Introduction
Both physical and emotional baggage are things people carry throughout their lives, regardless of circumstances. O’Brien’s profound insight into this topic in his short story “The Things They Carried” is crucial to understanding the human experience amid the hardships people endure throughout their lives. During the Vietnam War, the soldiers, characters of the story, continuously faced the fear of death while having to fulfill their battle duties and carry the emotional baggage that connected them to their lives at home (Simkins, 2021).
The movie Platoon (1986), which was based on the director’s (Oliver Stone) experience during the Vietnam War, has profound similarities with the short story in terms of the exploration of the physical and emotional hardships. The narratives do not matter as much; however, the methods of coping with trauma and grief are very similar, which speaks volumes about the deep emotional impact associated with the war.
Analysis
The desire to always have a connection to one’s home is the trope present in both plot lines. In the movie and the short story, some soldiers carry photos of their loved ones to look forward to when they return from war. Although they are light physically, the photos add to the heavy burden of duty for the soldiers, reminding them of what they fight for in the first place:
“Almost everyone humped photographs. In his wallet, Lieutenant Cross carried two photographs of Martha. The first was a Kodacolor snapshot signed Love, though he knew better” (O’Brien, 2012, p. 3). Thus, the weight of weapons and ammunition was not the heaviest for the soldiers; instead, it was the desire to return home one day and live a normal life, which was unlikely ever to be normal.
The coping skills of the soldiers in Platoon and “The Things They Carried” were similar in that they often combined humor with denial of the frightening nature of the situations they found themselves in. Essentially, they used “gallows” humor when they found dead bodies along the trails, talked to them, and acted out conversations (Matloff, 2020). This behavior is indicative of the severe stress that people experience, with them attempting to hide it behind the façade of humor to make the horrors of the war more tolerable.
When the soldiers in the Platoon stumble upon a dead body, one of them says, “It ain’t gonna bite you,” which shows that death has become mundane in their lives and there is nothing they can do about it (Stone, 1986). Moreover, in both stories, the lead character writes about their experiences. In the movie, Chris Taylor writes letters to his grandmother as he narrates the story, using them to cope and share his feelings with someone who cares, while O’Brien recounts his personal experiences through writing, which he later uses.
Conclusion
To conclude, the Vietnam War resulted not only in up to 60,000 US military fatalities but also in severe emotional trauma for soldiers involved in it. Both “The Things They Carried” and Platoon demonstrate that war is an environment in which people strive to cope and feel normal despite the horrific events they endure. The emotional burden is far more demanding for soldiers than the physical challenges because they were far from home and had to use the coping mechanisms they felt were available to them.
References
Matloff, J. (2020). In praise of gallows humor: Sick jokes can be healthy. Psychology Today.
OâBrien, T. (2012). The Things They Carried.
Simkins, J. (2021). âThe Things They Carriedâ author Tim OâBrien on his lifeâs work, trauma & confronting mortality. Military Times.
Stone, O. (Director). (1986). Platoon.