*The Things They Carried:Week 3.

Within the chapter Church, Kiowa and Henry Dobbins discuss each other’s involvement and moral belief in the matter of religion and church. Dobbin’s explains how he “wouldn’t be good at the brainy part” for the fact that Dobbin’s never seemed too interested in attending church and really doesn’t know too much about church. However, Dobbin’s enjoys “the people part” and “[visiting] sick people.” The sense of solicitude that Dobbin’s has for others is later foreshadowed in the chapter Style, when Dobbin’s sticks up for the young girl that’s dancing after Azar makes light of her. Dobbin’s doesn’t know about the facts of church, however, Kiowa carries a bible around with him at war. Kiowa just “grew up that way” but never once thought about becoming a minister. Kiowa likes the way that “church makes [him] feel inside,” the silence that he hears, yet “there’s still this sound [he] can’t hear” like the way Kiowa “feels in the forest.” the quietness Kiowa feels in church is compared to the quietness Kiowa feels within the forest during the war. However, Kiowa explains how “there’s still this sound you can’t hear” which is the imagination and the mind wandering when Kiowa is put in the quiet environments- all that exists is simply Kiowa’s own imagination and the thoughts that he’s feeling.

In The Man I Killed, the chapter opens up with a gruesome and gory description of a man. The imagery O’Brien depicts is achieved by the description throughout the chapter. The dead man is described as “his jaw was in his throat, his upper lip and other teeth were gone, his one eye was shut, his other eye was a star-shaped hole….” This description continues on with emphasis put not only on the gruesome effect, but also how “his fingernails were clean, his right cheek was smooth and hairless” and how there was “a butterfly on his chin.” Butterflies symbolize the metamorphous from a caterpillar into a butterfly. This symbolism could tie into the story by meaning that the young man’s life isn’t over yet. In some religions, the belief is that after you die, you’ll be reborn- which is what the butterfly could symbolize within the story. The butterfly could also symbolize the beauty of death. Butterflies are associated with beauty, which is how O’Brien depicts deaths within the story. When Curt Lemon died, O’Brien concentrated on how “the sunlight [shone] on his face” and in this instance, O’Brien depicts the beauty by describing the young man’s “smooth cheek” and the “butterfly on his chin.” O’Brien doesn’t concentrate solely how death means that a person no longer exists, but rather how death can be “beautiful.” The shape of the star on the young boy’s eye is repeated several times throughout the chapter. A star is used to symbolize war, especially in communist countries such as China and Vietnam. The occurrence of the star shape on the young man’s eye symbolizes that the Vietnam War is the reason for his death.

O’Brien personally doesn’t know the young man that he killed, however, he portrays a story about the young man adding details about how going to the war “frightened him” because he was “not a fighter.” The young boy “could not picture doing brave things his father had done, or his uncles, or the heroes of stories” he hoped that “the American’s would go away” and that he wouldn’t have to be a part of the war. The repetition of the word “hope” is used many times towards the end of the description of the young boy. The “hope” that the war would be over, and that the young boy wouldn’t have to be a part of the war. Sound familiar? O’Brien makes up this story of the young man, but puts characteristics and feelings of his own self within. O’Brien was one that didn’t want to go to war- didn’t want to be a part of the war. The guilt that O’Brien feels for the death of the young boy is played out through the description of the young boy’s fictitious personality.

In the following chapter, Ambush, the reader gets a better feel for the emotions that O’Brien was feeling. The taste of “whatever was rising from [his] stomach tasted like lemonade” and made his mouth taste “fruity and sour,” the reader can taste the nervousness that O’Brien was feeling. All O’Brien remembers was “[throwing] the grenade before telling [himself] to throw it” and “holding his breath” waiting for what would happen next. Feeling the guilt and realization, that “the man [was] about to die” O’Brien wants to “warn him” but then the grenade makes a “popping noise” and with a small “white puff” the man dies. Why would O’Brien throw the grenade at the young man for no reason? Fear. Fear for what will happen next, fear for what the young man would do to him, and possibly even fear for what O’Brien sees in the young man, which is himself- a young boy not ready to be thrown into the world of war.

Within the story, O’Brien discusses an item that men carry as a comfort device. In the chapter Style, the men see a “fourteen year old girl, with her eyes half closed, her feet bare” dancing by her home. Inside the house, the men found her family dead and badly burned. The girl didn’t have a “big family” just “an infant, an old woman, and a woman whose age was hard to tell.” The girl danced for comfort. She already had a very small family, and now the young girl had no one. Dancing was comfort for the young girl, just like the pebble was comfort for Jimmy Cross, the pantyhose were a comfort for Henry Dobbins, and bringing Martha over to war was a comfort for Mark Fossie. Through all the trauma the young girl has went through, her comfort is found in dancing.