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The Things They Carried Questions and answers latest update
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The Things They Carried Questions and answers latest update
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The Things They Carried Questions and answerslatest update
Tim O'Brien -ANS>Narrator and protagonist. Work allows him to comment on the
war/recount personal experiences.
He enters the war a scared young man afraid of the shame that dodging the war
would bring him.
He is our guide to how extreme situations can turn a man into a solider who
commits unspeakable acts.
Sometimes another character tells the story, adding a human quality and gives us
the chance to see it from different perspectives.
He uses storytelling to face unspeakable horrors he witnessed as a soldier.
(Storytelling has become a good coping mechanism for him.)
Lt. Jimmy Cross -ANS>***Carries picture of Martha, letters, a pebble from the
beach for good luck.****
Represents the effects responsibility has on those who are too immature to handle
it.
In college, he signs up for the war because his friends are doing it and its worth a
few credits. As a result, when in battle, he is unsure in everything he does. He is a
bad leader because his training taught him how to march and keep guns clean, not
how to adapt to his environment and his men.
He was the leader of Alpha Company but never a true member of it, separating
himself from his men in order to maintain a position of authority that he could
never maintain if not for his superior rank
,Feels guilt and shame about what happened and what he put his soldiers through.
Cross's guilt is apparent every time one of his men dies, but it is most apparent in
Ted Lavender's death. Right before Lavender is killed, Cross allows himself to be
distracted by the thoughts of Martha, who sends him photographs and writes
letters that never mention the war.
He can be viewed as a Christ figure. Like Christ, who suffers for his fellow men,
Cross suffers for the sake of the entire platoon. He makes a personal sacrifice,
burning the letters from Martha so that her presence will no longer distract him.
Kiowa -ANS>***Carries hunting hatchet, New Testament, and Moccasins.*****
Kiowa is a good guy, and the "emotional compass.": intelligent, brave, soft-spoken,
good hunter. He helps his friends rationalize the war and their actions - can be
seen when he helps O'Brien through the killing of a young Vietnamese soldier.
As a Baptist and Native American, be brings new perspectives to the story.
His death is symbolic of the uselessness and tragedy of war. He dies in a gruesome
way, in a sewage field, which ironically shows the waste of war.
****************There is NO DIGNITY in Kiowa's death, he becomes another
casualty in a war that strips men of their identities and turns them into
statistics.************
Ted Lavender -ANS>****Carries marijuana and tranquilizers.****
A young, scared soldier in the Alpha Company. Lavender is the first to die in the
work. He makes only a brief appearance in the narrative, popping tranquilizers to
, calm himself. Because his death, like Lemon's, is preventable, it illustrates the
expendability of human life in a senseless war.
There are many ironise in his death: 1. Ted Lavender always carries tranquilizers
and marijuana because he doesn't want to feel any pain. However, he ironically
dies a very painful death as he is shot in the head.
2. He was the soldier who was afraid of death, but died first.
3. Ted Lavender was carrying a lot of weight for his given height, so the reader
would think since he is the most prepared, he would survive longest. However, he
dies first.
This character's death makes Lt. Cross feel guilty and responsible for his death,
causes him to burn the letters from Martha because he thinks they are a
distraction.
Norman Bowker - What did he carry? -ANS>***Carries a diary and the thumb that
Mitchell Sanders cut off a soldier.***
Quiet and laid back, the kind that "didn't want to bother anybody." O'Brien
describes Bowker as someone who "did not know what to feel." Bowker himself
could not find words to describe his feelings, and instead turns to O'Brien to tell
his story for him.
A guy who embodies the damage that the war can do to a soldier after the war is
over. During the war, Bowker is quiet, and Kiowa's death has a profound effect on
him. Bowker's letter to O'Brien in demonstrates the importance of sharing stories
in the healing process.
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