The death
that receives the most attention in The Things They Carried is that of Kiowa, a much-loved member of the Alpha Company and one of O’Brien’s closest friends. In “Speaking of Courage,” the story of Kiowa’s death is relayed in retrospect through the memory of Norman Bowker, years after the war.
What was in the rucksack in The Things They Carried?
Summary. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, of the Alpha Company, carries various reminders of his love for Martha, a girl from his college in New Jersey who has given no indication of returning his love. Cross carries
her letters
in his backpack and her good-luck pebble in his mouth.
What do the items symbolize in The Things They Carried?
O’Brien reflects that their identities are reduced to what they carry. But O’Brien also describes the emotional baggage that the soldiers carry – grief, terror, longing, confusion, and hatred. The items on their backs thus symbolize
the psychological weight of the war
.
What did Tim O’Brien carry physically?
Tim O’Brien: I carried all the standard military stuff:
grenades, ammo, an M16, sometimes an M60
. Letters from mom, dad. Letters from a girl back home. More than the physical, I carried incredible terror with every single step I took.
Why is The Things They Carried an important book?
Introduction. Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried (1990) is considered
one of the finest books about the Vietnam War
. Far from a combat story of pride and glory, it is a compassionate tale of the American soldier, brimming with raw honesty and thoughtful reflection.
What is the main idea of The Things They Carried?
The primary theme in the novel The Things They Carried is
the burdens we all carry
. The first chapter of the novel is dedicated to the physical and emotional burdens the men carried with them as they marched: the guns, the gear, the photos, the letters, the hope, the fear, the memories, and the guilt.
What do the characters carry in The Things They Carried?
Dave Jensen carries a toothbrush, dental floss, and soap. Ted Lavender (“who was scared”) carries tranquilizers. Mitchell Sanders carries condoms. Norman Bowker carries a diary. Rat Kiley carries comic books.
What they carried short story?
The Things They Carried (1990) is
a collection of linked short stories by American novelist Tim O’Brien, about a platoon of American soldiers fighting on the ground in the Vietnam War
. His third book about the war, it is based upon his experiences as a soldier in the 23rd Infantry Division.
What does Kiowa’s death symbolize?
Kiowa’s death is symbolic of
the senseless tragedy of war
. He dies in a gruesome way, drowning under the muck of a sewage field about which his lieutenant, Jimmy Cross, has a bad feeling.
What does the yo yo symbolize in The Things They Carried?
The yo-yo that Sanders keeps with him can be seen as
a metaphor for life
. Sometimes, or even most of the time you are rolled up tight, safe and sound, completely whole, one individual together.
What is the irony in The Things They Carried?
The irony of the story is that
shortly after he gets up the courage to have a tooth pulled in order to reassure himself of his bravery, he is killed while playing catch with a grenade
. His death is ridiculous and points out the uselessness of bravery.
How did Mary Anne change in things they carried?
Mary Ann starts to transform when she helps out with the injured, seeing horrible, gory things
. Then she starts going out on ambush in the middle of the night. She admits that it scares her but also makes her feel alive in a way that no one back home would understand.
What does Dave Jensen carry?
Dave Jensen carries
soap, dental floss, foot powder, and vitamins
. Mitchell Sanders carries condoms, brass knuckles, and the unit’s radio. Norman Bowker carries a diary. Kiowa carries a volume of the New Testament and moccasins. Rat Kiley carries his medical kit, brandy, comic books, and M&M’s candy.
Why does Mitchell Sanders carry condoms?
By carrying around condoms,
he believes that he will have plenty of time for women in Vietnam
.
Why did Ted Lavender carry tranquilizers?
Ted Lavender is a young, scared soldier in the Alpha company in Tim O’Brien’s book The Things They Carried. He is the most afraid to die, and dies first. Before he is shot, he carries and takes tranquilizers
to dull his fear
.
What did you learn from The Things They Carried?
In “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, O’Brien portrays a captivating message of responsibility to his readers. Its moral explains
how we sometimes let ourselves “out” of our problems, because we would like to be somewhere pleasant
.
Why is The Things They Carried fiction?
Because the bad things that happen in life, in war, are so random and so terrible, we put them into a story because otherwise they don’t make sense
. They just don’t make sense. A world with so many terrible things happening is the only world we know and yet it’s the world that should be impossible to live in.
O’Brien is attempting not to write a history of the Vietnam War through his stories but rather
to explore the ways that speaking about war experience establishes or fails to establish bonds between a soldier and his audience
.
What is the point of view of The Things They Carried?
In The Things They Carried, the author uses first person to tell the story of the character Tim. He narrates most of the stories, however, the author switches to the
third person
point of view to share the thoughts of some of the other characters in the story.
What is the thesis of The Things They Carried?
The True Weight of War “The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’Brien,
brings to light the psychological impact of what soldiers go through during times of war
. We learn that the effects of traumatic events weigh heavier on the minds of men than all of the provisions and equipment they shouldered.
What happens in The Things They Carried?
The story travels between Cross’ infatuation with a girl named Martha that he’s in love with based on a single date in college, the death of the soldier Ted Lavender, and an itemized chronicle of what the men carried at war, from supplies, to tokens of luck, to emotions.
What is the purpose of the first chapter in The Things They Carried?
The first chapter
introduces his platoon members, like Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, and Mitchell Sanders, and their various routines
. In this chapter, the narrator also catalogues the cargo the men, including emotional and physical cargo and ghosts.
What happens in the end of The Things They Carried?
The Things They Carried ends with
the narrator revealing the fates of characters like Kiowa and Dave Jensen, both of whom died during the war
. The deaths of his fellow soldiers continue to haunt the narrator, especially since they died in violent and senseless ways.
Is Jimmy Cross a real person?
Jimmy Cross never visited me at my house in Massachusetts, because of course
Jimmy Cross does not exist in the world of objects
, and never did. He’s purely invented, like Martha, and like Kiowa or Mitchell Sanders and all the others.
