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The Things They Carried Ted Lavender Character Analysis

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In the story, "The Things They Carried" a narrator describes the life of soldiers during the Vietnam War. The narrator lists what some of the soldiers carried during their experience in the war, emotional and tangible. Tim O'Brien presents the character of Ted Lavender, an obviously frightened soldier, in order to be a spokeperson to symbolize obvious stress within soldiers during their journey. He presents the character of Kiowa, a devoted Baptist, in order to represent how some of the soldiers cope with the exorbitant amount of stress. Tim O'Brien characterizes Ted Lavender as stressed and frightened in order to portray fright during the war within soldiers. Ted Lavender took extra precautions compared to the other soldiers. "Ted Lavender, who was scared, carried tranquilizers until he was shot..." (O'Brien 1). The author writes this about Ted to show the readers that he was scared and felt the need to carry tranquilizers in addition to his army equiptment. Ted also felt the need to take dope to …show more content…

Kiowa reveals how he is dependent on his faith to get him through tough events. "Kiowa, a devout Baptist, carried an illustrated New Testament that had been presented to him by his father, who taught Sunday School in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma" (O'Brien 2). Soldiers do not want to carry many extra objects because they already carry an extremely heavy load, so Kiowa really cares about his faith since he carries an illustrated New Testament.Kiowa really cares about his family, which partially portrays his faith as well. "A a hedge against bad times, however, Kiowa also carried his...grandfather's old hunting hatchet" (O'Brien 2). A large part of religion is family, and Kiowa kept his grandfather's hunting hatchet despite its age and the fact that it would take up precious space in his load. Kiowa's devotion to his religion kept him focused and

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