Table of Contents
Tim O’Brien
Tim carries with him Kiowa’s moccasins. Kiowa was Tim’s best friend, so his death was a heavy blow to him. When Tim takes Kathleen to Vietnam in ‘Field Trip’, it is revealed that he had held on to Kiowa’s moccasins on page 186, where O’Brien writes “She watched me unwrap the cloth bundle. Inside were Kiowa’s old moccasins” (186). The loss of Kiowa laid in the moccasins as a burden for Tim but returning the moccasins to the site of Kiowa’s last moments is a way for him to release that burden.
O’Brien carries with him a fear of shame. When he is first drafted into the war, O’Brien is ineligible for exemption. Afraid of what he may face in the war, and knowing that he does not support the war, O’Brien flees to the Tip Top Cabin Lodge in Minnesota and plans to go to Canada. However, upon spending some time with Elway, the owner of the lodge, O’Brien reflects upon his feelings, and realizes his fear of shame for being a coward by running from the war. Due to that, he accepts his enlistment, and serves in the war carrying this burden.
Tim O’Brien is the narrator and protagonist of The Things They Carried. Although Tim O’Brien resembles the author, Tim O’Brien, Tim (in the book) has some differences from O’Brien (the author) that differentiates The Things They Carried as a work of historical fiction rather than a memoir. Tim is recruited in the draft but is a pacifist that would rather not fight the war.
127 our experts are availableright now
After contemplating running off to Canada and even attempting to do so, Tim finds that his fear of shame by abandoning his draft summons outweighs any ideals that he may hold opposing the Vietnam War. Throughout the war, Tim demonstrates how war can change people. Tim finds his relief in telling stories, and upon the encouragement of Kiowa, becomes a writer after the war. He is the perennial example of how ordinary people are affected by war.
Lt. Jimmy Cross
Cross carries with him pictures of his romantic interest, Martha. In the beginning of the book, Cross demonstrates a rather compulsive obsession with his crush, Martha. He daydreams about her constantly, the main catalyst for that being two pictures that Martha sent Cross, which she signed ‘Love’, although she doesn’t truly romantically love him. Cross ends up burning these pictures however, due to extenuating circumstances stemming from his psychological burdens.
Cross carries with him the burden of leadership. The primary example of this is when cross must suppress his feelings towards his crush back home, Martha. This is because when Cross’s infatuation with Martha distracts him in the field, which leads to Ted Lavender being shot and killed. As such, after that day, Cross becomes a much stricter Lieutenant and quashes his love for Martha in order to never cause another death and to be able to better lead his men. This is explicitly stated on page 26, when O’Brien writes, “Cross reminded himself that his obligation was not to be loved, but to lead. He would dispense with love; it was not now a factor” (25-26).
Lt. Jimmy Cross is the leader of Alpha Company and is a dedicated leader. One of the personal struggles that defines Cross is self-definition. Throughout the novel, O’Brien illustrates the mental struggle Cross undergoes in trying to distinguish his role, whether that be a friend to the company, the distant leader, or the romanticist. A defining trait of Cross is his sense of personal responsibility.
He considers himself the culprit for any unnecessary bloodshed, mistakes, or deaths relating to his company, whether it be cause by his own fault or by the orders of his superiors. Furthermore, this also manifests itself as Cross feeling personally responsible for any of his company’s deaths, as proven by the mental draft of the letter he would have sent to Curt Lemon’s family, outlining his personal relationship to his fallen comrade. In the grand scheme of things, Cross embodies the ramifications and burden of responsibility.
Kiowa
Kiowa carries with him moccasins. Kiowa is a very practical man and is levelheaded in even the tensest of situations. As such, he brings with him moccasins, and according to O’Brien he ‘always took along… his moccasins for silence’ (9). Kiowa’s moccasins underscore his logical approach to the war, and his straightforward way of thinking.
Kiowa carries the burden of carrying unchristian feelings. When Ted Lavender dies, Kiowa does not feel sadness, anger, or any sort of grief whatsoever. Rather, he felt pleasure in his own being alive. Being a devout Baptist, Kiowa feels like a turncoat, betraying his religion due to his harboring of ‘unchristian feelings’. As the war progresses, Kiowa continues to feel emotions that he considers to be ‘unchristian’, and that is his burden to bear up to his death.
Kiowa is the emotional pillar for Alpha Company and serves as the righteous person in the group. He is a devout Baptist and has stark religious views on right and wrong. The rest of Alpha Company looks upon Kiowa as a confidante and a place for support, an example being Dobbins considering a future in monkhood. Most importantly, Kiowa was Tim’s best friend.
He helped Tim in his transition into Alpha Company, helped him deal with killing a Vietnamese soldier, and was the catalyst for Tim deciding to write stories, which in relation to real-life O’Brien would be the short stories in The Things They Carried. Kiowa’s death is a symbol of the tragic loss that soldiers undergo in war, and the aftermath that Bowker and Tim cope with becomes an important plot device for illustrating the lasting emotional scars soldiers sustain.
Norman Bowker
Norman Bowker carries with him the thumb of a Vietnamese casualty. This thumb, as stated on page 13, ‘had been presented to him as a gift by Mitchell Sanders’ (13). The odd thing about this object is that it completely contradicts Bowker’s personality. Bowker is generally a rather gentle person, but here he is carrying around a severed digit from a boy that had been brutally burned before dying. The thumb embodies carnage and suffering, something that Bowker is not generally known for. If this were given to Azar, however, it would be a different case.
Norman Bowker carries with him the burden of solitude. During the war, Bowker had the rest of Alpha company to confide in, to talk to, and to connect with. However, after the war, after what Bowker has had to live to, his home no longer feels home, not after the hell that was Vietnam. After years at war, Bowker feels alienated from the place that he once called home, so alienated that he no longer believes that he can discuss his past experiences with any of his loved ones because he believes they wouldn’t be willing to listen. Due to that, hopefully, misconception, Bowker discusses his experiences with his father in his imagination. Unfortunately, the alienation becomes too much for Bowker, as he can no longer find his place in society, and he chooses to hang himself.
Norman Bowker is a member of Alpha Company and is the main character of ‘Speaking of Courage’. Bowker is portrayed as a gentle human, which is explicitly stated when O’Brien recalls the time that he receives the thumb from Sanders.Bowker exhibits a classic case of survivor’s guilt, in which he finds himself at fault for surviving the war despite his comrades’ deaths. Because of this, he is unable to go back to his former life at home, unable to adjust to the placid surroundings after living in the garish surroundings of the Vietnam war.
O’Brien alters some details of Bowker in his story, such as the fact that Bowker didn’t receive Silver Star. Furthermore, O’Brien asserts in ‘Notes’ that Bowker was not at fault for Kiowa’s death. This is important as it invalidates any of the self-incrimination that Bowker felt over Kiowa’s death once returning home. Norman Bowker serves to illustrate how war, loss, and survival can affect the mental state of a man, and how those effects linger even after their time serving has ended.
Bob “Rat” Kiley
“Rat” Kiley carries with him comic books. This is demonstrated in ‘The Things They Carried’ when O’Brien describes what the company has brought to Vietnam. According to him, ‘Rat Kiley carried comic books’ (3). Rat Kiley is the person in the company who regales his comrades with tall tales about his time in the military and is known for exaggerating his experiences. Rat bringing comic books embodies his behavior of telling stories in a very graphic and far-fetched way, which is an extremely pertinent portion of the novel.
“Rat” Kiley carries with him a paranoia of death. In the heaps of bloodshed in Vietnam, Rat is the company’s medic, and fosters a healthy fear of death. However, when the company is subjected to a week-long period in which they live nocturnally, Rat begins having visions of body parts, as he confides in the rest of the company. This because he has likened the night to death, and with night being the main time that he is operating, the pressure ends up getting to him. Collapsing under the paranoia, Rat shoots himself in the foot to be taken out of active duty due injury.
Bob “Rat” Kiley is the medic of Alpha Company. Well-liked and helpful to others, Rat is known for regaling his comrades with tall tales of his prior military experiences. One of the most significant stories he recounts is that of Mark Fossie and his girlfriend Mary Anne Bell. He recounts how Mary Anne changed once exposed to war, which ends up being an impactful story for Tim. Additionally, Tim holds Rat in exceptionally high regard for saving him when he was shot the first time, in comparison to the relative incompetence of the second medic, Bobby Jorgenson.
Once Tim was ejected from the war, the Alpha Company, the company underwent a phase where they lived nocturnally. During this period, Rat began to feel the pressure of death around him, with the darkness constantly reminding him of death. Due to the pressure, he shot his toe out to be taken out of his post. Rat’s story of ejection shows that soldiers react to the fear and pressure of encroaching death in different ways, and sometimes it overwhelms the soldier.
Ted Lavender
Ted Lavender carries with him premium dope and tranquilizers, which he considers necessities. This is specified in ‘The Things They Carried’, as O’Brien writes that ‘Ted Lavender, who was scared, carried tranquilizers until he was shot in the head’ (2), and ‘Until he was shot, Ted Lavender carried 6 or 7 ounces of premium dope, which for him was a necessity’ (3). The dope ends up becoming the final memento of Lavender to Alpha Company, as they smoke what remained of it in wake of his passing.
Lavender carries with him an inability to face the war for what it is, a fear of the horrors of Vietnam. Ted Lavender, as described in the physical burden, carries with him ‘premium dope’ and tranquilizers, which he smokes/ingests frequently. By indulging in these vices, Lavender tries to numb himself to the gore and bloodshed transpiring around him in the bleak setting that is the Vietnam War. Although this sort of activity could be interpreted as recreational, it’s important to note that in ‘The Things They Carried’, O’Brien specifies that drugs were a necessity for Lavender. This insinuates that in trying to numb himself to the pain of war, Lavender has become addicted to drugs.
Ted Lavender is a character that is only briefly mentioned. In life, Ted Lavender is a scared young man, who tries to detach himself from war as much as he can. In doing so, he smokes dope and takes tranquilizer, which eventually morphs into an addiction. Lavender shows how soldiers may try to alienate themselves from war in order to preserve their own innocence and decrease the extent to which they can incriminate themselves for the mass bloodshed of war.
Postmortem, however, Lavender serves more of a catalytic role in the development of Jimmy Cross. He is the first death that Alpha Company sustains within their numbers in The Things They Carried. Furthermore, it can be speculated that if it were not due to Cross’s negligence in his daydreaming, Lavender would be alive. Due to this, Cross begins to take his leadership position with a renewed sense of responsibility and duty.
Henry Dobbins
Dobbins carries with him his girlfriend’s pantyhose. Items that are linked with strong memories tend to be mementos for people, like your first teddy bear for example. Dobbins treats his ex-girlfriend’s pantyhose as such. This is stated in ‘The Things They Carried’, when O’Brien writes that ‘Henry Dobbins carried his girlfriend’s pantyhose wrapped around his neck as a comforter’ (10).
Henry Dobbins carries with him a desire for love. At the beginning of the war, this desire was sated by his girlfriend back home, which gave Dobbins that feeling of having someone back home that loved him. However, as the war progressed, Dobbins’s girlfriend couldn’t handle the situation anymore, and broke up with Dobbins via a letter. Despite the breakup, Dobbins continued wearing the pantyhose as a comforter. The pantyhose was Dobbins’s last remnant of his girlfriend, which insinuates, as stated before, that he wants love.
Henry Dobbins, for lack of a better analogy, is like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. He’s the classic tough on the outside, soft on the outside character. Dobbins is a righteous member of Alpha Company who has strong faith in his own ideals. Such conviction can be found in various moments, an example being when he told Azar to stop mocking the dance of a traumatized Vietnamese girl they encountered.
In fact, it could be said that Azar is a foil for Dobbins. While Azar is a rowdy, savage, and immature character, Dobbins exhibits sincere, honest, and genuine intent in his actions. Back to the topic of his own ideals, Dobbins has intense faith in his own beliefs. Such an example can be found in his belief of the fact that his girlfriend’s pantyhose will see him through the war safe. Dobbins illustrates the concept that in war, it doesn’t matter what one chooses to place their faith in as long as one truly believes in something.
Mitchell Sanders
Mitchell Sanders carries with him the radio and condoms. Sanders seems to be one of the only characters that did not bring any items to prepare for the horrors of Vietnam or keep as a remembrance of their life back home. Nevertheless, Sander’s baggage is mentioned in the novel twice, on pages two and five. O’Brien writes that ‘Mitchell Sanders, the RTO, carried condoms’ (2), and that ‘Mitchell Sanders carried the PRC-25 radio’ (5). There does not seem to be any significance to either of these items likening them to Sanders’s personality. At the very least, Sanders carries the radio because he is the radio officer.
Mitchell Sanders carries with him a disregard for human life. Sanders has been through the war just like everyone else has, but he dealt with the mass death differently. Similar to how Lavender tried to alienate himself from the war, Sanders chooses to alienate himself from the Vietnamese, no longer acknowledging that they are human as well. The primary example of this is when he desecrated the remains of a burned and killed 15-year-old boy. He cut off the boy’s thumb, and then kicked his head to see the flies scatter, like some sick form of entertainment. This desensitization is a way for him to not have to face the war and casualties head-on.
Mitchell Sanders is the RTO, or Radiotelephone Officer, of Alpha Company. He is well-liked by the rest of Alpha Company and is loyal to the rest of his comrades, an example of the latter being when Sanders refused to help Tim exact revenge on Bobby Jorgenson, because Jorgenson botched Tim’s gunshot recovery. Sanders applies a sort of ambivalence to his storytelling, and that ambivalence helps Tim grow as a writer. Sanders, as he talks about when he cuts the young Vietnamese boy’s thumb off, believes that stories don’t necessarily have to have a moral, or and underlying truth.
He considers stories a way to convey experiences, plain and simple. Furthermore, Sanders understands that war stories are complex, and aren’t always cut and dry. According to him, sometimes a war story speaks for itself. Sander’s ideals about storytelling end up having a profound effect on how Tim chooses to tell his stories, which can be found in the ways that Tim conveys experience in The Things They Carried.
Dave Jensen
Dave Jensen carries with him hygiene products. Like others in Alpha Company, Jensen fears the war, and wishes to lower the chances of his death as much as possible. As such, Jensen brings supplies to maintain his health to whatever point he can. This is established in ‘The Things They Carried’, on pages 2 and 3, when the author discusses the baggage that each person bears in the war. O’Brien states on page 2, “Dave Jensen, who practiced field
hygiene, carried a toothbrush, dental floss, and several hotel-sized bars of soap” (2), then further reiterates this preoccupation with hygienic precaution on page 3, stating that ‘Dave Jensen carried three pairs of socks and a can of Dr. Scholl’s foot powder as a precaution against trench foot’ (3).
Dave Jensen carries with him the possibility of killing his comrade. Towards the beginning of the book, Lee Strunk steals Jensen’s jack knife, which causes a fight to break out between the two, in which Jensen breaks Strunk’s nose. After that, however, Jensen becomes incredibly paranoid that Strunk would enact revenge of some sort. In order to prevent that outcome, Jensen breaks his own nose.
After that incident, Jensen and Strunk begin to greatly trust each other, to the point that, according to page 65, ‘they made a pact that if one of them should ever get totally fucked up – a wheelchair wound, the other guy would automatically find a way to end it’ (65). This ends up becoming the case when Lee Strunk gets his leg blown off. He is put onto a chopper to get him out of the war. The pact seems to be a burden that Jensen did not want to carry, as he was relieved when Strunk dies on the chopper over Chu Lai.
Dave Jensen is a foot soldier in Alpha Company. He’s not particularly emphasized throughout the book, but he serves two brief but important roles. For one, towards the beginning of The Things They Carried, Jensen becomes extremely close to Lee Strunk. Jensen and Strunk become almost foils to each other, pushing each other to the limits of their mutual loyalty.
This relationship becomes a prime example of camaraderie and relationships forged in war within The Things They Carried. The second time that Jensen is mentioned is towards the end of the novel, when Tim recounts his first experiences within Alpha Company, when the company sets up a tea party of sorts with a Vietnamese corpse, making a mockery of the old man’s death.
Jensen hassles Tim over making Tim shake hands with the dead man like the rest of the company, but Tim refuses. If there were to be some sort of idealistic equivalent to this situation, Jensen would be the temptations of violence, savagery, and bloodshed: the primary portions of war. On the other hand, Kiowa’s reassurances of Tim’s objection could be interpreted as being the voice of reason overruling the primitive and uncivilized practices of the battlefield.
Curt Lemon
Curt Lemon carries with him a smoke grenade. Throughout the novel, Curt Lemon is not extensively mentioned, but the only item that the author links to Curt Lemon possessively is a smoke grenade. This is mentioned on page 70, where the author recalls, “I remember the shadows spreading out under the trees where Curt Lemon and Rat Kiley were playing catch with smoke grenades” (70).
Curt Lemon carries the burden of insecurity. Like many men, Lemon wants to seem manly and masculine, a real tough guy. However, Curt is extremely insecure as well. Due to this, he finds the need to constantly reassert his masculinity. Curt does this in various ways, some ways including going around scaring people and having a dentist pull out a healthy tooth to show that he is not scared. This insecurity defines much of Lemon’s immature personality, and is even more important in the war, as each man tries to show his worth.
Curt Lemon is the immature, childish soldier in Alpha Company. He has outdated ideals on masculinity and manliness, which in turn pushes him to constantly do ‘manly’ things. In life, Curt Lemon doesn’t serve as a very predominant character, and the air of childishness he carries is one of the reasons that Tim is not very fond of him. However, his death becomes an important part of the book. Curt died while playing catch with Rat Kiley by stepping on a rigged grenade. Although its plot significance is rather benign, Curt’s death symbolizes the wastefulness of war, and how people die for no apparent reason in times of war. Additionally, Curt’s death becomes a major point of reflection for Tim in the future.
