The Things They Carried
Summary
The book begins when we meet a group of soldiers who are about ready to fight in the Vietnam War. The characters include First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, Rat Kiley, Kiowa, Mitchell Sanders, Ted Lavender, Norman Bowker, and more. We learn that the soldiers carry lots of things, physically and mentally. The book is not told in chronological order for it contains O'Brien in war, O'Brien before and after war, and flashbacks. When Curt Lemon dies, it tells us that truth is flexible in war. The stories that the characters tell are so crazy that actual truth can't be truthful and everything made up is completely believable. O'Brien refers this to emotional truth and story truth. When Tim accidentally kills a man on trail in the chapter "The Man I killed", he feels guilty about it and makes up a story to make it seem more reliable to the kid. This is an example of the emotional truth and story truth O'Brien refers to. Towards the end of the book, we experience 3 other stories which teaches us a lesson and creates a theme. One of them is when Kiowa dies in a waste field incident, otherwise known as a s*** field. It was really O'Brien's fault because he was it was caused by Kiowa and him sharing a picture of a boy's girlfriend and turned on a flashlight which caused the incident. Another story told is when Rat Kiley, the original medic is injured and is sent to Japan. Meanwhile the replacement medic, Bobby Jorgenson joined the Alpha team. He was no Rat Kiley, he was incompetent and scared didn't understand shock,. So later Azar and O'Brien play a prank on him which made Bobby not seem too scary to O'Brien anymore. The last story which was told at the end is from before war and after war. It was when O'Brien met a 9 year old girl which they had a relationship at that age. Due to a brain tumor she died at 9 and O'Brien remembers her in memory, even at forty three years old.
Quotes (5 quotes that teach a lesson/moral of story)
"This book is lovingly dedicates to the men of the Alpha Company, and in particular to Jimmy Cross. . . and Kiowa" (O'Brien wants us to feel how confusing reality seems in war)
"Hear that quiet, man?" he said. "That quiet – just listen. There's your moral." (The moral of a story doesn't need to make sense for it to work as a moral)
"The war wasn't all terror and violence. Sometimes things could get almost sweet… You could put a fancy spin on it, you could make it dance" (The war isn't transformed into sweetness and light, it's spun, which is demonstrated in the chapter named Spin)
"Ten billion places we could've set up last night, the man picks a latrine." (Sanders blames Cross because he needs someone to blame. He can't accept that Kiowa's death might just be meaningless and sad)
"He pictured Kiowa's face. They'd been close buddies, the tightest…" (The first time we hear about Kiowa's death, O'Brien put the blame on Norman Bowker's soldiers. This time, at Lemon's death he's finally acknowledging both how close he and Kiowa were and his own responsibility in Kiowa's death, he has to use the third person.)
The book begins when we meet a group of soldiers who are about ready to fight in the Vietnam War. The characters include First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, Rat Kiley, Kiowa, Mitchell Sanders, Ted Lavender, Norman Bowker, and more. We learn that the soldiers carry lots of things, physically and mentally. The book is not told in chronological order for it contains O'Brien in war, O'Brien before and after war, and flashbacks. When Curt Lemon dies, it tells us that truth is flexible in war. The stories that the characters tell are so crazy that actual truth can't be truthful and everything made up is completely believable. O'Brien refers this to emotional truth and story truth. When Tim accidentally kills a man on trail in the chapter "The Man I killed", he feels guilty about it and makes up a story to make it seem more reliable to the kid. This is an example of the emotional truth and story truth O'Brien refers to. Towards the end of the book, we experience 3 other stories which teaches us a lesson and creates a theme. One of them is when Kiowa dies in a waste field incident, otherwise known as a s*** field. It was really O'Brien's fault because he was it was caused by Kiowa and him sharing a picture of a boy's girlfriend and turned on a flashlight which caused the incident. Another story told is when Rat Kiley, the original medic is injured and is sent to Japan. Meanwhile the replacement medic, Bobby Jorgenson joined the Alpha team. He was no Rat Kiley, he was incompetent and scared didn't understand shock,. So later Azar and O'Brien play a prank on him which made Bobby not seem too scary to O'Brien anymore. The last story which was told at the end is from before war and after war. It was when O'Brien met a 9 year old girl which they had a relationship at that age. Due to a brain tumor she died at 9 and O'Brien remembers her in memory, even at forty three years old.
Quotes (5 quotes that teach a lesson/moral of story)
"This book is lovingly dedicates to the men of the Alpha Company, and in particular to Jimmy Cross. . . and Kiowa" (O'Brien wants us to feel how confusing reality seems in war)
"Hear that quiet, man?" he said. "That quiet – just listen. There's your moral." (The moral of a story doesn't need to make sense for it to work as a moral)
"The war wasn't all terror and violence. Sometimes things could get almost sweet… You could put a fancy spin on it, you could make it dance" (The war isn't transformed into sweetness and light, it's spun, which is demonstrated in the chapter named Spin)
"Ten billion places we could've set up last night, the man picks a latrine." (Sanders blames Cross because he needs someone to blame. He can't accept that Kiowa's death might just be meaningless and sad)
"He pictured Kiowa's face. They'd been close buddies, the tightest…" (The first time we hear about Kiowa's death, O'Brien put the blame on Norman Bowker's soldiers. This time, at Lemon's death he's finally acknowledging both how close he and Kiowa were and his own responsibility in Kiowa's death, he has to use the third person.)
