Mitchell Sanders One of the most likable soldiers in the war. Read an in-depth analysis of Mitchell Sanders. Read an in-depth analysis of Kiowa. Norman Bowker A man who embodies the damage that the war can do to a soldier long after the war is over. Read an in-depth analysis of Norman Bowker. Read an in-depth analysis of Elroy Berdahl. Curt Lemon A childish and careless member of the Alpha Company who is killed when he steps on a rigged mortar round.
Ted Lavender A young, scared soldier in the Alpha Company. Lee Strunk Another soldier in the platoon and a minor character. Dave Jensen A minor character whose guilt over his injury of Lee Strunk causes him to break his own nose.
Azar A soldier in the Alpha Company and one of the few unsympathetic characters in the work. Bobby Jorgenson The medic who replaces Rat Kiley. Popular pages: The Things They Carried. Take a Study Break. The men relax. Azar apologies to Norman Bowker for the jokes. Any time Azar acts like a decent human being, we're a little suspicious, but he seems to mean it this time.
He tells Bowker that he feels that, by telling the jokes, he's responsible for Kiowa's death. Bowker says that it's nobody's fault, and everybody's.
The young soldier wants to confess his part in Kiowa's death to Jimmy Cross—how he turned on his flashlight and drew the mortar fire—but Jimmy Cross isn't listening. He's thinking about blame. He's thinking that while you could blame the war and every cause of the war and God and everything else there is, in the field, blame needs to be more immediate. He thinks that maybe when the war is over he'll write a letter to Kiowa's father, or maybe he'll just go play golf.
What's Up With the Ending? Setting What's Up With the Epigraph? Tired of ads? Join today and never see them again. Get started. SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. How does Kiowa die? What are the things the soldiers carry? In the title story of the book, why does Lt. Who is Linda? Who is Kathleen?
How do the soldiers cope with death during wartime? How does Curt Lemon die? Eddie Daimond says that Mary Anne crossed to the "other side" evil and has become part of the land of Vietnam. They kept him safe and made him invincible. He was never hurt in Vietnam, not even a scratch. Dobbins thinks he might like to be a monk some day because he would look good in the robes and get to be nice to peole.
Ironically, American soldiers committed many violent and atrocious acts during the war like using a pagoda church as a camp and killing innocent people. Tim kills a young enemy soldier with a grenade. Tim doesn't think. His body instintually reacts and he throws the grenade.
He imagines a fictional past and future life for the soldier. This solider will haunt Tim's dreams for the rest of his life. Kiowa, Tim's closest friend, explains to Tim it wasn't his fault. The young enenmy soldier would have done the same thing.
When Tim's daughter, Kathleen, asks him if he ever killed anyone in the war, Tim has another flashback to killing the yong soldier. Tim is filled with guilt. He has convinced himself that if he did not throw the grenade the yong soldier would have harmlessly walked by Tim. Twenty years after the war, Tim still sees the young enemy soldier at random times throughout his day and life. The soldiers of Alpha Company have utterly destroyed a Vietnamese village, killing almost everyone.
The story of how Kiowa died in a shit field in Vietnam. Norman Bowker saw Kiowa sinking in the muck but was unable to save Kiowa because the smell of sewage was too much. He blames himself for being a coward, not saving Kiowa and losing his chance to earn a silver Star.
After the war, Norman Bowker has returned to his hometown in Iowa. It is the Fourth of July weekend and Norman spends his time driving around in the lake in his town. Aimlessly driving around in circles. Norman has nowhere to go and feels he has no one to talk to about the night Kiowa died. Norman cannot talk to his high school girlfiend, Sally, who has moved with her life and gotten married. Norman wishes he could talk to his father about Kiowa's death, but his father fought his own war and is busy watching baseball.
Bowker considers unburdening himself at the local burger joint talking to a teenage stranger through a speaker. Finally, Bowker walks into the lake, submerging himself in the water a return to the shit field where Kiowa died? O'Brien reveals that after the war Bowker returned to Iowa, worked meaningless jobs, went to community college but drop out.
Third story about Kiowa's death told from the point of view of Bowker, a young soldeir and Jimmy Cross. The morning after Kiowa has died in the field. Alpha Company spends the day searching to Kiowa's body which has sunk into the mud and sewage near the flooded Song Tra Bong. Jimmy Cross thinks about writing a letter to Kiowa's family, accepting responsibilty for his death.
Thinking about who is to blame and playing golf. The "FNG". A young soldier turned on his flashlight. Gave away Alpha Company's position, mortar attck ensues. Kiowa dies. The yong soldier blames himself for being unable to save Kiowa, but is in shock now and just wants to find his missing picture of his girlfriend. O'Brien returns to Vietnam with his year old daughter Kathleen to the scene of Kiowa's death. Kathleen is bored. The area looks very different. Tim is disappiinted and shocked that this field that killed his best friend and swallowed up a part of Tim's life looks harmless.
After taking a swim in the river, Tim leaves Kiowa's moccasins near the spot where Kiowa died. The second time Tim is shot the new medic Bobby Jorgensen does an awful job causing Tim pain and an infection. Tim nearly dies. This chapter is told to O'Brien by Mitchell Sanders. Tim has been injured and is at a field hospital.
Rat Kiley chooses the shame of being a coward and chooses to shoot himself in the foot rather than being killed or killing others. In this chapter, Rat Kiley slowly goes crazy.
He stops talking. He feels bugs crawling over his skin and cannot stop scratching. Rat says he is not cut out to be a medic always picking up the body parts and plugging the holes. He is haunted by Lavender and Lemon's deths. Rat Kiley has horrofic nightmares. Rat Kiley wakes up one morning and takes morphine and shoots himself in the toe, an injury that will get him sent home from the war.
No one blames Rat. Tim remembers a childhood friend, Linda, who died of a brain tumor and his first visit to a funeral parlor and seeing her dead body. Characters: Burdens, Summaries and Quotes. Norman goes home and he has no one to talk to, his life is going no where. He drives around in circles around the lake.
He is depressed and lonely. Norman tells the story of Kiowa's death. Kiowa drowned in a shitfield in Vietnam. Norman feels guilty. He almost saved Kiowa. Norman let go of Kiowa's boot. Norman Bowker committed suicide 3 years after the war.
He hung himself at the YMCA. He was folded in with the war; he was part of the waste. Jimmy Cross and Martha. Jimmy Cross is young and unprepared to be a leader. It was something that would never go away.
Jimmy Cross understood this. He hated himself. He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead, and this was something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war. Henry and the platoon spend a week camped out in a pagoda. Henry and Kiowa talk about religion. The Buddhist monks at the pagoda like Dobbins.
Kiowa is religious, he thinks it is wrong to camp in the pagaoda. Dobbins is NOT religious, but he likes to be nice to people.
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