Good Form, Field Trip, Night Life

Pages:179-180, 181-188, 219-224

Group #: 6
Group members: Ian, Art, Samantha

The Things They Carried

Tim OBrien

Good Form- Tim OBrien is reecting on his time

as a soldier and talking about the happening-truths

and story-truths of his tales of war. The happening-
truth was that he saw many dead bodies as a soldier but
he was too young and afraid to look but still feels the
guilt of just being there. The story-truth is that he is
looking at a man of about 20, laying on a red-clay trail in
My Khe with one eye shut, the other eye in a star shaped
hole, and that he (Tim OBrien) killed him. This whole
story is about the actual truth of what happens in war
and the story truths, which bring the feeling of the
soldiers to the forefront and give you an idea of the
mental struggle they have with themselves as they travel
through unknown lands for their country.

Field Trip- OBrien and his daughter Kathleen visit

the site where Kiowa died during the war and OBrien
pays his respects. He remembers it dierently from
when he was last there, it is now very peaceful and all
the reminders of the war have been swallowed by the
ground. The ground swallowed his best friend, his pride,
his belief in himself as a man of courage and dignity.
This eld had caused him so much grief and turned him
into a person he no longer recognized. Coming back and
seeing it so peacefully caused OBrien to be a little at
peace but also kind of irked. He then took a sack lled
with Kiowas moccasins, walked into the knee deep
water and began wading into the deeper parts where it
came to midchest and put the moccasins in the muddy
water, roughly where Kiowa was found. This almost
caused OBrien to come out of a dream and close this
chapter of his life, thus entering a new one.

Night Life- Night Life a story about the demons that

Vietnam could cause for soldiers and it specically followed

Rat Kiley. The platoon had to move only at night as a
precaution against being attacked by a huge new division of
fresh NVA troops and Russian tanks loaded with artillery
that had been rumored about. The men would sleep away
the day hours and then try and move through the forests at
night. At night, it was the purest black you could imagine,
the type of black that made your eyes ache and you couldnt
distinguish when you were blinking from when your eyes
were open. After a little while, your nerves would go, then
youd become jumpy and paranoid. Some men found ways to
cope with it but Rat Kiley just lost it. At rst he became very
introverted, not talking to anybody for ve or six days, and
then it ipped. He wouldnt stop talking and he was talking
about weird things like killer bugs. He thought these bugs
had a vendetta against him in particular and that theyd
whisper his name at night. Hed claw at his own skin and
make big scabs and then rip o the scabs leaving huge open
sores on his body. One day he nally broke down to Mitchell
Sanders, telling him that at night he sees images of his own
body, chunks of him being eat by bugs and mongooses or
hed see his fellow troops heads and wonder how much they
weighed and what it would be like to have to put their head
in a chopper. The next morning, he doped himself up and
shot himself in the foot. Nobody blamed him because he just
wasnt himself and this way hed be able to rest in a hospital
in Japan. Lieutenant Cross vouched for him that it was an
accident and the men carried on with there Night Life.

Tim OBrien- hes the narrator, in the vignettes

Good Form and Field Trip he is reecting on his
experiences in the war twenty years later when
hes 43. He seems hurt, like the war changed
him.
Kathleen- OBriens daughter wh0 comes with
him for a trip to Vietnam where they visit many
of the historical sights of the war and some
personal sights for OBrien
Rat Kiley- He was a medic in OBriens platoon.
The night searches that they went on caused him
to lose it and he became paranoid and saw
dierent gory images and eventually lost it and
shot himself in the foot to be removed from
combat.

Good Form-This vignette took place on

a red clay trail near the village of My Khe
where Tim OBrien reects on the truths of
war.

Field Trip- This vignette takes place in

Vietnam about twenty years after the war in

the site where Kiowa was died. The eld was
at and grassy with a wide blue sky and
yellow butteries. The eld dipped into a
marshland along a small owing river. The
muddy water started at about 8 inches deep
and reached the knees at its highest point.

Night Life- Night Life takes place in the

jungles of Vietnam and the vignette does

a good job of explaining the noises and
lack of light that can make a man go
crazy. OBrien describes the dark as the
purest dark you could ever imagine, the
kind of clock-stopping black that God
must have had in mind when he sat down
to invent blackness. It made your eyeballs
ache. Around midnight, the countryside
came alive with a sort of humming that
you couldnt quite distinguish but it was
just constantly there.

Good Form- OBrien uses some imagery

when describing the setting of the vignette while

he talks about the red clay trail and the dead
man with a star shaped hole where an eye
should be and how the mans jaw was practically
in his throat.

Field Trip- Imagery is used again when

describing the eld that OBrien and his

daughter Kathleen visited in order to pay his
nal respects to Kiowa. Kiowas moccasins were
used as a symbol of loss and when OBrien
returned them to Kiowas resting place, a weight
was lifted and OBrien felt as if he was opening a
new chapter in his life. There was also a lot more
dialogue in this vignette than in some of the
others that we read.

Night Life- Night Life used more literary

elements than any of the other vignettes.

Personication was used when Rat Kiley said
that the bugs were actually whispering to him
and talking to him. Imagery was used
extensively to describe the pitch black that the
troops encountered during their night patrols .
Suspense was also used because Kiley was
talking about all of the demons that were kind
of haunting him and this went on for a while,
causing you to wonder about what Rat Kiley
could possibly do next to get himself out of his
current situation.

Good Form- The Things They Carried is

obviously about war but the theme of this

vignette is war. When OBrien looks back on his
experiences, his thoughts seem to criticize the
war and kind of portray war as a curse for men.

Field Trip- The theme of this vignette could

be brotherhood. Twenty years after the war,

OBrien returns to the spot where his friend
Kiowa was killed and he remembers the exact
spot where Kiowa went under. The fact that he
kept Kiowas moccasins with him for the entire
war and for twenty years after the war and then
returned them to Kiowas nal resting place
shows how close that the troops became and
how strong the bonds between them were.

Night Life- The theme of this vignette to me

is that everybody is human. When we look at

soldiers, they seem like the physically and
mentally strongest people but the things that
they see in war zones and what they see happen
to their best friends can cause them to become
distraught or angered just as easily as it could to
one of us. You have to remember that a lot of
these soldiers are teenagers and as much as
they think they are, theyre not ready to be
going into a foreign country killing people and
watching many of their closest friends being
killed or hurt. Night Life shows just how
quickly that a soldier can go from perfectly ne
to having scary visions or hallucinations
because of something as simple as the dark.

Good Form-The purpose of this vignette is to

give you a look into OBriens mind about some of the

true and made up parts of the book. Some of the made
up stu or stories are because OBrien is too
embarrassed with his lack of pride or courage in times of
war that he wants to change the story around a little to
almost make him feel better about it. He wants to tell
you why story-truth is sometimes truer than the
happening-truth is.

Field Trip- Field Trips purpose was to give you an
inside look into the relationships between the soldiers
and the weight that the death of a friend and fellow
soldier caused. When OBrien returned his moccasins
twenty years later to the exact spot where his best friend
Kiowa died, he said that he had nally come out of the
water with Kiowa and had opened a new door in his life.
This removal of the weight of Kiowas death shows just
how close that the soldiers became and that the death of
one resonated through all the others who survived.

Night Life- Night Lifes purpose was to give you a

look into the psyche of a man who the war really

changed. Rat Kileys change in character just shows that
the men who go o to war are still human and are
susceptible to being scared by the horrors of war and
something as simple as the dark. The vivid details that
Kiley used to explain his fears of the dark and bugs
teach about how something as simple as the dark can
become frightening and cause you to become a little bit
crazy.

Kiowas Moccasins- Kiowas moccasins

were a symbol of loss to OBrien in the vignette

eld trip. He decided to hold onto them for
twenty years after the war and after visiting the
site of Kiowas death and leaving them there, a
weight was immediately lifted. He had gone
under with Kiowa when he died and now he had
nally emerged from the water as himself after
leaving the moccasins.

The Bugs- The bugs in Night Life were a

symbol of fear. They were constantly whispering

in Rat Kileys ear at night and he always thought
they were going to eat him and this really
caused him to become very paranoid and
eventually led to him shooting his own foot to
be removed from combat.

 Do you think that Tim OBrien actually killed the man in Good Form that he

said he did? Or do you think that he was just a bystander like he also
mentioned?

How did Kiowa die and what was OBriens immediate reaction after it

happened? Was it anger, sadness, did he go into a shell?

Did Rat Kiley ever fully recover mentally and physically from going through

the night patrols and seeing those horrifying mental images?

 In both Good Form and Field Trip, OBrien is looking back on his past

experiences as a grown man. They take place while he is 43, not while
he is a young man in the war.

Tim OBrien wasnt actually there with the platoon when Rat Kiley

shot himself, he received the facts from Mitchell Sanders.