143) Norman Bowker is a disillusioned person because he feels that his service in the war has been meaningless. The quote speaks a lot about what he feels about the people of his town. He has just returned from his tour of duty in Vietnam where he witnessed a lot of bloodshed and violence, which has left deep wounds in his soul. Bowker has gone through a lot of hardship in the battlefront where he has lost his best friend Kiowa to a mortar attack. The townspeople cannot do anything for him because they don't have the memories of the war he has. They have not experienced what he has seen out there. He feels tortured inside because he is unable to share the trauma of his war experience with anyone. At the same time it's impossible for him to erase the horrifying memories on the battlefront because it's very hard. He feels that they all have duped into going to the war by the people of his town and ordinary citizens in the United States who value medals more than anything else. They do not care about what happens across enemy lines as long as there are some medals involved. His bitterness is quite apparent with the quote he makes above. He wishes they understood how tough it was for him to loose his comrades in battle.

In the Field

He'd lost Kiowa and his weapon and his flashlight and his girlfriend's picture. He remembered this. He remembered wondering if he could lose himself." (O'Brien, Chapter 17, pg. 171)

Kiowa plays an important role in unleashing the emotions of Lieutenant Cross and an unnamed soldier. Kiowa is hit by enemy fire after the unnamed soldier uses a flashlight to show him a picture of his ex-girlfriend. This brings out a lot of guilt in him as he believes that Kiowa would still be alive had he not used his flashlight to alert the enemy. it's apparent that he blames his people for letting this tragedy happen. He feels that he is too attached to his memories of people...

The memories of people back home are so distracting that it has caused them to stop thinking properly. The soldiers are supposed to behave like warriors but then their attachment to pictures and tokens have distracted them from the reality of the war. These people have a powerful hold over there through the items, which remind the soldiers of them all the time. Perhaps this is why Lieutenant Cross burns all his pictures of his sweetheart back home so that he can focus on the war and not let anything distract him. The unnamed soldier has lost four everything, which is important for him. He has lost his friend, his weapon, his flashlight and most importantly the picture of his ex-girlfriend. He realizes that even though it is distracting for him to focus on memories of home and how much he hates them for inciting such memories he still needs them to get through the horrors of this war.
Conclusion

The Things They Carried" is a good example of the process of writing which showcases it as a literary work. Tim O'Brien uses his imagination and memory and merges them both into a great piece of literary fiction. it's a good way of conveying the trials and terror of war. It also shows us the human side of the war, which is experienced by these soldiers.

This is one reason why Philip Beidler feels that "The form" of the Things They Carried thus becomes "its content" the medium becomes the message. (Beidler, Philip. D. American Literature and the Experience of Vietnam., P.172, Athens: U. Of Georgia P, 1982).

Bibliography

1. Beidler, Philip D. American Literature and the Experience of Vietnam.

Athens: U. Of Georgia P, 1982.

2. Lyons, Gene. "No More Bugles, No More Drums." Entertainment Weekly 23 Feb.

1990: 50-52.

3. O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Houghton, 1990.