What is the central theme and the authors purpose in his text ? how dose the author develop and communicate this theme and purpose ? give specific evidence from the text to support your answer . there's a condition in combat that occurs when a soldier is completely stressed out and is " on the verge of a nervous collapse " . in world war 1 it was called " shell shock " simple, honest, direct language . two syllables . shell shock . it almost sounds like guns .. [i]n world war 2 the same combat condition was called "battle fatigue" for syllables now ; takes a little longer to say . dosent seem to hurt as much by the very same condition was being called "operation exhaustion." . the phrase was up eight syllables now , and any last traces of humanity has been completely squeezed out of it then we got into vietnam , and , to the deceptions surrounding that war , it's no surprise that the very same condition was referred to as " post-traumatic stress disorder. " still eight syllables, but we've added a hyphen, and the pain is completely buried under jargon i'll bet if they had still been calling it "shell shock " some of those vietnam veterans might have received the attention they needed .