Summary Of The Things They Carried 'By Tim O' Brien

The Things They Carried, was written by Tim O’Brien. Tim was part of the Vietnam war. In this novel, Tim describes all the horrible things that happened in the war. From describing what everyone carried, to watching friend die, Tim listed it all. Once, O’Brien received his draft notice, he became extremely scared. He knew he was not ready and probably would never be. During his time in college, O’Brien took a stand against war and now he is getting drafted into it. “After college, I began working at a meatpacking plant. There, I would cut the blood clots out of pigs’ throats.” That was how O’Brien decided to spend his summers. Before O’Brien decided to go fight in a war he did not even agree with, he made a decision to run away from his hometown. O’Brien sought an opportunity to run away to Canada and almost took it. Knowing he was on the border to Canada, he just sat in a boat and cried. He knew he had to fight even if he did not want to, so he accepted the challenge and went to go fight. Kiowa, a …show more content…
He died by being sunk under a field of sewage muck. With one friend having a tight grip on his boot, to the sewage pulling Kiowa under. There was no saving him, or was there? Bowker, was one of Kiowa’s friends during the war that tried to save him. Norman Bowker was the best friend that grabbed hold of Kiowa’s boot as he was getting pulled under. Bowker played a very important role in Kiowa’s death. Jimmy Cross, the Lieutenant, was a man with a bad feeling in his gut. He knew as soon as Kiowa and Bowker got into the muck, something bad would happen. O’Brien also played an important role in Kiowa’s death because not only did he hear about his friend dying, he had to write it down in words. O’Brien was the one with the most tragedy of Kiowa’s death because he not only had to experience it, but go back in his memory and publish it to actually be real. All three men felt shame because they did not help Kiowa out enough. War was a scary