Anthony Mishel
10/9/14

Taxi Driver

Posttraumatic stress disorder has affected millions of war veterans internationally. It constructs an irreversible and devastating effect on them. For Travis Bickle, he experienced this first handed. After returning to America from Vietnam, he wanted to become a normal individual in society, but unfortunately, his trauma prevented him from achieving his goal. In Taxi Driver, Travis Bickle’s decayed social life and failure to adapt to society displays the impact of how war veterans struggle adapting to society. Travis struggled coping with society after his efforts in the war, which severely impacted his life. He realized what he missed out on while he was in combat and has an urge to reclaim what he lost. “All my life needed was a sense of someplace to go. I don’t believe that one should devote his life to morbid self- attention. I believe that someone should become a person like other people.” He wants to become an individual like everyone else is in society. He starts off by getting a standard job as a taxi driver, and meets a girl who he finds really attractive and beautiful. After he meets her and manages to go out with her, he tries hard to get a normal night out with her by taking her to a pornographic film. He thought that it was normal for couples to do that and didn’t find anything wrong with it. He forgot the social norms and ethics of society and it cost him a girl he had a chance with. After he fails to become normal, his irrational and psychotic behaviors kick in. The first sign of this is when he is talking to “Wizard” for advice. “I just wanna go out and really do something. I got some bad ideas in my head.” His violent and malicious fantasies take place and he starts to become psychotic. He then obtains an obsession with handguns and buys an excessive amount of them, and even his dealer acknowledges this. “I gotta get in shape. Too much sitting has ruined my body. Too much abuse has gone on for too long. From now on there will be 50 pushups each morning, 50 pull-ups. There will be no more pills, no more