In Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried”, soldiers are faced with challenges that change them throughout the story. O’Brien shows how the war can change the most stable and courageous men, but also help form unbreakable bonds that can lead to regret and guilt. Although the characters change a lot during the story, most of the emotions they feel occur in attempt to deal with the things they see during the war, especially when a friend dies or is badly wounded. Rat Kiley is very upset when his best friend Curt Lemon dies. He felt like Lemon wasn't ready for death and has a hard time dealing with the fact that he's gone. It began to eat him up so much inside, that he takes all his feelings out on a baby water buffalo. “The whole …show more content…
Some of the tightest bonds are created because the men go through the same horrors day after day. In order to survive the war the soldiers rely on each other by “[sharing] the weight of memory. [Taking] up what others [can’t] bear. Often [carrying] each other, the wounded or weak.” (The Things They Carried, 142). The men take care of each other and make sure no one is left behind, and they have to do this right off the bat so they're essentially forced into friendship but in the end this forms strong bonds. When Kiowa dies everyone blames themselves. A young soldier “picture[s] Kiowa’s face. They'd been close buddies, the tightest… He remembered switching on his flashlight. A stupid thing to do, but he did it anyway… and then the field exploded all around them… The flashlight made it happen. Dumb and dangerous. And as a result his friend Kiowa was dead.” (The Things They Carried, 163). The friendship between the soldier and Kiowa turned into an emotional attachment and the smallest mistake led him to blame himself for Kiowa's death. Kiowa was a great friend to more that just one person he tried to comfort the soldiers when they felt guilty for doing something they had to do. “[O’Brien] remember[ed] Kiowa trying to tell [him] that the man would've died anyway. He told [him] that it was a good kill, that [he] was a soldier and this was a war, that [he] should shape up and stop staring and ask [himself] what the dead man would've done if things were reversed” (The Things They Carried, 127). Kiowa knew what O'Brien did had to be done and through tough love he managed to comfort O'Brien a little