Reply To: TRWR: The cost of war
I think that Tyler Creasy is probably the most scarred by his experiences in WWII, at least in a visible way. Before the war he was quiet and unremarkable. When he returned, he fought with everyone, including his own family. His mother told him that she wished he had come home in a coffin. He was usually drunk and had been charged with assault from a bar fight. He expresses racism and prejudice against Noah Bluestone as a “thieving redskin.” Creasy beats his wife and stepson. He burns down the Bluestone barn, beats and rapes Kyoko, intending to ruin the Bluestones which he succeeds in doing when he kills Noah.
Felix Klein earned the Distinguished Service Medal in WWI and is probably the saddest of the vets. He celebrated every new day during the war because he never expected to come back alive. Felix often spent time sobering up in the jail. He is often drunk in order to cope with his wife’s suicide. I wonder if this was because of Felix’ service. We are never really told, except that she wasn’t an easy woman to live with and was not happy.
I do not think things have changed for those have fought in more recent wars, except perhaps the availability of more treatment. And those who came back from Vietnam were not really welcomed in the same way as vets from other wars.
