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The Things They Carried Ted Lavender Character Analysis

510 Words3 Pages

In the story, "The Things They Carried" a narrator describes the life of soldiers during the Vietnam War. The narrator lists what some of the soldiers carried during their experience in the war, emotional and tangible. Tim O'Brien presents the character of Ted Lavender, an obviously frightened soldier, in order to be a spokeperson to symbolize obvious stress within soldiers during their journey. He presents the character of Kiowa, a devoted Baptist, in order to represent how some of the soldiers cope with the exorbitant amount of stress. Tim O'Brien characterizes Ted Lavender as stressed and frightened in order to portray fright during the war within soldiers. Ted Lavender took extra precautions compared to the other soldiers. "Ted Lavender, who was scared, carried tranquilizers until he was shot..." (O'Brien 1). The author writes this about Ted to show the readers that he was scared and felt the need to carry tranquilizers in addition to his army equiptment. Ted also felt the need to take dope to …show more content…

Kiowa reveals how he is dependent on his faith to get him through tough events. "Kiowa, a devout Baptist, carried an illustrated New Testament that had been presented to him by his father, who taught Sunday School in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma" (O'Brien 2). Soldiers do not want to carry many extra objects because they already carry an extremely heavy load, so Kiowa really cares about his faith since he carries an illustrated New Testament.Kiowa really cares about his family, which partially portrays his faith as well. "A a hedge against bad times, however, Kiowa also carried his...grandfather's old hunting hatchet" (O'Brien 2). A large part of religion is family, and Kiowa kept his grandfather's hunting hatchet despite its age and the fact that it would take up precious space in his load. Kiowa's devotion to his religion kept him focused and

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Character Analysis Of Ted Lavender In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

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He does not carry heavy things as his peers. In Spring of April he was shot to death. In addition, again and again of Ted Lavender’s relates to the plot by implying that there are more deaths to come in the war. His death is repeated frequently in the book “ shot in the head” from page number two and on page number three “ Ted Lavender was shot”.

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Tim O'Brien because of his own experience in the war as a soldier depicts the Vietnamese war perfectly in his novel “The Things They Carried”. He's depiction is very rare and exceptional, for its feel and emotion that it delivers. Throughout his novel he lists all the different objects each of the soldier carries that characterizes the characters specifically, like Kiowa carrying the New Testament and Jimmy Cross carrying Marthas letters. But Tim suggests that the things they carried were far more than the objects they held literally while humping. “The things they carried were largely determined by necessity, they carried ghosts, they carried all they could bear and then some, including a silent awe for terrible power of the things they carried”

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In the Novel The Things They Carried, the author, Tim Obrien recalls multiple stories during one of the most devastating wars in United States history. Through storytelling, Obrien casts light upon the horrifying reality of the Vietnam war and the struggles that Obrien’s men encounter, as well as all the other soldiers. Obrien uses the novel to represent the paradox that war is both horrible and beautiful. Obrien displays this through Ted Lavenders death, Curt lemons death, and the killing of the baby water buffalo. Obrien portrays the paradox that war is both horrible and beautiful through the death of Ted Lavender.

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In the novel The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien expresses to the reader why the men went to the war and continued to fight it. In the first chapter, “The Things They Carried,” O’Brien states “It was not courage, exactly; the object was not valor. Rather they were too frightened to be cowards.” The soldiers went to war not because they were courageous and ready to fight, but because they felt the need to go. They were afraid and coped with their lack of courage by telling stories (to themselves or aloud) and applied humor to the situations they encountered.

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Henry Dobbins carried his girlfriend’s pantyhose around his neck for good luck. Kiowa carried his grandfather’s feathered hatchet and his grandmother’s distrust of the white man. Rat Kiley carried comic books and M&Ms. Norman Bowker carried the thumb of a VC corpse. Ted Lavender was carrying toilet paper and tranquilizers when he was shot and killed.

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They rolled him up in his poncho and took him to the patty and waited for the chopper to arrive and take Ted Lavender back to America. After the fact, they were constantly talking about how Ted fell to the ground. “Boom Down” is all they would say. Forcing the memory to repeat inside of Lieutenant Jimmy Cross’s

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613 Words | 3 Pages

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