“The Things They Carried” is a novel about war. Their are very many themes in the book, but the main I want to talk about guilt and blame. This theme connects a lot to death in the story. Many people die throughout the story and people in the unit feel guilty about it or believe they should take blame for it. I will explain why they feel this way. Ted Lavender is a character in the book who is a soldier. He is one of the main soldiers, he is a scared person in the war. He would carry with him tranquilizers with him until he was shot in the head outside the village of Than Khe in April. Kiowa who was a very important part of the unit, is a emotionless person but when Ted dies, it hits him. Kiowa described his death as "There was no twitching or flopping. Kiowa, who saw it happen, said it was like watching a rock fall, or a big sandbag or something -- just boom, then down -- not like in the movies where the dead guy rolls around and does fancy spins and goes ass over teakettle -- not like that, Kiowa said, the poor bastard just flat-f*** fell. Boom. Down." Ted’s death did not impact the rest of the unit like it did to Kiowa, Kiowa felt gulty for it and blamed himself for …show more content…
Everyone really liked Curt and of course everyone had his back since he had their back. Curt died when him and Rat Kiley were playing a game they had invented and Curt stepped on a landmine. The death was described as “Sharp gray eyes, lean and narrow-waisted, and when he died it was almost beautiful, the way the sunlight came around him and lifted him up and sucked him high into a tree full of moss and vines and white blossoms,” (O’Brien, 67). Curt dying really affected Rat because he was one the invented the game and if he would have gave Curt a good throw then Curt would not have had to step out of the way and would have not stepped on the landmine. Rat blames himself for the death and takes the guilt for