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Violence And Profanity In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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Violence and Profanity The United States Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that PTSD affects almost 31 percent of Vietnam veterans. This number is through the roof compared to any other war percentages. In The Things they Carried by Tim O'Brien, the book uses profanity and violence to explain war stories. Violence and traumatic events can be everlasting in the mind of a soldier and can drive them to points of insanity and disorders such as PTSD. PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a problem related to soldiers coming home after war. It is a problem in our country today but it was an even more rampant after the Vietnam War. In the book O´Brien stated, ¨You may have heard of psychological disorders associated with war, such as shell shock or Combat Stress Reaction as it is …show more content…

¨War is hell¨(74). War is a place where its your will versus. your opposite sides. It is a scary battlefield where it is every man for himself. ¨¨Well, hey, ¨¨Bowker said,¨I´m just saying what Jorgenson says. Maybe fuckin´ polio. Or that weird elephant disease. Elephantasshole or whatever¨(187). Soldiers were irritated and would use profanity when they didn't have to. “So when I got shot the second time, in the butt, along the Song Tra Bong, it took the son of a bitch almost ten minutes to work up the nerve to crawl over to me” (181). Tim was shot and injured and it took some time for the medic to get to him. Instead of calling the medic his friend he used profanity against him. O’Brien and the other soldiers use profanity to describe their experiences during war. “Put on a suit and tie and stand up in front of the Kiwanis club and tell the fuckers about all the wonderful shit he knew. Pass out samples maybe”(138). Soldiers experienced a lot of disturbing experiences during war and O'Brien uses profanity to show the intensity of war. Without this use of language we would not get the real life feel of the

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