Kiowa's Death In 'In The Field'

Bowker saw the situation as a bystander, watching Kiowa’s death. He still felt the mourning that came with the death, yet he didn’t feel the same guilt portrayed through Jimmy Cross’ version of the story. In the chapter, “In the Field,” O’Brien tells Jimmy Cross’ perspective of Kiowa’s passing. He views it as a crime, and rather than describing the event through his senses, he described it with his guilt. “He should’ve moved to higher coordinates, should’ve radioed in false coordinates.

In the beginning of the story we are introduced to the dead soldier named Kiowa. Kiowa was a native American, which in this story is ironic because he died for a country that didn’t socially accept his cultural background but there he was fighting a war that was unnecessary for them to be fighting. However, as readers we picture Kiowa as a model citizen because Jimmy Cross said, “what a fine soldier Kiowa has been, what a fine human being, and how he was the kind of son that any father could be proud of forever,” (O’Brien 3176). This passage shows the reader that Jimmy Cross thought highly of Kiowa and that it was a great lost to his platoon. Not only that but O’Brien also wanted to highlight Kiowa’s innocence and show that the Vietnam war was stripping our youth of their innocence’s. However, it’s not until Jimmy Cross says, “he should’ve taken one look and headed for higher ground. He should’ve known. No excuses” (O’Brien 3178), that we could see that Jimmy Cross felt that Kiowa death was his fault and that it was a loss of a good

In the chapter titled “The Man I Killed”, O’Brien shares the story of the time he killed another man in Vietnam. During the chapter, O’Brien seems to be going off on multiple tangents talking about random things like how, “He wore a black shirt, black pajama pants, a gray ammunition belt, a gold ring on the third finger of his right hand.” (O’Brien 118) O’Brien also keeps repeating phrases such as, “His jaw was in his throat” and “One eye was shut and the other was a star-shaped hole”. (O’Brien 118-124) In “Speaking of Courage” O’Brien tells a story of how when Norman Bowker was discharged, he returned to his hometown finding he could not acclimate to the ‘normal’ world.

Norman Bowker was a good young soldier who was there fight the war as well he was a friend to Tim O'Brien and was a was very good he received many medals for his act during the war. In the story “ Speaking of Courage” Norman Bowker talk about the silver medal he almost received for his act in the war. He received seven medals he earned during his time in the vietnam war. Norman Bowker father was a man he wanted to impress by coming back to his home to show his father the medals won. Norman Bowker father Mr. Bowker would say in letters that Norman Bowker would receive during the war that he can’t wait to see the silver star that his son earned in the war. But during his time in the war he only received seven medals and none of them were the silver star. Norman Bowker was trying so hard to get that medal in the story “Speaking of Courage” Norman Bowker was talking about the time he almost received the silver star. He did not say do you want to here the time i save a man. He said “I almost won the silver star. And when he having this talk to himself about how he would tell his father why he did receive the silver star. He said the reason he didn’t earn the medal because he was because he thought he was a coward because he couldn't handle the smell in the field he was in. Some Norman Bowker drive around lake. I what he did all the time because the war was over and everything he tried did seem to do any

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

The death that receives the most attention in The Things They Carried is that of Kiowa, a much-loved member of the Alpha Company and one of O'Brien's closest friends. In "Speaking of Courage," the story of Kiowa's death is relayed in retrospect through the memory of Norman Bowker, years after the war. As Bowker drives around a lake in his Iowa hometown, he thinks that he failed to save Kiowa, who was killed when a mortar round hit and caused him to sink headfirst into a marshy field. O'Brien realizes that he has dealt with his guilt over Kiowa's death differently than Norman Bowker in "Notes." Just before the end of the war, O'Brien receives a long letter from Bowker that says he

In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, we see a distinct correlation between two chapters, Speaking Of Courage and Notes. In these two chapters, we see the story of Norman Bowker, a man O’Brien served with in the Vietnam War. O’Brien shows how Bowker still looks back on the events that happened with his friend Kiowa downing in the shit of the mucky sewage field and how he did not save him. We see that Norman Bowker feels like shit, does not like life as he has it, and wants out. The direct correlation between the two chapters is that we see the same story told from different points of view. Speaking of Courage presents Bowker’s tale in third person, while Notes relates O’Brien’s memory of Bowker in first person.

Even though Bowker made it out of the war alive, he was not himself when he returned home. He could not bring himself to talk to anyone about his experiences, though it “[was] a good time to talk” (134). As Bowker thought of all the people he could talk to about his war stories and how he had almost been given the Silver Star, he can only conjure the conversations in his imagination. When finally given the chance to get his emotions off his chest at the A&W, Bowker could only muster out “Nothing” when the intercom questioned if he had anything to say (146). The reluctance to share true war memories is a quality that veterans who have observed severe trauma can relate to. Similar how to Bowker continued around the lake in circles and circles, veterans cannot break out of the circle that is their experience of war. The only people they feel safe talking to are members of their old platoon, and even if they want to be able to express themselves and their emotions, there is a seemingly invisible barricade that prevents them from sharing. In Bowker’s case, the pent up emotion lead to “[hanging] himself in the locker room of a YMCA” (149). Though this story was invented by O’Brien, the thousands of soldiers who annually commit suicide is not a work of fiction. By using such abrupt, blunt diction to

Similar to the theme of morality, O’Brien discusses storytelling and memory in the chapter “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong.” Rat Kiley told the story of a man named Mark Foisse who flew his girl, Mary Anne, to visit him in Vietnam. The

He considered speaking with his father, but then realized it would be futile, as he could never fully understand him. To attempt to find relief, Bowker conjures an imaginary conversation with his father, and is awakened from his fantasy and realizes that he was alone. Later, Bowker committed suicide. The difference between Bowker’s and O’Brien’s outcome ultimately was the ability to share, or not to share their experiences. Dichotomies illustrate the extremities of war and how the soldiers are

The men who were in Tim O’Brien’s platoon caught on quickly, if they talked about everything that was going on as if it was only a story, their lives became a little easier. It became easier even for the men who didn’t practically like the guy who died. In the war it wasn’t about liking one another, that didn’t matter, what mattered to them was expressing their grief without showing it. “In any case, it’s easy to get sentimental about the dead, and to guard against it” (82). Being able to guard against their grief was something that was hard for many. No matter how many stories they told, there was still a sadness that some of them never could get over. The death of Kiowa was one of those impossible to get over. His death impacted everyone in the platoon. Even though Kiowa was just their guide, they treated him like he was a part of their family of misfits. Every man in the platoon had a story for Kiowa. There was some who told people stories that had Kiowa never dying, there were two however where his death left such a huge impact on them. All they

Towards the end of the chapter, thoughts race through his mind about what kind of life he has just put to and end, Kiowa, a fellow soldier, continues trying to communicate with him. Kiowa’s attempts, however, are so short far apart that they almost become easy to forget while reading the long paragraphs of description between them. In addition to this, O’Brien does not react to him at all: “‘you okay?’ Kiowa said. The corpse lay almost entirely in shade” (123). Every time Kiowa interjects, O’Brien just launches directly back into his own thoughts, creating disconnect between Kiowa and the rest of the story. This pattern continues, always reintroducing Kiowa every time he speaks, until almost the end of the chapter: “Then he said, ‘Man, I’m sorry.’ Then later he said, ‘why not talk about it?’ Then he said, ‘Come on, man, talk.’ [The man I killed] was a slim, dead, almost dainty young man of about twenty” (124). The repetition of “then he said” and its variations even right next to each other provides an insight into how O’Brien sees the whole experience. He sees that Kiowa is there, sure, but it’s nothing more than an outlying, forgettable detail hidden behind his thoughts of the man he has killed. No matter how many times Kiowa talks to him, he always goes back to his thoughts of guilt

Then in the chapter “In the Field” O’Brien uses the theme shame and guilt because of Kiowa’s death. Lieutenant Jimmy blamed himself for Kiowa’s death because he sent the whole team that way into the “mud pit” to hide out. Norman Bowker, Kiowa’s best friend feels worse about the incident that happened. He couldn’t save him from getting sucked under the mud. The young soldier feels even worse because he got Kiowa killed for turning on the flashlight, “Like murder, the boy thought. The flashlight made it all happen”(O’Brien 163). The boy went to show Kiowa a picture and the flashlight was a target and the land around them exploded. the young boy feels really guilty for what he has done.

Writing stories helped O'Brien during the war. They helped him get through the painful and unknown experience that he was not used to before the war. O'Brien says during the war, he picked up multiple bodies and “lifted and dumped [them] into a truck”, but with the stories he made “ the dead sometimes smile

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