Things They Carried Reflection

The Things They Carried, written by Tim O’Brien, is not just a book about what soldiers carried during the Vietnam War, but a book about what they carried with them for the rest of their lives. The book also describes the traumatizing deaths which caused many soldiers to start to blame themselves.

In the first chapter during a tunnel search, Ted Lavender went off to use the restroom. When he was walking back and was close to the other soldiers, he was shot in the head and killed instantly. The book describes how his mouth was open, his teeth were broken, and his eyes swollen black. The book states that Jimmy Cross, “... felt shame. He hated himself. He loved Martha more than his men and as a consequence Lavender was now dead.” This would be something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of his life.” When Ted Lavender was shot in the back of the head, all the soldiers were in shock, but Lieutenant Jimmy Cross blamed himself because he was in charge of his men and was side-tracked by his love for, Martha, an old school friend. Later in the book, Jimmy Cross visits one of the soldiers from the war. They look through the photos and see one of Ted

Lavender. They both paused over the snapshot and Jimmy starts to rub his eyes. Jimmy Cross said, “...he’d never forgive himself for Lavender’s death.” He had carried the guilt with him and teared up when he remembered Lavender.

“The Man I Killed”, which is a chapter with The Things They Carried, starts by describing a body of a Vietnamese soldier who Kiowa killed.

Kiowa feels guilt and feels like he took something from his more than his life. He stood over the man’s body and imagined what he was really wanting to do than fight a war. Kiowa thought, “He was not a fighter. His health was poor, his body small and frail. He liked books. He wanted someday to be a teacher of mathematics.” This quote proves that Kiowa feels guilt over the killing of the soldier because he dreamt of his life outside of the war and he just stands over the body. The other soldiers try to get him to realize, the Vietnamese soldier knew he was going to die as soon as he picked up his gun. It takes Kiowa hours to come to terms with

himself.

In the chapter “In the Field,” the death of U.S. soldier plays a role of guilt on other U.S. soldiers. When Norman Bowker heard Kiowa scream due to himself sinking in mud in the previous chapter, Bowker took hold of Kiowa’s boot and pulled hard. The smell from the rain hitting mud which was a mixture of s*** and dirt was too much for Bowker. He let go of Kiowa boots and Kiowa sunk to the bottom of the mud drowning himself. The next day all eighteen soldiers left of his group started searching for Kiowa. The leader of the group, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, had to call in the Missing In Action report. The book states that Cross was “determined to find his man, no matter what , even if it meant flying in slabs of concrete and damming up the rivers and draining the entire field. He goes and explains that Kiowa had been a fine soldier and a fine human being, a devout Baptist,” and there was no way he would let such a good man go missing under a bed of s***. Before the soldiers find the body, Jimmy Cross composed a letter in his head to the kid’s father, and just mentioning what a fine soldier Kiowa was and not the s*** field. When they found the body of Kiowa, Jimmy Cross and Norman Bowker both feel guilt for the death of Kiowa because they both feel that their actions helped caused his death. “Jimmy Cross felt some tighten inside him” and he said to himself, he would apologize for Kiowa death in the letter and “place the blame where it belong.” Bowker had went off by himself and started to cry. With this he thought about how his friend who the nights before shared a poncho and then how he died. Then Lieutenant Cross went up to him and they argued about a photo but they were just showing their emotions and did not know how to express them. After this, Cross went off by himself and started to rewrite the letter Kiowa family. Both Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and Private Norman Bowker both feel extreme guilt and responsible for the death of Private Kiowa. Jimmy’s quote of “to place the blame where it belongs” explains that he takes full responsibility for it. With Private Bowker he feels guilt because he let go of his boot when the stitch of s*** got to him and he let Kiowa go to the pit of death. Overall, they both do different things which they think cause their death and no the other.