Rat Kiley Effect

War, the principle cause of pain and loss, not only affects an individual, but also the land on which it is fought. Soldiers, who take part in this type of action undergo changes that completely transform them into a distinct person to the one they were before the war. Sometimes physically, but almost always emotionally and or mentally. This sort of combat also affects the normal civilians and their ways of living in such a zone since they must find ways to survive, which was the case of the people who lived in the Vinh Moc Tunnels along the demilitarized zone of Vietnam. The outcome of war can distort a person completely, not just physically due to injuries, but also mentally and emotionally as the character Rat Kiley from The Things
Some soldiers, such as Tim O’Brien from The Things They Carried have a personality change; he became obsessed with taking revenge on a fellow soldier who was shocked by all the massacres going on that he froze and failed to get to wounded O’Brien on time. O’Brien, having to suffer the consequences of not getting treated on time was anxious to get well so he could take his revenge on the medic who was in shock by his surroundings. As a result, O’Brien decided to play a cruel prank on Bobby Jorgenson, the medic who treated O’Brien, by scaring him during his night shift knowing paranoia would get the best of Jorgenson. The soldier knew it was wrong for he admitted “In a way I wanted to stop myself. It was cruel, I knew that but right and wrong were somewhere else. I heard myself chuckle” (198). O’brien was so consumed by all the pain he had to go through as a result of the war and not getting treated on time, that he only focused on his vengeance towards Jorgenson. He was affected by war physically, resulting in his change in attitude as well, something that Steinbeck agrees with O’Brien on as well. Steinbeck asserts that soldiers who have had to experience war are “capable of great cruelties” and that they “laugh at things which are not ordinarily funny” which was the case of O’Brien’s “chuckle” when he knew he was acting on hate and cruelty and not taking
Veterans of war are some of the ones most affected by war and combat since they are the ones physically present and fighting. They undergo stress that normal people would not even begin to imagine, let alone understand them and their experiences or why they come back from combat a completely different person to the one they once were before war. They come back completely affected and transformed by war. Normal civilians and the land they live on is too affected by war, the case of civilians living along the DMZ during the Vietnam War. They had to survive while there was a war going on and the way they found was through the tunnel system. People are affected by war in different ways, some come back wounded, many suffer from PTSD, some live along the zone of the war and need to survive how ever it is but there is no doubt that war affects a person and community in various harmful ways and causes a place or person to be completely