Tim O 'Brien's The Things They Carried'

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The Things They Carried In the series of short stories, “The Things They Carried”, by Tim O’Brien, illustrates the brutal, emotional events from the Vietnam War and symbolically explains the things the soldiers carried. Two of the objects that were carried by certain soldiers were a copy of the New Testament, and a thumb cut off of a corpse. Initially, Kiowa carries a copy of the New Testament because he is a religious man. The author writes about this and says, “Kiowa, a devout Baptist, carried an illustrated New Testament… (Page. 3)”. People who tend to be extremely religious often times do have a copy of the Bible on hand to be able to walk in the Lord or even feel His comfort. Kiowa was given the copy of the New Testament by his father, …show more content…
However, that never stopped Kiowa from trying to help his brothers in arms. Secondly, Norman Bowker carries a thumb cut off of a corpse. Bowker carried this thumb as a good luck charm ever since it was handed to him by Mitchell Sanders. However, the thumb is ironic because of Bowkers affable personality. Bowker is explained as, “other-wise a very gentle person” which contradicts his carrying a little boys thumb. The thumb has an even deeper meaning to Bowker other than just being a talisman; it depicted the lack of morality in war. When Henry Dobbins was asked about the thumb he said, “Yeah, well, he finally said. I don't see no moral. There it is man". The thumb symbolizes that there is no moral in war and that none of the men truly know why they fight the war but only know that they must. The thumb was a reminder to Bowker constantly that the death and destruction he witnessed was in no way, moral. To conclude, “The Things They Carried” was filled with symbolic objects such as Kiowa’s Bible and the thumb Norman Bowker carried. Each of these tangible objects also had a allegorical significance throughout the stories and built the soldiers who fought in the dreadful Vietnam
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