In the novel No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy we meet the character of Moss. He is a thirty-six year old retired Vietnam era sniper. Let's take a look at his life as this broken old man. He lives near the Mexican border with his wife in a small house. He still knows his tips and tricks for survival, but his body isn't as young as it once was. At the beginning of the novel we see Moss going on a hunting trip with some friends near the Mexican border, in the desert. Since he was a sniper in Vietnam, he knows the exact distance and bullet drop of every shot he takes. He aims to adjust the scope and shoots at an animal, misses and sees a plume of dust rising from the desert floor. He also sees an animal limping. Moss thinks the bullet ricocheted off the desert floor and hit the animal in the leg. He tracked the animal from the top of a ridge where it was over two miles away. While he was chasing the animal, he finds some abandoned cars with drugs and dead bodies in and around them. He uses his abilities to clear the area to make sure there are no enemies, one of the people who was shot is still alive. He talks to the dying man for a bit before taking some of the automatic weapons that the boys in the abandoned vehicles were using, then wipes his fingerprints off all the surfaces he touched and leaves for home. Later that night he returns to the area where the abandoned vehicles were found, only this time the cars are empty and he encounters hostile forces. He is seen and has to use all his skills to escape. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay During the Vietnam Conflict (better known as the Vietnam War) the United States ground troops were under a lot of pressure and did not know if they would all return to American soil dead or alive. At any point in the conflict they could have been killed. Knowing this takes a toll on your body, mind and soul. After the Vietnam conflict, the mental disorder: post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was officially recognized as a mental disorder five years after the end of the conflict. The term PTSD can be traced back to World War I under a different name; PTSD was formally known as Shell Shock. Shell Shock was the term used during World War I by Charles Myers. “Charles Myers of the Royal Army Medical Corps documented soldiers who experienced a range of severe symptoms – including anxiety, nightmares, tremors and vision and hearing problems – after being exposed to explosive shells on the battlefield. It appeared that the symptoms were the result of some sort of severe concussion to the nervous system” (history.com PTSD and Shell Shock). Shell Shock or PTSD occurs when humans suffer life-threatening injuries, explosions on a battlefield, or life-altering news. The term Shell Shock was also used for people who showed signs of mental disorder but for soldiers never engaged in active combat. After Moss finds the government agent dead next to a briefcase and his supplied .45 caliber automatic rifle. He sits down and closes his eyes, seeing his whole life there before him, day after day, from dawn to dusk until death. Since Moss is a veteran, this might have reminded him of a stint in combat in Vietnam during the conflict. This reaction coincides with the symptoms of Shell Shock or now better known as Post Traumatic Disorder.