The Things They Carried Character Analysis of Kiowa

The Things They Carried Character Analysis of Kiowa 1 In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, Kiowa is a very interesting character to get to know and understand. From the start of the novel, the reader is able to get an idea of who he is through Tim O’Brien’s first description of him, as he is a devout Baptist that carries his father’s illustrated copy of the New Testament (3), his grandmother’s distrust of the white man as a hedge against bad times, his grandfather’s feathered hunting hatchet, and a pair of moccasins. From these things that Kiowa carries with him through the war, the reader is able to infer about his character in the rest of the novel. First, from the second thing that Kiowa carries with him, which is his grandmother’s distrust of the white man, the reader can tell that Tim O’Brien is being sarcastic about Kiowa reading the New Testament and that instead, he values his grandmother and her beliefs. Kiowa also carries his grandfather’s feathered hunting hatchet, which depicts his Native American background, as the hatchet is feathered. In addition to this, the reader can infer Kiowa’s Native American background because of his name as well as the last thing he carries with him, which is a pair of moccasins. From these few things that Kiowa carries with him during the war, Tim O’Brien creates an image of Kiowa for the reader that we can refer back to as the character is given more depth as more stories from war are told. While this initial description of Kiowa gives the reader somewhat of an idea of who Kiowa is, it does not replace what the reader will learn about Kiowa further into the novel. For example, Kiowa’s character first develops when he teaches Rat Kiley and Dave Jensen the rain dance. In this part of the novel, the reader is shown how Kiowa has a sense of humor as he tricks his buddies into doing a rain dance because they believe him since he’s Native American and think it will really work. More than just having a sense of humor though, Kiowa is shown as the soldier in the troop to be mentally strong. No matter what the situation, it seems that Kiowa is 2 able to put aside his emotions in order to say something that can help console others around him. For example, when a hand grenade is thrown on a red clay trail outside the village of My Khe and a young man of about twenty is killed, Kiowa is the one to say to Tim, “What else could you do? Right? Talk to me.” (37) Any of the other men that were there must have had their own separate reaction to seeing that man get killed, and the same goes for Kiowa, except that he puts his reaction and emotions aside in order to say that it’s okay, there’s nothing else that could be done, and to talk it out and then shake it off. This is Kiowa’s way of being mentally strong individually as well as for the group. When the man on the trail is killed by Tim, Kiowa is right there by Tim’s side talking him through it. In a moment like that, Tim is in complete shock and needs to be consoled. Kiowa is there for him and he is strong. It would be difficult if Tim was alone with Azar, as Azar is there praising the kill and talking about killing like it’s completely normal and not an emotional thing at all. However, Kiowa is there and he says to Tim, “No sweat, man. What else could you do?” (126) Again, Kiowa is someone that ends up being strong for the people around him. He is able to lift them up with his tricks like when he made Rat and Jensen do a rain dance, and he is able to lift them up during tough times by keeping their moral light and telling them, “What else could you do?” By saying this to his fellow soldiers, Kiowa is able to remind them of the fact that they didn’t have any choice when they were getting into this and they still don’t. It was not their decision or intent to kill any of the people that they are, and so they shouldn’t have to keep staring and feeling so guilty when there’s nothing else they could do. What’s ironic about Kiowa in this novel is that he is the one helping his fellow soldiers mentally, but then his life is simply taken by the war when he tragically sinks into the field of 3 waste and Norman Bowker is unable to save him. While Norman feels the guilt for Kiowa, so do many of the other soldiers. They are all left to feel the emptiness when Kiowa is gone. His death just goes to show exactly what Kiowa was trying to help his buddies feel better about, except this time, it’s more personal than ever. Any time someone was killed in the war, Kiowa was the one to let the team know that there wasn’t anything else they could do. This time, he is the one killed in the war. He is the one they all need to get over, but it’s not so easy this time because it’s someone really important to them. All the times when someone from the other side is killed, it still hurts for the soldiers, but not as bad as someone from their own side is killed. Not only does Kiowa’s death depict his role in the Alpha Company, but it depicts how easily lives are taken in the war. When Kiowa was consoling Tim about the stranger young man he killed in the village of My Khe, it was one of many, of course. Similarly, Kiowa’s death is one of many. Each of the lives that ended during the war ended differently, and because it was during the war, they also ended suddenly and tragically. Kiowa’s character reveals the strong mentality that people in a war must have. He is someone that the Alpha Company depended on whether they knew it or not. For them, he was someone who could rise above the emotions that overtook some people in the war and be supportive to them. Kiowa put others before himself and made sure his people were not too caught up with the sentiments of war, because he knew that there was nothing else they could do.