The Things They Carried is a nonfiction novel written by Vietnam veteran Tim O'Brien, in whose stories we encounter graphic depictions of stress syndrome post-traumatic. (PTSD). So, the stories "Speaking of Courage", "The Man I Killed", "How to Tell a True War Story", "Enemies" and "Friends", "Bottoms" and "The Sweetheart of The Song Tra Bong” all encompass various examples of PTSD: “The war was over and there was no place in particular to go” (157). Thoughts of grief and loss overwhelm Vietnam veterans when they return home. Crushed by the horror of war, they return to even greater disappointments and sadness. Instead of the sweet life they lead before leaving their home country and the presence of a warm and caring everyday life, most of them encounter empty beds, a cold family atmosphere and an overall loss. Already defeated physically and emotionally, they find betrayal instead of regaining trust. There is nothing to nourish their exhausted and deprived psyches; they find nothing to rely on. Even in the case of supportive partners, the inevitable horrors of war haunt them in their sleep or return to them in their daydreams. They all returned with a multitude of disorders, primarily post-traumatic stress disorder with the common symptoms of recurring nightmares, hypersensitivity, avoidant behavior and intrusive thoughts, feelings and memories - commonly found among war veterans. The Things They Carried is a nonfiction novel written by Vietnam veteran Tim O'Brien, in whose stories we encounter graphic depictions of PTSD. So, the stories "Speaking of Courage", "The Man I Killed", "How to Tell a True War Story", "Enemies" and "Friends", "Bottoms" and "The Sweetheart of The Song Tra Bong” all encompass various examples of PTSD. For Vietnam veterans, nothing could recapture the joy of life they had before the war. According to O'Brien's text, upon returning home, veterans imagine, even hallucinate, what things would have been like 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 dreams of speaking to his ex-girlfriend, now married to another man, and his deceased childhood friend, Max Arnold. He lives his unrealized dream of having his Sally by his side and having manly conversations with Max again and again..