Evidence of PTSD in Tim O'Brien's Writing

O'Brien provides the reader with layers of information rather than depicting his stories all at once in chronological fashion. Doing so reveals the level of post-trauma stress the author maintains as he attempts to relive the memories of war. His treatment in telling of the death of his friend, Curt Lemon, is a primary example. At first, O'Brien provides mostly sensory information, capturing the sounds of the jungle, the light playing off of the tree canopies, and the childish noises Curt and Rat Kiley make just before Curt steps on a land mine. Suddenly, the author leaves the story altogether before returning to the discussion of Curt Lemon. O'Brien is clearly still haunted by the incident as evinced both by the broken, evasive way he treats the story and the fact that he mentions being unable to sleep twenty years later when he hears Dave Jensen singing "Lemon Tree."

You can't blame him either...

O'Brien's broken story telling is as powerful as it is indicative of the emotional trauma he still lives with. Interestingly, his narratives of the events he witnessed personally are in many ways dispassionately detail oriented - emotional more so in the way he talks about the lasting effects of the trauma and being unable to find true empathy from others. The National Alliance of Mental Illness states that traumatic experiences often are not integrated at the time of an accident as the fight or flight instincts take precedent in order to provide the body with immediate safety. This may help explain why O'Brien is so clear about the details surrounding Curt Lemon's death but provides those details in a interruptive way, attempting to revisit memories he has long suffered with. Post-traumatic stress is apparent in O'Brien's writing. While it may serve to increase the the reader's ability to empathize with the horrors of war, I find it hard not to also feel for the author as he struggles to relive those horrors.