Comparison of the Vietnam War and in The Things They Carried

In the twentieth century many young adults and many other men were chosen/ drafted to enter the war. The Vietnam War started during the time period of 1959 and this brutal war ended on 1975. It started with the United States sending aid and military advisors to the Southern part Vietnam. The U.S helped the southerners of Vietnam because the northern part of Viet was a communist state so the south wanted to end Communism up in the north. Also, this war was said to be one of the bloodiest wars that took place in the twentieth century. It was a very bloody war because more than 58,000 American soldiers had perished in combat. Also, during the decade of direct U.S Military participation in Vietnam, during early time of the year, 1964 the U.S treasury spent over 140 billion dollars on this war. “This was enough money to fund urban projects in every major American city” (history.com). As this war effected the American’s, it affected the Vietnamese people to. This war affected both the American’s and the Vietnamese, because in the year of 1973 the United States began withdrawing troops. This caused the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon to fall to the Northern Vietnamese forces. Just like how the war was long and bloody many characters from the novel The Things They Carried experienced many things that were relatable to people who in reality dealt with the war. The very brutality of war cause indelible psychological and emotional changes in most of its participants. Three main characters in The Things They Carried Specifically Tim O’ Brien, Jimmy cross and Mary Anne Bell are composites of combatants whose lives are changed forever through the experience of war.

Jimmy Cross is a character who seems to have trouble with getting his prior...

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...ke a person experience a 180 change. It seems as if Mary Anne Bell’s a person who’s lost her cute personality after she was just too involved with the war that was going on. It has been said that a war can truly change a person so much that they can lose all their old characteristics or better yet their appearance. This quote was used to show how Mary Anne was starting to act grim and unusual. Also, this quote showed how different she speaks to her boyfriend and the ways she even finds her joy everything was and is different. This was unusal as Mary Anne because she obviously she loves her boyfriend a lot, but the unusual things is that not only is it that her personality changes but her appearances started to change also. Mary Anne’s appearance was just different and weird because it seemed as if she was just able to adjust her living styles to a common soldiers. “