Symbols In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

790 Words4 Pages

In Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien uses symbols, both tangible and non-tangible to connect the reader get to the men in the platoon including their feelings and fears while they are in Vietnam. The story is told in third person, after reading through the first paragraphs, the reader then understands where the title is derived from. This not only makes things personal between each man and the reader, but the reader is able to understand and get to know that person based on their items.
There are many items mentioned at the beginning of the story, the can of peaches that Henry Dobson carries. There are items such as gum, Kool-Aid and lighters. These have meaning because these are things that bring comfort to the soldiers. These items are …show more content…

These items seem odd when the reader first reads the story. The Bible is probably his most important item that he carries with him. The Bible lets the reader understand that he sought higher powers and higher beings to get him through his tour in Vietnam. Kiowa smells the Bible and uses it as an escape Vietnam, even for a brief moment. He can find a way escape through the smell of the glue and the ink, it made him feel as if he was somewhere else. But the history of the Native American and the Whiteman, weighs heavy on his mind, it makes the reader wonder how much trust that he has in his battle buddies. The hatchet is a comfort piece that allows him to have security knowing that he to can be just like his grandfather and if it requires killing, the hatchet will give him the strength that he has built in his mind about his grandfather. Kiowa eventually drowns in a sewage field. Eventually, Cross goes back to Vietnam to the spot wear Kiowa dies and leaves him a pair of moccasins. These moccasins represent the friendship that Cross had with Kiowa and the respect the Cross had for Kiowa’s culture.
One of the list that the narrator talks about, are the items that are carried by the men to complete their mission, the narrator includes items and details about the weapons and the weight of each item. Then the narrator goes back into detail about

Open Document