The Things They Carried

The Things They Carried is a nice return to O'Brien's style of writing. He has a very good way of relating feeling towards the reader and his use of humor is excellent. I enjoyed the passage where one of the soldiers was talking to Kiowa the indian and Kiowa kept talking. The soldier told him to shut up and finally Kiowa stopped talking. Shortly after the soldier told Kiowa the worst thing in the world is a silent Indian. Lavender the guy who took tranquilizers to calm himself down was an interesting. Lt. Cross felt really guilty for his death because he was always thinking about Martha. It seems like everyone in the platoon has a really individual personality and comes from a different background. O'Brien really writes some great passages. At one point the platoon is helped through a minefield by an old man who can really feel the ground beneath him with his bare feet. Rat Kiley comes up with a little rhyme "Step out of line, hit a mine, follow the dink, your in the pink." The old man spends hours helping them get through these mine fields and then he is crying as he leaves them and he says "Follow dink, you go pink." to each of the soldiers. I thought that was a really funny part. When O'Brien talks about his trip to the Tip Top Lodge you get a really good sense of what it might have felt like for a young boy getting drafted into the war. His anxiety and indecision is very well explained by O'Brien and the old man at the Tip Top Lodge reminds all of us of that sagacious older figure in our lives who knows better.