Kiowa

            
            
            
             In the short story, "The Things They Carried" by Tim O"Brien, the author uses belongings to reflect his character's personalities and thoughts. The soldiers had the task of fighting two Vietnam wars, an internal war and an external war. Each soldier carried various weapons with which to fight both wars. Externally, Kiowa was fighting against the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong. Internally, Kiowa was fighting maturity and adulthood. Kiowa was desperately trying to remain young and remember home through a war that forced him to grow up. Kiowa's strong heritage and strong sense of duty to God helped him remain intact throughout the war.
             Kiowa carries many things with him through the war, whether these things are tangible or intangible they are all a necessity to surviving the war. Kiowa's old hunting hatchet, given to him by his grandfather, not only serves as a useful day to day tool but it also serves as a reminder to who he is and to where he come from and the family he left behind. Just like the hatchet, Kiowa's bible is also a multi functional weapon against the battle of homesickness, it serves as a reminder of his father, the familiar smell of the pages and the leather soothes him and gives him relief from the stresses of the war. The Bible also functions as a testament to Kiowa's faith and trust in God during his seemingly endless struggle for survival. As all the characters in the story Kiowa is doing his best to stay sane in an insane world of battle and death. I see Kiowa as a very family oriented individual with a strong sense of culture, heritage and faith. Kiowa stays very true to his heritage by even using moccasins in order to remain stealth, a long running Native American tradition. Among the many intangibles that burden Kiowa's shoulders is his instinctual distrust of white men that he inherited from his grandmother. It must have been hard for Kiowa to trust his fellow soldiers when he was raised with a natural distrust for white men.