How Are The Things They Carried Tangible Or Intangible

The novel The Things They Carried was set during the Vietnam War, describing fiction stories that were based off of true experiences. The chapter called “The Things They Carried” described the many things the soldiers had with them, and throughout the story it showed how these things affected their lives. Many of the things that the soldiers had with them were things that they needed, like ponchos, guns, matches and more. “Together these items weighed between 12 and 18 pounds,”(2). They may have had lots of necessities, but that didn’t stop them from bringing the things that meant the most to them. How do these things show who they are, and how do they change them throughout the book, whether tangible or intangible?
In the novel Rat Kiley was the medic who was there to help the wounded when they needed them. When Tim O’Brien was shot the first time, Kiley was there immediately to

He was one of the ones to frown on the violence. “‘You did a good thing today,’ he said. ‘That shaking hands crap, it isn’t decent.’” said Kiowa to Tim when he refused to shake hands with a dead man that Dave Jensen insisted he do (215). He knew it was needed but he also knew when it was too excessive. “Kiowa, a devout baptist, carried an illustrated New Testament that had been presented to him by his father” (3). He also brought along his favorite pair of moccasins for comfort, and his grandfather’s hatchet . Kiowa was a Native American, and one of the main things he carried was distrust of white men. Throughout the book you can see the bond between the men grow stronger as he starts to realize that these men were his brothers. When Kiowa died, Tim O’Brien returned his moccasins to the place where he died, years later. Tim felt as though Kiowa carried them throughout the war, and that he should still carry them now. O’Brien returned them to the area where he died, and thought of how that article of clothing was a part of