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In Tim O’Brien’s novel The Things They Carried, the war in Vietnam is described as treacherous, swampy, filthy and filled with death. The war comes with violence and killing which leads many of the characters, such as Rat Kiley, losing bits of their humanity. In the story “How to Tell a True War Story”, there are instances of complete loss of control, emphasizing the mental toll the war has on soldiers. O’Brien uses symbolism of animals and nature, visual imagery of the horrors of war, and the motifs of childlike behavior to further show that war destroys innocence and that the physical state of survival is not the real fight.
The real fight is keeping their humanity.
Tim O’Brien symbolizes a baby water buffalo who is brutalized, to demonstrate a loss of innocence for the soldiers and how their humanity is running thin, exemplified by Rat Kiley. Rat Kiley is or was the kind of guy to enjoy life, goof off and laugh.
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Kiley’s best friend dies, explodes, his life suddenly ends in front of his eyes. Unable to cope with his loss, he turns to the torture of the buffalo to ease his pain. O’Brien exhibits Kiley's loss of himself through the tortured water buffalo after the death of his friend: “He stepped back and shot it through the right front knee... shot the mouth away... pupils shiny black and dumb” (O’Brien 77). The water buffalo symbolizes innocence, bits are taken from it, but it still stands.
Just like the soldiers who are in constant pain and have emotions being ripped apart, they continue. The leg being shot symbolizes how it cannot move and is stuck. The mouth is also a symbol of innocence because it implies that it can no longer “talk” and indicates a loss of communication. The soldiers are all in the same situation with how they are stuck in war and cannot find words to express themselves. Innocence is being lost, killing becomes easier, but they keep remembering and regretting. However, the water buffalo also symbolizes endurance. After all that it went through, the buffalo survived for well longer than expected: “It was still alive, though just barley, just in the eyes” (O’Brien 76). Through all the painful and deadly moments, the soldiers seem to grasp on to humanity and emotion. The eyes of the buffalo are alive and innocent, the eyes are the window to the soul. The soldiers are trying to keep their soul and humanity even if their physical state is lost.
In addition to using symbolism, O’Brien uses visual imagery of traumatic events during war to describe how treacherous the conditions are and how holding on to humanity is the real struggle. Rat Kiley and his best friend, Curt Lemon, have a terrible accident while they sing and dance in the depths of the jungle. Lemon steps on a hidden trap lying beneath the swampy lands and his body flies into a nearby tree. Curt Lemon is dead: “The parts were just hanging there, so Dave Jenson and I were ordered to shinny up and peel him off ... white bone ... gore was horrible, and stays with me” (O’Brien 79). The explosion demonstrates visual imagery of the loss of innocence. The gore involved in the deadly attacks expose the young men to unforgettable sites, which slowly tears away at their humanity. Kiley experiences firsthand the brutality of war and realizes that the days of laughing and running around were over. Not only is the image of peeling a body off a bloody tree branch horrendous, but the fact that other soldiers must clean it further demonstrates the disheartening tasks that they are expected to do at war. The image stays with O’Brien through his entire life and is traumatizing for anybody to have to witness. The explosion not only kills a friendly and cheerful human, but also blows away at the soldier's innocence. There is only so much the soldiers can bottle up before they start to feel nothing at all. And that is the hardest part for all of them because in that situation feeling nothing is less painful than having to feel the loss of a dear friend.
The motif of childlike behavior is also used by Tim O’Brien to convey that even during war, soldiers are still just young boys, and eventually have their child mind torn from them. The draft requires teens from all over the country to enter the trap of war, numerous amounts of them never even having the experience of holding a gun. In the chapter “How to Tell a True War Story”, Rat Kiley and Curt Lemon are two playful boys who in the midst of a dangerous hike start frolicking amongst each other as if the severity of war does not penetrate their childlike minds. The older, more experienced soldiers look at them as if they remember the times of their own innocence: “...Lemon and Rat Kiley started goofing. They didn’t understand about the spookiness. They were kids; they just didn’t know” (O’Brien 66). The motif of using words associated with youth implies the inexperience and foreignness with violence and death. Getting off task and being distracted is a child’s specialty, so by having Lemon and Kiley prance around it adds emphasis on how innocent their minds are. They use grenades to play simple games which adds irony because the teens are using weapons to add excitement to their methods of entertainment. The laughter is a motif within the childlike behaviors and uplifts the tone, however the happiness, the game and the careless acts are short lived. The innocent mindset gets Curt Lemon killed and quickly the childlike actions are halted. It becomes apparent to the teens that being themselves, with laughter and games, will get them killed. The moment instantly takes a chunk from their past routines filled with fun and giggles, away from them. Kiley has a huge shift from being the goofy guy with light and happiness into someone who tortured a water buffalo to death. The exposure to war completely converted teens into adults without the smooth transition into the cruel world.
Furthermore, Tim O’Brien uses techniques to embrace that war’s greatest battle is surviving through the mental stress and to keep one’s true self alive. Through symbolism of the baby water buffalo, it shows that humanity is lost with every act of violence. Kiley is an example where the once happy and goofy boy truly breaks down into a slush of anger and sadness. The dark visual imagery describes what the soldiers must endure and that any form of carelessness can lead to death; the youthful souls perish into an emotional blur and the fight for physical survival is pushed aside. The motif of childlike behavior encompasses the fact that before many soldiers are drafted to war, they are outgoing and young but after they come out emotionally scarred. The techniques allow for the awareness that the characters not only fought for their life but more importantly they fought for their souls.
Rat Kiley in Novel "The Things They Carried". (2021, Mar 19). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/rat-kiley-in-novel-the-things-they-carried-essay
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