The Things They Carried Kiowa Character Traits

The Tale of Kieu, called the most important piece of Vietnamese literature, is the story of a young Vietnamese girl's attempt to right the wrongs of her past lives by enduring hardship in this life. She is sold into prostitution and continuously deceived by men promising her love. The only man whose promise of love is not in vain is Kim Trong, the first man to pledge himself to her. Kieu is visited by a ghost who reveals to her the bad karma she earned in a previous life. Following Kieu and Kim Trong's vows of love, he is called off to attend to his family when his uncle dies. Soon after, robbers brake in to steal and vandalize Kieu's house, and they tie up her father and brother. In order to redeem them, Kieu sells herself into a

Momaday introduces the distinct landscape of the Kiowa’s origin with rhythm and beauty, demonstrating his passion for his culture. Through powerful imagery and rhetoric he connects his readers to the poetry and wisdom that come with his culture’s land, history, and customs. In specific, as he is describing the landscape, he uses an anaphora when he says “...but one hill or one tree or one man…” to show just how isolated that the planes of Oklahoma can truly be. However, the connotation can be taken positively, as the peacefulness of isolation within nature can connect people back to their creator. Moreover,

Question: How does Kiowa’s death change some of the characters in the three chapters “Speaking of Courage”, “Notes”, and “In The Field”?

In The Things They Carried, the soldiers’ gallows humour is a manifestation of their repressed fear of death. This is seen through the character voice of Azar – a soldier in the Alpha Company. In The Man I Killed, the embedded dialogue that interrupts O’Brien’s main narrative shows Azar comparing the man O’Brien killed to breakfast cereals. ‘Shredded fuckin’ Wheat’ , ‘oatmeal’ or ‘Rice Krispies’ : the cereal image illustrates the deformed, porous corpse. Contrast to O’Brien’s detailed and heartfelt tribute to the dead soldier, Azar’s interruptive and anti-climatic allusion to cereals ridicules the body and dismisses the seriousness of the situation. Likewise, in In The Field, Azar uses inappropriate puns like ‘Wasted in the waste’ and ‘biting the dirt’ to discuss Kiowa’s death in the sewage field. His amused tone is absurd, given the depressing situation of the men who are witnessing their comrades’ deaths.

Tim O’Brien, in his novel, The Things They Carried, includes the chapter “Notes” in order to clarify what occurred the night Kiowa died. O’Brien uses pathos to appeal to emotions in order to create a compassionate tone to influence the way the reader perceives the Kiowa died. At the end of the chapter, O’Brien reveals that “Norman did not freeze up or lose the Silver Star for valor…That part of the story is my own” (O’Brien 154); when explaining the event in the previous chapter, he uses Norman as a character to replace Tim, the one actually with Kiowa the night he died. The chapter does not initially state that Tim froze and could not save Kiowa, and O’Brien does this to attempt to remove some of Tim’s guilt and shift the blame; telling the

In December 1868, after the Battle of Washita, General Sheridan orders the Cheyennes, Arapahos, Kiowas, and Comanches to surrender at Fort Cobb. The Kiowas do not surrender. Two thousand Kiowas and 2500 Comanches are then put on the reservation at Fort Cobb. At a sun dance on the Red River in the summer of 1870, the Comanches, Southern Cheyennes, and Kiowas consider the possibility of fighting the whites. In mid−May 1871, the Kiowas and Comanches attack and kill seven teamsters leading a train of ten freight wagons. Satanta takes responsibility for this raid, even though it was led by another chief. Since the raid he and other chiefs are arrested for it. As a result, Satanta and Big Tree are sentenced to life in prison in July 1871. But Lone

Jimmy Cross's soldiers use their weapons as probes in order to find Kiowa's corpse. As the soldiers wonder which coordinates to march, Cross dives into his flashback. He compares the tactically failure of camping in a waste field to the municipal golf course. The accident was only a happenstance where one soldier turned on a flashlight and allowed the enemies to spot them. Kiowa immediately submerged into the waste due to explosions. Soldiers tried to get traction and salvage Kiowa's carcass. After witnessing the cadaver, Azar finally can understand the feeling of condolence. Cross arrived at a conclusion that no matter where the blame is placed, for example to the makers of munitions, consequences will never disappear.

The style in which Momaday depicts his journey and how detailed his work is makes it interesting to me. Momaday uses factual information to supplement the personal stories he tells. For example, Momaday stops at historical markers like Devil’s Tower during his fifteen-hundred-mile trip, and at these markers Momaday tells stories originally told by his grandmother that correspond with the Kiowa journey and its hardships at that point. It is in these stories that Momaday illustrates the resiliency the Kiowa had, and the lessons they learned during these hardships. These transparent potrayls make me as the reader feel like I am essentially living vicariously through Momaday’s grandmother. This just further roots my interest into this story because of the way it connects me into the story. Also, I am sort of a history buff, and I love to learn new unseen history. Due to this fact, it is interesting to me that I am able to essentially see into the lives of people during this journey, and I am able to see the historical side of this group of people. This autobiographical work shows what it was truly like for an indigenous person during this

The next day after Kiowa’s death, the group of soldiers began searching in the fields for his body. On one side, Lieutenant Cross noticed a young man not far shaking in the mud, although Cross was preoccupied the letter he should write to inform Kiowa’s father. Both soldiers blamed themselves, for Cross had camped in the field that drowned Kiowa and for the young man had opened a flashlight that signaled the enemy. Working in a different area, Bowker, Sanders, and Azar found Kiowa’s body. When everyone was putting the blame on either themselves or each other, Bowker reminds them that Kiowa simply ran out of luck and it’s “Nobody’s fault. Everybody’s.” The young soldier attempts to confess, but Cross was too absorbed in his thoughts. Cross concludes that there is a blame for everything, but those for wars are “immediate.”

Characterization in “The Things They Carried” is shown by the objects that each man carries. Ted Lavender carries a massive amount of dope, and this shows his true fear of the war. Lieutenant Cross carries letter from his sweetheart back home. Maybe this shows the romantic side of a traveling soldier or maybe it shows a lonely homesick man. Henry Dobbins carries a outrageous weight of ammunition around his waist. These shows a man that is afraid, but makes himself feel safer with a bullet by his side. Jenson was kind of the odd guy, because he had extra personal hygiene products in his bag. Kiowa can be the religious and traditionalist man of the group. For the story says about him “Kiowa, a devout Baptist, carried an illustrated New Testament that had been presented to him by his father” (102). Kiowa also carries an item

I decided to do my letter to Kiowa from Jimmy’s perspective because i found it easier to write it in his way. This is because he had more experience and he actually knew what to say. He is also a responsible guy for actually accepting the fact that it was his fault for letting his men go to the field, when he should have not have had. I also did it in his way because he would get staright to the point and not lie about things.

I remember how he hopped over to Azar and asked for a chocolate bar-‘GI number one,’ the kid said- and Azar laughed and handed over the chocolate.” (30). This opinion changes in no time when O’Brien adds, “When the boy hopped away, Azar clucked his tongue and said, ‘War’s a bitch.’ … ‘One leg for Chrissake. Some poor fucker ran out of ammo.’” (30). By this, Azar is basically showing how war sucks because “some poor fucker [soldier] ran out of ammo,” meaning that if the soldier who blew off the boys leg would have shot the young boy dead if he had more ammo. Although he sounds cruel, Azar kind of wishes that soldier would not have ran out of ammo so the little boy would not have to suffer. O’Brien uses these jokes to show that Azar cared while he was trying to not let the truth sink

On the other hand, Kirn provides a tranquilly entrancing narrator who is the first to admit his own flaws. Despite his success as a novelist, he longs for affirmation and a chance to belong to the upper-class circle of money and prestige and his insecurity makes him the perfect target for Clark. Probably the most compelling aspect of the book are the insights Kirn gains about him self in the wake of discovered he’d been a pawn of a psychopath for over a decade.

While this second segment of the book maps onto the recorded time of the Kiowa brilliant age, Momaday opens with a story that fits better with the time of Kiowa decrease (set apart by their annihilation on account of the U.S. military, and reflected by the opening area's portrayal of adversaries at the doors). Momaday has demanded that, while the Kiowa destiny has been a troublesome one, the account of his kin ought not be comprehended as a catastrophe. This entry, similar to the keep going, additionally expands on the subject of foes invading Kiowa life. The accentuation on the force of dialect is critical here. The section likewise comes back to the significance of senior citizens. The story that the tribal voice tells is another accentuation

The oral story was about a young warrior—Quoetotai—who fell in love with one of Many Bears’ wives, another man of the tribe. Many Bears shot him with an arrow and the young man when back to camp where the arrow was pulled out of him. Quoetotai decided he wanted to take Many Bears’ wife away. Knowing this, before a raid, she sang about leaving their home behind. Quoetotai took her away and they lived with the Comanches for many years. When they returned home, Many Bears welcomed them, called him brother, and gave him six horses. This story portrays the young man, and the Kiowas, as resilient people. It also sticks to the culture that is centered on a community, welcoming the young man and the woman with open arms and magnificent gifts.