FRQ 3

In the novel The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien employs scenes of violence through the setting and mental health issues, in order to convey the misery the soldiers felt fighting in the harsh Vietnamese conditions, ultimately illustrating the conditions soldiers fight in leave lasting trauma.

Tim O’Brien utilizes the setting to develop a scene of violence. The soldiers have been fighting a very gruesome Vietnam War. O’Brien sets the scene, they were trapped inside a wide open shit pond hardly able to move. Like quicksand, the soldiers were sinking in while trying to escape the raining enemy fire. Because the setting was established, the violent conditions of this battle become clear. Consequently, the setting that these soldiers were forced to fight in was miserable. Therefore, the soldiers that were drafted, to a war that most disagreed with, were traumatized from the conditions and situations they were put through. O’Brien continues to use the setting to display the lack of cover available. While the soldiers were unprotected against the raining Vietnamese soldiers, they were also unshielded from the sun. The Vietnam sun is blistering. There was no shade while crossing the shit pond. The soldier's skin was raw and peeling. The blisters on the soldiers establish the harsh setting because it shows the physical violence these soldiers endured. Since these soldiers are being physically harmed, the harsh nature of this war has been shown. Thus showing that the conditions of the war leave lasting trauma both mentally and physically with scars on their bodies.

The setting of the shit pond reveals the scene of violence as does the mental health issues. Unstable mental health further develops the scenes of violence. As the Selective Service Act became increasingly utilized, Tim became worried about being drafted. O’Brien attempted to flee the United States. Tim felt conflicted about the war. He did not agree with the reason that America was fighting; he also did not want to let his parents down. He started to experience suicidal thoughts. Because of the immense pressure Tim felt, he started to experience mental health issues. Consequently, even though he did not agree with the war, he began to think that violence was the only way out, either fighting in the war or ending his own life. Therefore, even before the war, these young men were already traumatized just from the pressure they felt and the news they heard from the war. Mental health is also used to portray the scenes of violence. The squad of soldiers was attacked by Vietnamese soldiers. They lost a soldier to a grenade. They took out the Vietnamese but not without mourning their own. Rat Kiley, comrade and best friend of the deceased soldier, was experiencing survivor's guilt, a form of PTSD. Rat brutally butchered a cow, with his swiss army knife, in front of the others because he believed that he either should have died or the other guy should have survived. Rat Kiley murdered an innocent cow because he was at a loss in life and he did not know how to handle his emotions. Since they experienced the death of their friend, the miserable conditions in these scenes can be felt through the emotions shown. Thus showing that because of these fits of loss of control, due to mental health illnesses, the lasting trauma of the soldiers can be seen in these scenes of violence. 

Tim O’Brien’s usage of setting and mental illness help to express the scenes of violence to convey the dangerous conditions of the Vietnam War, ultimately illustrating the battlefronts during war traumatize soldiers. The violent outburst from the Vietnam War soldiers have been caused and expressed due to fighting in a gruesome war that they did not want to be in. You can also see the shift in the mental health conditions from the war these soldiers had to fight in. Even though the Vietnam War was particularly gruesome, every war can be traumatizing because of the conditions and battles. 

In In the Lake of the Woods, Tim O’Brien employs both acts of violence in war and acts of domestic violence to convey John’s broken personality because of physical implications from personal experiences, ultimately illustrating that the lasting effects of violence are psychological. 

John utilizes concealment with violent acts to try to protect his physical self, but ends up leaving him internally broken. During his time in Vietnam, John participated in a massive massacre-like  invasion, where he watched and contributed to the death of civilians. Because of the guilt he felt, he avoids confronting the true way he feels, and he even ends up trying to cover it up. Consequently, John ends up breaking down from the inside, changing the person he once was. Therefore, the acts of war violence leave him at a mental incapacity from the guilt of hiding such atrocious acts. John’s deception did not start due to acts of war violence. As a child John acted to be a “Sorcerer” and perfect the act of concealment and disappearance. From a young age John knew how to “hide” things from others because it was a part of his act. Since this was a skill learned from a joke, when it came time to enact it with a dire situation, he started to crumble and could no longer conceal his emotions. Thus showing that even when skills have  been learned, this violence leaves lasting psychological effects and even after years of concealment, the truth breaks a person.

Violence during the times of war not only shaped John, but further built the facade he showed during his time with Kathy, leaving lasting effects from domestic violence. Acts of domestic violence blur the truth, leaving lasting effects of uncertainty in life for John as he navigates the situations of doubt. John imagines himself throwing boiling water on his wife, although as the story progresses, the true story never fully reveals if it was an imagination. Because the act of violence was possibly an illusion, the state of John’s broken mind is highlighted. Consequently, the state of which he was in to act upon the impulse or imagine it, is due to his prior implications of war time violence. Therefore, John’s unstable mind is a symbol of broken psychological belief from the lasting effects of war and violence on a person’s mind. John’s unstable mental space creates theories connected to the disappearance of Kathy. It is never quite specified how Kathy disappeared: murder, drowning, or escape. The violence leaves uncertainty of the truth because the real reason behind Kathy’s disappearance is never displayed. Since the book is perceived through John’s point of view, the violence leaves him and his thoughts broken upon the truth. Thus showing that the truth of a violent situation is never clarified because of the broken mindset that violence can induce. 

Through the physical acts of violence in war and the uncertain acts of domestic abuse, violence is shown to leave lasting implications far beyond physical, and that violence instead reshapes the lives and mental state of a person. From the perspective of John, the instability of his mental space can be observed. This instability creates sense of rage, violence, and guilt, overall highlighting the lasting psychological effects violence creates.