Containment In The Things They Carried
The novel “The Things They Carried” travels back to the time of the Vietnam War, and provides real-life experience from the author Tim O’Brien, as he and his fellow soldiers battle in Vietnam. This novel also describes the things that each soldier carries with them both literally and figuratively. What O’Brien may have been carrying after war compelled him to share his stories, and provide a truth behind the bloodshed.
The Vietnam War is referred to as the “longest and most unpopular American War of the 20th century”(Overview), that lasted from 1955 to 1975. In the US, the war began as a result of the U.S. policy of Containment. This policy’s goal was to prevent the spread of communism throughout the world. The Viet Minh is a communist led …show more content…
Number one is the end of the draft. President Nixon noticed how disappointed the public was after the war. This led him to remove the draft and begin a force that contained only volunteer soldiers. Number two is changing the age to vote. The idea that people at the age of 18 could go into the military, but not vote gave the White House a realization. “The Nixon White House, recognizing the electoral significance of this newly franchised population, courted the 18-year-old vote with mailings on the end of the draft”(DeLeon). This action allowed more men to go to college, instead of being told to go to …show more content…
As these soldiers returned home from a long, bloody war, they are shunned and put down for withdrawing. Even though they were only following orders, many believe that they have brought shame to the country. According to English.illinois.edu:
“More Vietnam veterans committed suicide after the war than had died in it…nearly 700,000 draftees, many of them poor, badly educated, and nonwhite, who had received less than honorable discharges, depriving them of educational and medical benefits, found it especially difficult to get and keep jobs, to maintain family relationships, and to stay out of jail.”
It was also said in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried that, “They died so as not to die of embarrassment”(O’Brien 623). Coming back from something as traumatizing as Vietnam, and having almost everything you knew change, was probably the limit for those that served. It was almost like saying, if you had no choice to enlist in the military when you were 18, sorry we forced you to go, but now you can decide if the military is for you. It’s almost like sarcastically apologizing to the 60,000 Americans that died in the
The Vietnam War is referred to as the “longest and most unpopular American War of the 20th century”(Overview), that lasted from 1955 to 1975. In the US, the war began as a result of the U.S. policy of Containment. This policy’s goal was to prevent the spread of communism throughout the world. The Viet Minh is a communist led …show more content…
Number one is the end of the draft. President Nixon noticed how disappointed the public was after the war. This led him to remove the draft and begin a force that contained only volunteer soldiers. Number two is changing the age to vote. The idea that people at the age of 18 could go into the military, but not vote gave the White House a realization. “The Nixon White House, recognizing the electoral significance of this newly franchised population, courted the 18-year-old vote with mailings on the end of the draft”(DeLeon). This action allowed more men to go to college, instead of being told to go to …show more content…
As these soldiers returned home from a long, bloody war, they are shunned and put down for withdrawing. Even though they were only following orders, many believe that they have brought shame to the country. According to English.illinois.edu:
“More Vietnam veterans committed suicide after the war than had died in it…nearly 700,000 draftees, many of them poor, badly educated, and nonwhite, who had received less than honorable discharges, depriving them of educational and medical benefits, found it especially difficult to get and keep jobs, to maintain family relationships, and to stay out of jail.”
It was also said in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried that, “They died so as not to die of embarrassment”(O’Brien 623). Coming back from something as traumatizing as Vietnam, and having almost everything you knew change, was probably the limit for those that served. It was almost like saying, if you had no choice to enlist in the military when you were 18, sorry we forced you to go, but now you can decide if the military is for you. It’s almost like sarcastically apologizing to the 60,000 Americans that died in the