Emotions In The Things They Carried

The War of Emotions

The emotion in the The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien emulate the literal and physical things the soldiers take with them. The tranquilizers, pantyhose, and water buffalo symbolize the anxiety, longing, and sometimes rage felt during the war, and reflect how traumatizing the experience is. The soldiers in the Vietnam War carried many physical items with them. Many of the things they carried were because of necessity. Some of these necessities were their steel helmets, camouflage jackets, standard weapons such as the M-16, small food rations, and green plastic ponchos. But, there were a handful of small items that the soldiers brought with them that were not based on necessity, these items were mainly carried because of superstition, remembrance, or fear. Ted

Rat Kiley was one of those who carried around the baggage that comes with heartbreak when his best friend, Curt Lemon, was killed. After Curt’s sudden passing, Rat needed to release his grief. Rat decided to surrender his emotions to a baby water buffalo. He first stroked the buffalo and tried to feed it, but then he started inflicting pain. Rat shot the baby water buffalo several times. The shooting was not to kill the buffalo but to hurt it. “The whole platoon stood there watching, feeling all kinds of things, but there wasn’t a great deal of pity for the baby water buffalo. Curt Lemon was dead. Rat Kiley had lost his best friend in the world” (75). Often during a war people lose it, the anxiety and frustration finally gets to them and they just need to explode. In Rat’s case he needed to explode a physical being. Rat Kiley needed to express the lost he felt when his best friend died. He needed to release the pain and rage he felt towards the war, and the best way to do that was to make the baby water buffalo suffer the way he felt he