Summary:
Character and Object Summaries of The Things They Carried
Jimmy Cross- He is a very nice and sensitive guy, The Lieutenant. He is in love with Martha, a girl in New Jersey who is not in love with him; he is obsessed with her knee. He thinks about Martha so much that a man is killed while he was thinking about Martha.
Rat Kiley - Rat is a medic of the group. He is nineteen years old. Rat is very careful, brave and nice. But as the story goes on he begins to start going a little crazy and shoots himself in his toe because he thinks that his medicine is killing him.
Tim- Tim is the narrator. He wrote the book. He is very helpful and thoughtful. He fought in the war at Vietnam and is still guilty for all of the people that died and things they killed so he is telling about them. He and the Character Tim are very similar. He also has a daughter that you hardly hear of named Kathleen
Kiowa- he is an Indian and a Baptist and the other men make fun of him for it. He is very nice to everyone and a very good person. When he died everyone was sad.
Norman Bowker- Norman is very quiet and patient. He is very sad when the Indian guy dies, and when he leaves to go home he feels alone and nobody understands what he is going through. So he is basically a loner.
The things they carried are a bunch of stories revolving around the Vietnam War. The Author tells about his own experiences in Vietnam in this book. In the story all of the characters were holding one important thing that represented their character. Tom was holding a picture of Martha because he was in love with her, and Henry dobbins held stocking on his shoulders because they were his girlfriends, and Kiowa was holding a bible cause he was a Bishop. Throughout the story the soldiers come together and learn how to work with each other and respect each other and form a bond together. But some of the men are careless. Lieutenant Cross was being careless when an enemy came up and killed Ted Lavender. This would have been prevented if Cross had not been thinking of Martha. After Ted dies people are not to sad about it because he was not a very important character, so people learned how to cope with it easier than they will later in the story. The men of alpha company became closer as the story goes on and begin to trust each other. With Them marching and doing work twenty four- seven, they need relief to let them calm down and relax for a little while, At one point in the story Kiowa began to do rain dance and teach every one how to rain dance for a little bit of fun out of the war. So this was an example of them coming together and showing that bond they have together.
In another story it focuses on the death of Tim's closest friend Kiowa. When they set up at a campsite near the toilet kind of thing, at Song Tra Bong. I'm not really clear on how he died. This tells the value of friendship
Spin- is a is the story that does not speak of war and tell how gruesome or cruel it was. It told about how there were some good moments, For example, When the soldier is being generous and gives a cripple boy candy, and how they play checkers every night. An old Vietnamese man helps the platoon through a field where he knows that there are Landmines. This is also when Bowker opens up a lot more to Tim and talks about him and his fathers relationship, and Kiowa shows them his Indian dance and teaches them how to do it.
On the rainy river- Is the story of how Tim got to Vietnam. He got his draft slip right after college, and he gets a job right after that. He was not sure about going to Vietnam so he went to rainy river near Canada if he wanted to illegally get away from the war. He decides to go back home and he goes to war.
Enemies- Is about when Strunk and Jensen get into a fight over a minor disagreement and strunk gets a broken nose. Now that this has happened Jensen is scared to do anything cause he thinks Strunk will take his revenge on him. So he apologized and got his knife back.
Friends- Jenses and Strunk are friends and they make a bond of best friends. Strunk steps on a landmine and on his way to the hospital by airlift he dies.
How to tell a true story- Is about how Lemon dies. He and Rat was playing a game of catch with a bomb when he stepped on a landmine and blew himself all over the tree causing jensen to take his limbs and bodypart off the tree and as he did it he sang the song "Lemon Tree"
The Dentist- This was a weird story for me. Because it really had hardly anything to do with the dentist besides when he went to get a tooth pulled.
Sweetheart O The Song Tra Bong- Keily is telling Tim how he was in a village and he met Mary Anne Bell who was actually another guy's girlfriend. She was sent to stay w/ Rat. He taught her how to use a gun and she helped him with the medics and started helping out late at night and then she stayed away for a few days and her boyfriend looked for her cause he was going crazy. She went home with him but then she dumped him like garbage to be with the Berets. She began to become a little nutcase. So when Fossie went to find her he found her in a circle with a necklace made of tongues and began to get crazier and crazier. She later went up to the mountains and never came back.
Stockings- tells about Henry dobbins and his wife. As a remembrance of her he took her pantyhose and wore them around his neck because he thinks they are good luck. He even wears them after they break up.
Church- The group becomes friends with two Vietnamese people who believe to be monks. They talk about religion and Dobbins wanted to become a priest and Kiowa wanted to too.
The Man I Killed- This story tells about when Tim kills a Soldier and has a hard time dealing with it. Kiowa calms him down.
Ambush- This is about when Tim and Kiowa are in ambush and a soldier pops out of the fog walking down the road clueless and Tim throws a grenade and kills the soldier.
Style- After they burned a village and a girl is dancing Azar makes fun of her cause he mean and unsympathetic.
Speaking of Courage- Norman Bowker came home and starts to remember when he was in the war and Kiowa was killed when he was drowned in sewage from the village they was near. He wants to tell someone his stories but he chooses not to.
Notes- Bowker writes Tim a letter but didn't tell him about the details of Kiowa's death. He later writes him another letter and 8 months later kills himself because of all of the stress and mental abuse he was going through. He told Azar it was everybody fault.
Good Form- This really about nothing
Field Trip- After the war (20 years) Tim returns to the field that Kiowa died in with his 10-year-old daughter and he leaves Kiowa his moccasins in the place he drowned in and feels a lot better.
Ghost Soldiers- When Tim was shot Rat saved his life with the medicine. He was shot in the butt the second time. and Jorgenson almost killed him by letting him breath and later in the chapter apologizes and Tim does not accept and he secretly wants revenge. So when he is alone on duty in the jungle they make a fake ghost and some noises and he gets scared and Azar wont stop when Tim asks and Jorgenson apologizes for real and they become good friends.
Night Life- As they were marching the night life to attack the enemy army, Rat went crazy saying he was going to die and he say death and scratched his skin until he was bleeding badly. They made him go to a Japanese hospital after he got scared and shot off his big toe.
Lives Of The Dead- When he was young, like 10 he and a girl were in love and she always wore a hat and never took it off until a bully took it off showing her bald head. She had a brain tumor and she died the year after this happened. Tim was devastated and he made pretend she was alive and spoke to her all of the time in his head because he loved her so much.
This is the complete article, containing 1,496 words
(approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page).
