As seen in both Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried and Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, war plays a role in the character's mental capacities and well as their future actions.
In Mrs. Dalloway, Clarissa Dalloway and World War One Verteren, Septimus Warren Smith, see a car passing by on a London Street on a bustling, summer afternoon. One one hand, Clarissa believes that some royalty, such as the King and/or the Queen is hidden behind the curtain of the car. She says, "Was it the Prince of Whales's, the Queen's, the Prime Minister's? Whose face was it? Nobody knew" (Woolf 58). For Clarissa, this car symbolizes that of hope; after the torment of the war, others, similar to and including Clarissa, cling onto faith and tradition, as well as hope. There is this lasting belief that goodness is still possibly, and that their country and the world can unite once again.
After the monstrous war, Septimus and other war veterans see society in a divergent way: instead of holding onto hope, this feeling and similar ones are lost as well as part of their mental psychs because of their experiences. This car, to Septimus, represents that of danger; he believes that it symbolizes a potential attack and he has the duty to stay alive. In another instance, Septimus feels that someone is trying to communicate with him through code when he see the words "TOFFEE" in the sky.
Because every human mind is only capable of imagining what they have experienced, war veterans have more burden to carry because of all the sights, the smells, the sounds, the tastes, and the things they have touched. Their minds can directly link what they sense both physically and mentally to events that have occurred during the war, beyond what any "normal" mind can truly envision.
In class today, we talked briefly about the affects of World War I and I completely agree with you. These soldiers have endured unimaginable hardships and pain. In Mrs. Dalloway, Septimus is a character that exemplifies this perfectly. His wife was told by a doctor to expose him to the "normal" outside world, and in her attempts to better his life, hers is becomes more and more lonely. She mentions numerous times that all she wants is to share her suffering with someone else. The effects of war on the soldier can be terrible, but the people that they are close to are also indirectly effected.
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