Many, if no all, were drafted against their will. The soldiers were forced to leave behind their families, homes, girls, or children, and were instructed to kill and die for unknown reasons. They marched through villages and swamps with mutilated kids and were told to not cry, even if they had killed their first person or one of their closest friends. Tim O’Brien explains this in The Things They Carried. He tells the story of his men’s struggle to maintain a strong front against the monster of war. The Things They Carried tells us that they did this to remind each other of their own weaknesses. In order to cope, they use other techniques that blur the lines between right and incorrect. The soldiers’ crude behavior and language show that their forced masculinity as men and warriors has only added to their trauma.
Tim O’Brien’s initial reaction to the crude language of soldiers is to be appalled: the apparent indifference with which they treat a dead kid in a puddle, and the things said when a soldier was shot. They would say greased instead of dead. He realizes this and adopts a “hard language to contain the horrible softness (19). ” The juxtaposition with “terriblesoftness”, suggests that what soldiers do or say may seem shocking to people not in their situation, but is actually nothing when compared to how vulnerable they would be otherwise. Tim O’Brien’s unhealthy response to tragedy comes into stark focus in “The Man I Killed” when he finds himself staring at a gory corpse. The reader is given a brutally honest portrait of this corpse, revealing all the unavoidable physical details. He cannot help but feel that this is the end of his life. He cannot make any jokes or use any euphemisms to lessen its reality. Tim O’Brien tells the story of a man whose upper lip, teeth, and jaw were missing. “His one eye was closed, while his other was shaped like a star,” (118). The reader will be as fixated by the horrific physicality and death of the corpse, just like Tim O’Brien. This fixation not only helps us understand his thinking, but also reminds us of his earlier inability to see the humanity of his enemy. His emotions and thoughts are not understood, so he is only left with obsession. His halting, circular thoughts. The only advice given to him is “stop staring”.
Soldiers soon learn that if their emotions and fate are out of control, they have to take control over others. As a coping strategy, the soldiers use this when confronted by intense emotions. Rat Kiley kills a baby Buffalo in brutal fashion when Curt lemon dies. Rat Kiley shoots an innocent baby buffalo with his automatic gun to cope with his intense grief. They all “stood and watched, feeling many different things, but not much pity” (75). When men are unable express their “softer”, more emotional emotions in an appropriate way, they have been known to react like this. Instead, they turn to violence and control. Just as when the entire platoon destroyed a village after Ted Lavender’s shooting. It is not the men’s nature that causes this, but rather the rules of masculinity they feel they must follow.
The book repeatedly mentions this code of conduct. Tim O’Brien’s description of the platoon’s ‘greatest fear’ is perhaps more disturbing than any of the gore or death. More than a grenade’s tragedy, more terrifying than a P.O.W.’s camp, and more frightening than death, a soldiers’ greatest fear appears to be humiliation. Even if a soldier is able to go back home, save an innocent person, or even hang themselves in their parents’ basement if they are embarrassed, showing their misery and sadness in public can be the most humiliating thing he will experience during a war. This isn’t, as you might think, an indication of strength and resolve, but rather the damage this inhumane “masculinity,” does to a man’s mind. The soldiers do not consider that having fears, phobias or apprehensions is as humane as being brave and strong.
Curt lemon, who has anxiety and fears of dentists, almost faints when the dentist arrives to treat his teeth. This embarrassment, which anyone would expect, is more than just a funny story. Curt Lemon suffers a psychosomatic toothache as a result of this humiliation. The teeth were fine. But his mind translated his humiliation into a persistent and “killer’ toothache. The dentist was called that evening and he insisted on doing something. Curt was insistent that he remove the tooth. The dentist did not find anything wrong. Curt lemon gave up a perfectly normal tooth in order to regain, metaphorically speaking, his masculinity. These soldiers will carry the effects of their unhealthy thinking long after war is over.
These soldiers are emotionally handicapped by the patriarchal code, and traumas that follow them home are never properly addressed. Norman Bowker, a soldier who committed suicide after returning to his home country, is an example. In “Speaking of Courage”, Bowker imagines himself having a conversation about his “almost winning the Silver Star” (135), which is a medal awarded for unusual bravery. He lost the Silver Star because he had been responsible for Kiowa’s death in a muck-filled field during an attack at night. The constant repetition of “Silver Star” reveals his fixation on expectations broken and inability deal with the guilt and grief he has experienced after the war. He cannot stop thinking to himself. His mind is constantly going in circles. His toxic thinking process is due to his stunted ability to feel, and this feeds into his depression. He was “more brave than he thought possible” but not as brave as he wished to be. He does not want to face his past. However, he also feels he cannot make amends. His friends are all gone and he now lives with father.
The only way to express emotion was by lashing out. The war may have encouraged it, but you can’t stay so distant from humanity. Rat Kiley’s pain was a reminder of death, of grief. He only knew how to express it through violence, by inflicting his suffering on innocent lives caught in war. Tim O’Brien stared in horror at the dead body of his victim and realized he couldn’t make him less dead by joking. Norman Bowker echoes his repetitive and obsessional thoughts. Norman Bowker is stuck at home and not in war. He does not have the Silver Star. His friend Kiowa has also left him. There is no chance for him to prove himself. These men were never weak and they certainly weren’t perfect. The patriarchal rules have never allowed for “terrible” emotions, even though they are innate to all people. No gray area existed between the strong and the weak, or between villain and hero. The men’s psyches were permanently damaged, as they had no space for healthy emotional expression.
