience marvels, "How'd he do that?"  The magician is the master of deception.  He can make the audience believe that what they are watching is truly happening. The audiences' eyes  witnessed the trick.  Each person, though, will perceive the illusion differently, wondering if is it real or not.  It will depend on their unique "angle of  vision"(O'Brien 71), whether they will be misled.  A good magician never reveals his secret.  Even after the audience has witnessed the trick, they are left  to doubt whether it was real because it was left unexplained.  After all, the object of a good magician is to leave the audience in a true state of unbelievable suspense.
      This object is certainly what author, Tim O'Brien, magician of words,  is conveying to the readers of his book, The Things They Carried.  Even though his book is fictional, he leaves his audience wondering if the stories in his book are really true. He tells his readers, "This is true"(67), yet later writes "Almost everything [. . .] is invented"(179).  This constant tug-of-war between truth and fiction is what keeps the audience engaged.  Maria Bonn acknowledges this concept in O'Brien's fiction, writing that "All of the literary tricks are part of the mystery and ambiguity that O'Brien purposely cultivates about his life and writing.  He wants readers to be uncertain about the book"(174).  Through the magical use of his words, O'Brien persuades his readers into believing that the truth is ambiguous.  The author uses the different definitions of ambiguous to cleverly show  that truth is:  1. doubtful and uncertain 2.  inexplicable 3.  capable of being understood in two or more possible senses.

Courtroom dramas are among my favorite television shows. A basic tenet of these shows is for witnesses to "swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth," yet accounts of an event can vary as much as the witnesses themselves. The jury's decision regarding guilt or innocence is then based on whose "truth" is believed. And in a trial, the truth is absolute: a guilty verdict can mean death. However, the circumstances surrounding that absolute are subject to many interpretations. Was the perpetrator dark haired and wearing a green jacket, as witness Smith described him? Or should witness Jones's account of a sandy-haired man wearing a navy jacket be taken as the "truth?" The difference between Smith's and Jones's testimony suggests that instead of being an absolute, truth is perception. This belief in truth as a construct is central to Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carry. Throughout the novel, he explores this idea of truth as perception by repetition, distinguishing between different kinds of truth, and by showing how easily people are misled by fiction.

In addition to reliving such events and remembering individuals, one can use these memories to gain insight of his or her present life.  In fact, this is what O'Brien does by writing his stories.  As the critic Steven Kaplan notes, "a main theme of O'Brien's writings is that people create and live their lives with the help of memory and imagination.  O'Brien does not just write stories: he believes that stories are a vital part of human existence" (9).  This idea is what sets the narrator apart from a character named Norman Bowker who took his own life due to the stresses of war.  Throughout the novel, the narrator mentions several times that he is a writer now and by being a writer he can write stories.  He opposed being at war and by writing stories and remembering various events, he is able to cope with his war experience.  It is this type of coping mechanism that enables a person to reflect on the past to better the present and ultimately strengthen his or her "human existence." 

O'Brien further supports this idea when he discusses all the things Bowker would say if he were alive.  If he had not taken his own life, he would have so much to talk about, and would have saved himself from self-destruction.  For instance, he would have boasted about his awards.  O'Brien mentions that "the ribbons looked good on the uniform in his closet, and if his father were to ask, he would've explained what each signified and how he was proud of all of them" (141).  If Bowker had the chance to write or even tell stories, some of them would include his recognition for the duties that he performed.  Although the war experience was gruesome, he could be "proud" that he did his duty.  In this sense, it would have enhanced his "human" condition by allowing him to deal with the war experience rather than letting it destroy him. 

Psychologically, what caused Bowker to be eaten alive was his shame. From a psychological stance, "People who feel shame perceive that they have failed to meet certain standards of conduct. Their failure may be moral or it may center around their incompetence or faults"(Vangelisti 603). Bowker felt that he failed in Vietnam. He failed to save his comrade's life and he failed to get a better medal than the seven he already had. He felt everything was his fault and was ashamed. Psychologists say that,

When people feel shame, they are conscious of being critically observed. They perceive they are being scrutinized and evaluated -- others are all too aware of their flaws. Those who feel shame often want to hide or disappear. If one focuses on the self as a bad person who is evaluated as such by others, then the only recourse is to die, disappear, or at least withdraw from evaluating others. (Vangelisti 603)

Bowker cannot deal with his faults and it shames him to imagine what other people will think of his faults. He can not cope with the burden of shame and decides to die, or "disappear," by committing suicide.

O'Brien argues that story telling is a way of avoiding this kind of shame. He writes that "By telling stories, you objectify your own experience. You separate it from yourself"(158). He suggests here that Bowker would have been able to justify and make better sense of his experience with stories. They would allow him to "separate" them from himself -- get them off his chest and liberate him from their emotional gravity. It would have helped him overcome what is called "post-Vietnam syndrome," which is classified under post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Figley 528). Charles Figley notes that this syndrome results from exposure to any life threatening event such as war. The stress that is associated with the traumatic event and experienced well afterwards is post-traumatic stress(528). He adds that "trauma causes emotional tension until it is dislodged or discharged" (529). If Bowker had the courage to "dislodge" the tension – or tell his story – he would have been able to dislodge the trauma that caused him to develop PTSD and avoid suicide.

In The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, the men of Alpha company resorted to different means of coping. They coped by joking, telling stories, and by fantasizing.

Because people have unique personalities, they develop their own personal coping mechanisms. Some people turn to joking as a way to cope. Joking is an effective coping mechanism because "it is a potent agent for psychological removal from stressful situations" (Henman 87). One man who resorted to joking as a way to cope was Azar. This was apparent upon the death of Kiowa , who was killed during a battle and was lost in a mud pit. While they were searching for his body, Azar started joking about the circumstances of Kiowa's death, how Kiowa was "wasted in the waste" (165) and how it was "a classic case [of] biting the dirt" (165). The other soldiers didn't appreciate his humor because they held Kiowa in high regard and they were devastated by his death. They felt Azar's humor was inappropriate at such a sad time and they kept telling him to stop with the jokes. What the soldiers didn't realize, however, was that Azar was using humor to cope with Kiowa's death.

While humor may seem an inappropriate response to a stressful situation, many soldier's turn to humor as a way to cope. This was documented by the United States Navy, who, in 1975, began a research program to evaluate Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in 566 Vietnamese Prisoner's of War. The study found "there [was] no more increased incidence of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder [...] in the VPOW group than in the general population" (Henman 84). The study concluded that the prisoners were better able to cope because they took every opportunity they could to make jokes in order to cheer each other up. According to Linda Henman, "prisoners often found humor to be an effective coping mechanism, a way of fighting back and taking control" (83), and for the VPOW's, humor played an important role in their survival. The use of humor as a coping mechanism is widespread. Humor also was a key factor in the survival of Holocaust victims during their imprisonment in concentration camps. Victor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor, stated that "humor was another of the soul's weapon's in the fight for self preservation" (Henman 86). It "allowed [us] to escape the confines of the [camp], if just for a few seconds" (Henman 86 ). When Frankl realized how his mood lightened up after he had a good laugh, he and a friend decided that during their captivity they would "invent at least one amusing story daily" (Henman 86) to help them cope with their imprisonment. Much like the VPOW's and Holocaust survivors, it was humor that Azar turned to in order to cope. Humor allowed him to escape from his sadness for a little while. While it may have seemed inappropriate, it was his unique way to deal with Kiowa's death.

O'Brien's use of repetition when telling a story shows how truth can become a jumbled thought of what actually happened and what seems to have happened. In "How to Tell a Good War Story" the narrator recalls the death of one of his fellow soldiers, Curt Lemon. The absolute truth to the story is "Curt Lemon stepped on a booby trapped 105 round. He was playing catch with Rat Kiley, laughing, and then he was dead" (78). This story is told and retold through out the chapter, and every time it is told there are details added to it. What started off as an actual account of Curt Lemon's death becomes filled with details placed by the narrator to replace those forgotten by memory, and to form it into a way that he wants to remember the event, rather than how it actually happens.

The narrator confesses to the reader how "it's difficult to separate what happened to what seems to happen. What seems to happen becomes it own happening and has to be told that way" (71). O'Brien explains in the story how the truth can become an askew thought and "when a guy dies, like Curt Lemon, you look away and the look back a moment and then look away again" (71). He then explains how "angels of vision are skewed" (71), and when "the picture gets jumbled; you tend to miss a lot. And then afterward, when you go to tell about it, there is always that surreal seeming ness, which makes the story seem untrue, but which in fact represents the hard and exact truth" (71). Giving the story teller no single unbroken view of what actually happened, the incident becomes a vague reference in his mind. The more often a story is told the more often it is changed to fill in the blanks at the moments he looked away. This makes the story no longer a moment by moment re-enactment of what actually happened, but a story of what little the narrator can recall. With each telling the obscured moments are filled in by what the narrator believes to have happened and moments that the narrator wants to believe have happened. O'Brien explains in an interview that if you take "almost any experience of your life that means something to you, that really hits you, [. . .] over the course of time your imagination is going to do things with that experience to render it into something that you can deal with." (7). While the story is no longer a completely accurate account, it contains the emotions and the feelings of how one would remember such an event.

Agree
argue
believe
charge
claim
comment

conclude
consider
criticize
declare
describe
define

discover
emphasize
explain
feels
illustrate
imply

indicate
reinforce
reveals
shows
suggests
supports

This ____ suggests that _______
They indicate the ____
This emphasis on finding ______ suggests that ___________
Connected to this ____ is the notion _______.
By explaining _____, the _______ is reinforced/clarified/revealed.
The connotations of ____ suggest/illustrates/reveals that _______.
The literary critic ____ argues that this _____ is crucial. He/she writes that ___
Supporting this idea of the war as an oppressive force, the narrator adds __________
The description reinforces the idea that ______.

In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried love is demonstrated through sacrifice, letting go, and not giving up.

Finally, the soldiers illustrated love by not giving up. Giving up is such an easy concept and seems like the simplest way to solve a problem when difficulties and challenges arise. Many people are so quick to give up because they have no desire to make a conscious effort and overcome hardships. Working through difficulties and challenges alone or with support is the best option because although there may be “pain” for a time, things will eventually get accomplished or resolved and people will see that it was worth it. Despite the difficulties each of the men faced in this novel, none of them gave up. They continued to fight for what they felt was right and they were obedient to those in charge. Love is demonstrated by not giving up because in a relationship whether it is between a man and wife, father and daughter, friend and friend, staying committed and working through the challenges is key to making the relationship a success. In this novel we saw the relationships between the soldiers grow stronger because they did not give up on each other. When they lost a friend, they did not let it slow them down and they kept persevering. In a way, they became desensitized to the idea of death and they carried on about their duties. In the war, soldiers have duties and obligations that they are expected to keep up with even during the hardest of times and remember what they are doing this for. Not giving up when “the going gets tough” is an important element of love.