Symbolism In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

Tim O’Brien’s book, The Things They Carried, is not a casual story based on war, but divided stories that paint a picture of veterans and what they were developing during and after the war. O’Brien brings up hard hitting points in each book that affects a reader in so many ways. O’Brien uses his novel with symbolisms to deeply understand characters, types of grieving each character is affiliated with, and more so what these characters carry emotionally, mentally, and figuratively throughout the book, nevertheless, making these characters relatable with actual people.
O’Brien’s characters are all different, Jimmy Cross was a lieutenant who’s in love and is not desired to lead his men to fight for their own freedom and stop war. Azar is a disrespectful,

Many of these characters had something to bring to them during and after war; meanwhile, the character that I can relate to is Kiowa. Kiowa is the Native American Christian-born soldier who goes with the flow and listens to those in need. During O’Brien grieving over killing a man, Kiowa had this to say, “I’ll tell you the straight truth, the guy was dead the second he stepped on the trail. . . We all had him zeroed. . . So listen, you best pull your shit together. Can’t just sit here all day” (123). By Kiowa confronting O’Brien, he feels he’s doing God’s call by being there for his comrades and shape them up for whatever the war throws at them. In the beginning of the book, Kiowa is described “Kiowa, a devout Baptist, carried an illustrated New Testament that had been presented to him by his father, who taught Sunday school. . . Kiowa also carried his grandmother’s distrust of the white man, [and] his grandfather’s old hunting hatchet” (3). This example in the book proves that Kiowa was a reliable and devoted person to his comrades. From Kiowa carrying the New Testament, it goes to show that Kiowa stands by his faith and helps his friends in need, therefore, making Kiowa a