The Things They Carried represents a detailed documentary novel written by a Vietnam veteran, Tim O'Brien, in whose stories about the Vietnam War one encounters graphic representations of stress disorder post traumatic injury (PTSD). Therefore, the stories "Speaking of Courage", "The Man I Killed", "How to Tell a True War Story", "Enemies" and "Friends", "Socks" and "The Sweetheart of The Song Between Bong " are all include various examples of post-traumatic stress disorder. “The war was over and there was nowhere in particular to go” (157). Thoughts of grief and loss overwhelm Vietnam veterans as they return home. Crushed by the horror of war, they return to even greater disappointments and sadness. Instead of the peaceful life they lead before leaving their hometown and the presence of a warm and caring daily life, most of them encounter empty beds, a cold home environment and general loss. Already physically and emotionally defeated, they find betrayal instead of regaining trust. There is nothing that can nourish their impoverished and deprived psyche; they find nothing to rely on. Even in cases where their partners support them, the inevitable horrors of war haunt them in their sleep or return to them in daydreams. They all returned with a multitude of disorders, predominantly post-traumatic stress disorder with the common symptoms of recurring nightmares, hypersensitivity, avoidance behavior and intrusive thoughts, feelings and memories, commonly found in war veterans. The Things They Carried represents a complex documentary novel written by a Vietnam veteran, Tim O'Brien, in whose accounts of the Vietnam War one encounters graphic representations of post-traumatic stress disorder. Therefore, the stories "Speaking of Courage", "The Man I Killed", "How to Tell a True War Story", "Enemies" and "Friends", "Socks" and "The Sweetheart of The Song Between Bong " are all include various examples of post-traumatic stress disorder. For Vietnam veterans, nothing could restore the joy of life they had before the war. According to O'Brien's text, upon their arrival home the veterans imagine, even with hallucinations, how things would have been if they had not suffered from the war. Examples of such events exist in the stories "Speaking of Courage" and "The Man I Killed". Norman Bowker in "Speaking of Courage" dreams and imagines that he is talking to his ex-girlfriend, now married to another guy, and about his dead childhood friend, Max Arnold. He lives his unrealized dream of having his Sally next to him and having manly conversations with Max again and again.