Things they Carried "Man I Killed" Chapter Analysis

In the chapter, “The Man I Killed”, Tim O’Brien narrates a story of his confession. His use of third person prompts the readers to make inferences on how O’Brien is truly feeling. As the guilt of killing the young vietnamese soldier sets in, O’Brien thoughts and emotions split apart into two paths. One part of his mind is telling him that he had no other choice than to kill him because it is a war, and the other part is telling him that he had killed a young innocent man who could have become a scholar that one day could have married his school lover. O’Brien entangles himself in a series of differing emotions which causes him to break down and lose sight of hope. Moreover O’Brien’s guilt grew larger as he began imagining the man’s life because he saw they shared similarities. Both assumed their duties to fight in the war to please the family and were too cowardly to deviate from what was considered “right”.

Throughout this chapter Kiowa tries to comfort O’Brien by talking to him; however, it does not work and O’brien continues to feel bad about the young enemy soldier.  On page 120 Kiowa even asked if O’Brien wanted to trade place with him but the whole time O’brien just stood there speechless and stared at the dead body. Kiowa is trying to get O’Brien to spill what’s on his mind and just let it all out but O’brien is refusing to do so. Here, the ineffective remarks and reconsolidation of O’Brien’s company portrays the idea that nothing can erase the fine line between life and death. Azar’s emotionless comments of congratulatory could no longer be ignored by the painful guilt.

O’Brien illustrates the complexity and obscurity of Vietnam through the use of juxtapositioning explicit references to beauty and horror. The mentioning of the presence of the butterfly and the tiny blue flowers presents the suddenness of death in comparison to the purity of nature. Even though the death of the young boy left a shadow of silence and gore, the portrayal of the pristine features of the environment symbolizes the idea that life goes on despite tragedies in our lives. The shock and silence laid upon O’Brien demonstrates how the details of gore is taken into perspective and how it could potentially impact him in his later years.