Life after serving in the military will never be the same. Soldiers attempt to cope with the real world in many different ways but may never be okay. Many soldiers are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is an anxiety disorder that may occur after a traumatic incident with life long lasting effects. This can lead to their personal deterioration. One form of coping with the after effects of war is through writing literature. We have seen through several of the books we’ve read in class how war affects the individual. In the novel “The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’brien, we can see how each soldier is mentally affected by the war. The author establishes that it is not the truth that is important but the act of storytelling. We know that we can not actually understand how war actually affects each individual since we are not in war, so the best we can do is try and understand it. Tim’s purpose is to explain the importance of storytelling over the truth. We also saw this in the novel “Slaughterhouse-Five,” written by Kurt Vonnegut. We learn the difficulties and how war affected the individuals in a way that they can’t even write about an event that was such a big part in their lives and something that haunts them forever. Vonnegut was told that writing a book against war is useless if his goal is to prevent war. His purpose in writing the book is his way of coping with his PTSD. He tries to understand how and why events unfolded to benefit himself.
In the book I read, “No Easy Day,” Mark Owen, the author, writes about his experience with the military and ultimately the events unfolding to the mission that killed Osama Bin Laden. There are several aspects that drew controversy to this book. First of all, Mark Owen is not the authors real name, it’s Matt Bissonette. It is greatly looked down upon to publicize events such as these. It is required by the military that before anything is publicized that it be reviewed by the operational security. Thousands of soldiers submit pieces of literature about the military for review every day. If they are not allowed, they just get thrown out. It is a long process to have everything you’ve worked on to get shut down. Bissonette disobeyed this and went on to publish his book without their review. This was problematic and caused huge debate when it was released whether to take it off the shelves. One side was that Bissonette illegally released his book without review and contained classified information. The other was if they shut down his book, it would deny a veteran the opportunity to cope with their lives. He also disobeyed an agreement his team made that they are not to speak of missions sought out by his team. This is a big step for the military community. It provides support to many soldiers who are suppressed to express their feelings and attitude towards the war and their experiences with it.
After doing research, I found that it has been scientifically proven that writing helps deal with stress and other problems following war. “Deep disclosure improves mood, objective and subjective health, and the ability to function well.” Many people use literature to help them deal with problems they’re having. They use it as a “person” to talk to and let out their feelings. Diaries are a common example of this. That’s why many people hide their secrets and problems and how their day went as a way to cope with it in their diaries. It relieves the stress and makes it easier to keep secrets so you don’t get the urge to tell someone else because it’s in their diaries. Writing has also been shown to bring back memories from even before combat that were forgotten as a result. “Findings like these underscore that writing is an easy, inexpensive, independent and relatively universal way for people can resist the mental and physical ravages of stress and disease.” Many people choose to write rather than seek therapy because they don’t want to spend the money or feel comfortable sharing these stories with other people. More importantly they choose not to share because it is against the stigma of the army. They are pressured to not share their experiences because it is against the code of honor so many soldiers chose to write about it. Because people are looked down upon for sharing their war stories, Bissonette makes the first huge change within the military community. Matt Bissonette sets an example that it’s okay to write and share war stories.
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