I first use this method of changing POV in my Writing 39A. I add the short story I fist use this methos on the next page.

Chapter 1: A mother of a Vietnam veteran who just come back home

My only son, Zach, is finally back from the war alive. I think my years of worry and fear finally ended. We can live happily and peacefully again.

But I am wrong. This is only the beginning of another nightmare.

Zach gets hurt during the war. There are many scars on his body. He still suffers the pain a lot, especially during the rainy days. He sometimes takes many painkillers because the wounds hurt so much that he can barely get out of the bed. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg of our problem.

He can’t sleep. So he begins to take sleeping pills, but things get worse. He has bad dreams nearly every night, screaming and struggling like somebody is trying to kill him. He sweats a lot and mutters, “No… No!” When I wake him up, his eyes are hollow and his body is shaking. He huddles on the bed, burying his head in his knees. I cry and hug him. I know he suffers, but I can do nothing.

I try to comfort him and me that things will get better. He just comes back from the battleground. It’s normal that he has bad memory and need some time to restore his health and moods.

But things are not getting better.

He is so pale and thin, like a crumpled paper. He can hardly eat or drink. He just sits there silently all day long now. With sunken eyes, more grey hairs and stubbly beard in his unshaven chin, he looks much older, very haggard and tired. His mental state is so bad that he can hardly notice me when I’m standing in front of him. He begins to claim that he can see the dead people. He begins talking to himself and people who don’t exist. He sometimes just sits there and suddenly begins twitching, like seeing something scary and horrible. I cry and beg him not to be like that.

I take him to the doctor’s. The doctor says he has PTSD, a kind of disease which I don’t even understand. He takes some medicine. But he still has nightmares.

I cry and cry, pray and pray. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to save my child. Even when he was in warfare and I didn’t know whether he would be alive, I was not as despair as now. Sometimes I even think that it might be better for him to die during the war.

The war is over. But it is never over.

Chapter 2: An old Vietnam veteran

I take the packages at my door, which contain bread, cans and water I ordered. I close the door immediately and back to my room, lying on my bed.

I don’t really like bread nor can food, but I don’t want to get out from my house. So I don’t need to meet anyone and don’t need to see their terrible expressions when they knew who I was.

I was a soldier during the Vietnam War. I was young and hot-blooded. I always had dreams of being a hero. And when I became a soldier, I thought I was a hero for protecting my country.

But I am not. The war is a total mistake which led millions of people’s death, and I am just a murderer for killing so many people. Sometimes I think I see them, sitting on my sofa, floating in my house or lying on my bed. They are bleeding with dreadful wounds. Some lose their legs or arms or ears, and some even with only half of their heads. I never talked with most of these people. I don’t know their names or lives. I don’t know whether they have lovers or families waiting them to back to home. But I know the feeling when their blood splashed on my face. I know the final look before they die. When I was young, some superstitious people told me that the ghosts will follow the people who kill them. I laughed and thought they were foolish.

Now I believe them. I believe that they are with me. And I will carry the nightmare until my death.

Sometimes I see them holding the guns or having their hands around my throat, trying to kill me. I used to struggling and screaming. But now I don’t even move. I just stare at my mottled ceiling and think why they don’t just kill me. Sometimes I dream of my comrades who died in the war. I always wonder why I don’t die in the war with them.

Being alive is not better than death.

The psychologist said I have PTSD, which means post-traumatic stress disorder. I took medicine, but things didn’t get better.

My parents died before I came back from the war. My brothers and sisters lost contact with me because I am a murderer. I never married. People and the society blamed me for the war. The country and the people I wanted to protect all hated me.

I don’t know where I can go. I don’t know who I can talk with.

Now I have given up.

I don’t care about my health, my life or other people’s opinion about the war or me anymore. I am just waiting for death.

Every scene in my life is passing really fast in my head. I feel my body is so light. All the ghosts I see these years are standing beside my bed. But I’m not afraid anymore. It’s the most relaxing time in these years.

I close my eyes.

The war is over. But it is never over.

Chapter 3: A normal person

I think the Vietnam War is a total mistake. It takes such a long time and kills so many people. I don’t know why Tim O’Brien writes a book about it and why the book becomes famous. I mean, why he writes about a mistake?

There’s a Vietnam veteran lives in my block. He is a thin and pain old guy. He is so gloomy that I bet he killed many people during the war. The babies always cry near him because of fear. People in my block never talks to him and avoid him when they see him. It’s good that he seldom goes out, or my friend and I will teach him a lesson about the mistake he had. All the veterans should be shame about the massacre they did during the war. It’s a mercy that they were not sent to the military court and killed to pay for what they did. They should atone for their sin with lives.

The Vietnam veterans also have high rates of divorce, drug abuse, unemployment and homelessness, which is a big problem for our society. They are so dangerous and troublesome for us.

These murderers should pay for the mistake, since the war is over, and is never over.

Chapter 4: Tim O’Brien, the author of The Things They Carried, which is a collection of short stories based on his own experience during the Vietnam War

What’s the worst part of the war?

The long time it takes? “The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, was a war that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975.” (Wikipedia) The war lasted for twenty years, which contained most of the best years of many people, especially the young soldiers.

The huge cost it takes? “The Vietnam War exacted a huge human cost in terms of fatalities, estimates of the number of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians killed vary from 966,000 to 3.8 million. And 58,220 U.S. service members also died in the conflict.” In amount, about 12 million people died, 2.5 million people got hurt, 7 million people missed, and enormous financial lose that could not be estimated.

The hurt to alive people? Almost, still especially for the young soldiers.

The young soldiers who attended the war were normal and passionate people. They have lovers, friends, and families. They have golden hearts, and dreams of being heroes of their countries. But they experienced death, lost their golden hearts, and their dreams broke. Lieutenant Cross, my comrade-in-arms, had a lover who he loved for many years. He always missed her and had two photos of her which he treasured very much. But after witness death of many soldiers, he burned the photos.

After the war, the pain was continued. PTSD, which means post-traumatic stress disorder, has evolved in a large part from Vietnam Veterans. “Symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event. (Wikipedia)” They were hurt and sick, and far away from the peace and normal life they should have.

All of these are already terrible enough, but none of these are the worst. The worst part is, people don’t understand their pain. Some people disapprove the war, so they also disapprove these soldiers. Some people don’t believe their experiences because the war is too dark and cruel for them to even think about it.

Disapproval of the war from American citizens was an important environmental factor accounting for veteran’s post war stress. Prior to this time period veterans coming back from war were always viewed as heroes who protect the country. However, Vietnam War veterans came back home were viewed as murders. Normally these war heroes were encouraged to talk about their war experiences but in this case they were not and were shunned by a lot of the community. They couldn’t back to the society and were marginalized by others. The war was wrong, but they were not. They carried the miserable memory about the war, pain and illness from the war, the incomprehension from their nation, and the mistake which was not their fault.

That’s the reason I wrote The Things They Carried. The war is over, but it’s never over.

I will keep revising the grammar and the long sentences. I will add more part on the chapter 3 since it’s a little short. I’m not sure what other part I should revise, so I’m planning to ask a friend read it and give me some advice. I think I can finish revising before next Wednesday.