The Things They Carried Stories 12 - 17

The Man I Killed

Tim describes the man he had killed. The man’s lower jaw was in his throat, his upper lip and teeth were gone, and he had a star-shaped hole where one of his eyes had been. Tim stared at the man he had killed and imagined that the spindly man had grown up hearing of heroes who had fought against invaders. The man probably never wanted to be a fighter but wished to be a teacher. He was forced to be a soldier, and now he was dead. Azar, a mean-spirited soldier from their company, said some disturbing things about the dead man. Kiowa sent Azar away and tried to get Tim to stop staring. He reassured Tim that it had been a good kill. The dead man had been armed, and if Tim hadn’t killed him then one of the other men in the company would have done it. He gave Tim a few final moments to stare at the dead man and then covered it up. Kiowa told Tim that speaking would help him, but Tim could not stop thinking about the dead man’s wounds. 

Ambush

Tim’s daughter asks him if he’s ever killed anyone, and he tells her that he hasn’t. He doesn’t wish to lie to her and hopes that one day he would tell her the truth.

The company moved into an ambush site in the dead of night next to a village. They take turns at surveilling the trail in two-man teams, and Tim partners with Kiowa. They sleep in shifts of two hours. Tim wakes up completely disoriented and begins his watch. He observes a man walking with a weapon and ammo belt along the trail they were stationed to watch. Tim had begun to throw the grenade even before he had fully decided he was going to be doing it. He threw the grenade, and the man heard it and began running. The grenade made a popping sound, and the man was thrown into the air. He landed right in the middle of the trail. Tim had killed him without thinking whether he was truly his enemy or not. On some days, Tim still blames himself for the death, and on other days, he forgives himself. 

Style

The company comes upon a small village that was still burning. They find a young girl dancing by herself in the burning village. She has a dreamy look on her face and ignores them all even as they go into her house and retrieve her burned family. The Company leaves the village, and the girl continues to dance. Azar mocks the girl by dancing once they have set up camp, but Dobbins picks him and threatens to throw him into a well unless he dances well.

Speaking of Courage

Norman Bowker drives around the lake in his hometown on a Sunday afternoon. He had taken such trips before the war as well, but back then he had been accompanied by his best friend and his girlfriend. His best friend was dead now, drowned in the same lake that he was now driving around. His girlfriend was now married, and he fantasized about taking her out for a casual chat one of these days. He imagined having a conversation with his father about the time he had nearly won the Silver Star. He thought of the seven other medals he had earned, but he had failed to earn the Silver Star because he had failed to be brave on that one occasion. He imagines telling the story.

He believes he would begin by describing the condition of the land around the Song Tra Bong River during the monsoon. The land around the river turns into soup, almost like quicksand. The Alpha Company came down on a field during the monsoon near the river. As soon as they landed, a couple of women from the nearby village came over to warn them about the field, but Lieutenant Cross would have none of it. They camp out on the field while being hammered by the rain, and the men begin to slowly realize that they are camping out on a field of excrement. The villagers had been dumping their waste in the field for a long time, and during the night, the field began to turn into soup. The company came under mortar fire then, and they had no choice but to sit still in the field of exploding shrapnel and shit. Norman Bowker heard someone screaming and crawled over to investigate. He found that Kiowa was being sucked into the muck, and he grabbed onto his disappearing foot. Norman tried to pull Kiowa out on his own, but he felt himself going under the muck as well. He finally had to let Kiowa’s leg go and save himself.

He keeps driving around the lake, stops by a fast food place, and refuses to speak with the attendant who speaks to him through an intercom. As the sun sets and the fireworks for the fourth of July begin, Norman Bowker wades into the lake with his clothes and submerges his face into the water.

Notes

Tim explains that “Speaking of Courage” was inspired by a letter he had received from Norman Bowker in 1975. The long letter spoke of the difficulties Norman was having at transitioning to civilian life, his inability to hold down a job, and his belief that he had died in Vietnam. Norman had hung himself three years after writing that letter. Tim thinks back on his transition after the war, he reflects that telling stories allowed him to have an easier time of it. Telling stories allowed him to look at his history from a depersonalized perspective. He had written Speaking Of Courage as a chapter in a book, and he had sent it to Norman Bowker before his death. Norman had liked the story but he had protested at the exclusion of crucial details such as Kiowa’s death, the shit, and several other things.

Tim removed the story from the novel and redrafted it as a stand-alone short story. He also included all the details that Norman had wished he had incorporated into his first story. He hopes that Norman would be satisfied with this new version of his account. 

In The Field

The morning after Kiowa’s death, soldiers of the Alpha Company wade their way through the field of muck searching for Kiowa’s body. Azar makes some funny remarks about Kiowa dying by drowning in shit, but Norman Bowker rebukes him and asks him to be more respectful. The Lieutenant, Jimmy Cross stands apart from the soldiers and mentally composes the letter he would send to Kiowa’s father. Jimmy felt responsible for Kiowa’s death, although the coordinates for the camp had been sent to him by his seniors, he felt that he should have protested. He resolves to confess his negligence to Kiowa’s father in his letter. Jimmy Cross comes across a young soldier who is looking for a photograph in the mud. The young soldier thinks about how he had used a flashlight last night to show Kiowa the photograph of his girlfriend. The field had exploded with mortar fire seconds after he had used the flashlight. He wanted to confess his negligence to the lieutenant.

The soldiers find Kiowa’s body in the mud and try to extract him. They are unable to manage it on their own, so several others come in to help them, and together they dig Kiowa out of the muck with their tools. They call a helicopter and his corpse is carried away from the battlefield. 

Analysis

In The Man I Killed, the narrator describes the paralysis he experiences after killing the Vietnamese soldier. Kiowa, Tim’s close friend, attempts to help Tim escape from the paralysis by getting him to talk. Kiowa’s encouragement for speaking becomes an encouragement for Tim’s writing. He reflects on his somewhat smooth transition to civilian life and concludes that it was made possible due to this storytelling. The theme of talking as a means of overcoming trauma is also explored in Speaking of Courage, Norman Bowker is unable to speak with someone about the blame he shoulders for Kiowa’s death. This inability to speak to someone about the incident eventually takes his life, as Norman hangs himself three years after writing to the narrator.

The title of the novel can be seen as a reference to not only the things the soldiers carried for war but rather what they carried after the war. The stories revolving around Kiowa’s death demonstrate that Jimmy Cross, Norman Bowker, and a young soldier of the Alpha Company all carry a sense of blame for Kiowa’s death. This diffused sense of guilt allows the reader to reflect that perhaps none of them were responsible for Kiowa’s death.