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The Things They Carried Bad Quotes

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Maksym Marak Norwood English 10H-7 15 May 2023 Epic Gangster W Cool Title In The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, the death of Kiowa is employed to show how war does not have purpose or morals, and instead only causes psychological burdens of those in the war. One example of Kiowa’s death symbolizing this is when Norman says “‘I didn’t flip out,’ he would’ve said. ‘I was cool. If things had gone right, if it hadn’t been for that smell, I could’ve won the Silver Star,’” (O’Brien 143). By still thinking about a medal instead of his own friend who died, this quote is a prime example of the psychological border put by war. Instead of grieving the loss of a friend, Norman is more worried about not winning the medal because he left Kiowa to …show more content…

Along with his own belief of that, his father was also pushing for Norman to win as many medals as he could during the war, so not getting a Silver Star made Norman believe his father would be disappointed, making Norman feel even worse about it. Another example is when it's said, “Not here, he thought. Not like this. He released Kiowa’s boot and watched it slide away. Slowly, working his way up, he hoisted himself out of the deep mud, and then he lay still and tasted the shit in his mouth and closed his eyes and listened to the rain and explosions and bubbling sounds. He was alone,” (O’Brien 143). Norman was devastated about losing Kiowa when it happened. Norman had …show more content…

A guy who can’t get his act together and just drives around town all day and can't think of any damn place to go and doesn't know how to get there anyway. This guy wants to talk about it, but he can’t… If you want, you can use the stuff in this letter,” (O’Brien 151). This last quote, also connects highly to the work as a whole because Norman is writing about himself as someone who wants to talk about his problems with someone, and just get away from his old life in general, but can’t because of the way war works; it breaks you as a person and builds you back up as a soldier, and you can’t leave that behind. Norman has many bad things in his head from the war, but he can’t seem to bring himself to talk about them with anyone to make himself feel better about

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