The Things They Carried Characters

Jimmy Cross

carries pictures of martha. and her white pebble. Lieutenant of Alpha company; guilty because preoccupation with Martha leads to the deaths of Ted Lavender and Kiowa. Unsure of leadership and hates self for only following orders and not having better instincts

Henry Dobbins

carried extra rations.insecticide.

"gentle giant", machine gunner (because he's big). wears the pantyhose around his neck for good luck, even when his girlfriend breaks up with him. he never gets hurt. identifies with the locals. called 'soldier jesus' by the monks. threatens azar when he mocks the dancing girl

Dave Jensen

carries toothbursh, floss, soap. a rabbit's foot.

fight over the jackknife. injuring Lee Strunk makes him feel paranoid and guilty, so he breaks his own nose with the butt of the gun to settle the tension. He and Strunk make the pact that if one is injured, the other will kill him. But then Strunk's leg is blown off and he begs not to die. He is relieved to hear that Strunk died on his own in the chopper.

Lee Strunk

carried a slingshot. "weapon of last resort"

The soldier that Dave Jensen fights with before Jensen breaks his own nose. He and Jensen make a death pact, but when he gets his leg blown off, he begs Jensen not to kill him.

Ted Lavender

The soldier that dies in the first chapter after going to the bathroom. He constantly takes tranquilizers to calm himself.

Mitchell Sanders

carried brass knuckles. and the heavy radio.

the guy that sent his lice to the draft board; he refuses to help O'brien get revenge on Jorgenson (and tells him that the new medic is part of the group now). he says not to blame Rat Kiley after he shoots himself in the foot. He refuses to forgive Cross for camping them in a poop field. he should have known better. he is always trying to find a moral in the story. He's the RTO - radio telephone operator. carries condoms and starched fatigues. tells the story about the platoon that hears voices. always looking for the moral of a story.

Kiowa

he carried a bible. devout Buddhist. he carried a hunting hatchet and distrust of the white man. he's introspective, honest, practical. carries moccasins. he dies in the poop field.

Norman Bowker

he carried a diary. the thumb that sanders cut off. shows damage of war, even years after. he's quiet during war, but blames self for Kiowa's death. drives around the seven mile lake loop. ends up killing himself.

Rat Kiley

he carried a diary. brandy, and m&m's candy.

the medic. carried 20 lbs of medical supplies. helps tim when he is shot the first time. defends his friend, Lemon. can't deal with the stresses of war and shoots self in the foot so can be evac-ed to japan.

he loves to tell stories and make things up. tells the story about mary anne. likes to stretch the truth. shoots the baby water buffalo after curt lemon dies.

Curt Lemon

childish, careless. killed when he stips on a rigged mortar round while playing a game with a grenade with rat kiley. the narrator doesn't like him, after 'the dentist'. he seems immature and irrational.

Tim O'Brien

the narrator. protagonist. a pacifist. decides that feeling of obligation to own family and country is stronger than obligations of his own politics. uses storytelling to get over war atrocities. we learn about him as a boy ("timmy") and how he uses stories to cope with the loss of his first love, 9-year old Linda.

Bobby Jorgenson

The medic that replaces Rat Kiley and fails to help Tim adequately when he is shot the second time. He freezes up and almost lets Tim die of shock. Tim resents him a lot for this. Tim plans to get revenge, but he catches on and forgives him anyway.

Linda

9 year old timmy's first love. she dies of a brain tumor. he keeps her alive thgough storytelling

Kathleen

Tim's daughter. he relates the storoy of the man he killed to her. she is a symbol of a naive outsider. tell him he should stop telling war stories and tell stories instead about ponies.

Mary Anne Bell

Mark Fossie's girlfriend that comes to Vietnam. She starts out very civilized, but slowly becomes more and more in sync with the landscape. she respects death and the vietnamese and leaves Fossie for the greenies. the legend goes that she lives in the jungle, with a necklace of tongues...

Eddie Diamond

the man who gave Fossie the idea to bring Mary Anne to Vietnam. a high ranking officer that used to work with rat kiley.

Elroy Berdahl

the owner of the Tip Top Lodge near the canadian border. he keeps tim for a week, and acts as a father figure to tim. they spend 6 quiet days together. he doesn't pry. he offers tim money and the chance to escape to canada, both of which tim declines.

Martha

Lieutenant Cross' obsession. she does not love him back but sends him mail anyways. she is a college student and a poet.

themes

war, love, death, storytelling, fear, memory, guilt, limitations.

Azar

an unsympathetic solider that is mean-spirited. he laughs at the girl dancing. makes fun of corpses of vietnamese and other soldiers. agrees to help tim get back at jorgensen.

Mark Fossie

The guy that brings his girlfriend to vietnam. a medic in rat kiley's previous assignment. he realizes that his girlfriend would rather be in the ambush than with him planning a wedding.