Horror is personified in the description of the dead man that O"Brien killed. The way he described the man with such an objective, remorselessness gives the reader a true view on O"Brien's shock, and revulsion. One of the themes of The Things They Carried is the idea that the horrors of war do not disappear when you leave the battle grounds. This is clearly evident when Norman Bowker, a friend on O"Brien, returns home from Vietnam and cannot find his place in society. Bowker feels like he can never return to normal civilization after all of the things that he went through. People who he interacts with everyday will never know what he went through, even with the most detailed descriptions they could never look at life through his shoes. The reader eventually finds out that Bowker commits suicide to ride himself of the parasite that is his own memories of the War in Vietnam. There is another section in the book where a man named Jimmy Cross comes to visit O'Brien after the war. They talk of experiences and hardships, and it becomes apparent Cross has also been unable to totally move on with his life. There are still horrid memories, and they still weigh heavy on his mind even during his every day civilian life. O'Brien never complains about these problems, but it is clear that they bother him a great deal as well. Vietnam embodied horrors so great that they stay with people until the day of their death. Horrors that would cause people to take their own lives to relieve the pain. Tim O"Brien's book, The Things They Carried delivers these horrors to the reader in a group of perfectly orchestrated, realistic stories.
Apocalypse Now is a vivid account of Vietnam, and the damaging effects of the war. The film takes the view down the Mekong River into Cambodia, where the darkness is discovered and civilized war ends. A separation is formed in this film, between the soldiers and society and likewise morality and confusion.
