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- The parallels he draws to the man he killed and himself before the war show the guilt O'Brien feels for this man's death, because he sees himself in the young, dead man. The man was raised to believe he should be courageous and fight, just as O'Brien felt he was obligated to do.
www.litcharts.com/lit/the-things-they-carried/the-man-i-killedThe Things They Carried: The Man I Killed Summary & Analysis
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What does O'Brien think about the dead soldier?
What does O'Brien think about the man he killed?
How does O'Brien describe the first dead body he saw in Vietnam?
How does O'Brien define a 'war story'?
What is Tim O'Brien's 'the things they carried' about?
Who asked O'Brien if he killed anyone?
Azar comments to O'Brien about the dead soldier and is sent away by Kiowa, who senses that O'Brien is upset. Kiowa tells O'Brien to stop staring at the body and offers justifications for what has happened.
In the chapter “The Man I Killed,” O’Brien imagines the dead young Vietnamese soldier’s personal story, symbolizing that although readers never learn much about him, this young man was a human being with a history, a family, hopes, and fears, just like anyone else.
What point does O’Brien make about stories and truth? Why does O’Brien become angry at Bobby Jorgenson and eventually want to get revenge on him? Where does O’Brien take his daughter, Kathleen, in Vietnam? What happens to Rat Kiley?
Analysis. “How to Tell a True War Story” examines the complex relationship between the war experience and storytelling. It is told half from O’Brien’s role as a soldier, as a reprise of several old Vietnam stories, and half from his role as a storyteller, as a discourse on the art of storytelling.
O'Brien explains that stories can bring the dead back to life through the act of remembering. He describes the first dead body he saw in Vietnam, that of an old Vietnamese man. Others in the platoon spoke to the corpse in a mildly mocking way, but O'Brien could not even go near the body.
The narrator imagines what the dead man's life was like, what plans he had for the future, and his fears about having to fight. He imagines that he worried about shaming himself or his family by failing as a soldier.
The Viet Cong soldier killed by "O'Brien" was killed because his luck had run out, nothing more than wandering down the wrong path at the wrong time. The nameless soldier does not understand this, and it is so terrifying an idea that he cannot think it.
