Adam Truax

Mr. Boyatt

AP Literature

2020 April 14

TTC Death prompt

In Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien the theme of war being senseless

is brought up through the events in the book as well as in O'Brien's thoughts. One death that

helps emphasize this theme is the death of Kiowa. Kiowa dies in a field of waste sinking in and

becoming just another byproduct of the war. Kiowa loses his identity and becomes a statistic

losing the meaning his life had before his death. The theme of war being senseless is seen

through Kiowa’s death because in war, Kiowa is absorbed and becomes senseless like the war.

To begin, the field of waste symbolizes the waste there before because of

the war. Each piece of waste not having a true identity but instead becoming part of a bigger

unidentifiable piece of the war. The field of waste represents the waste and byproducts made in

war, the deaths of the soldiers are the waste losing who they truly are, instead becoming a

statistic of a bigger picture of death. By becoming a statistic the soldiers lose who they once were

and their life loses point. Kiowa dies in the waste becoming another piece of this bigger picture,

a statistic instead of someone with his own identity. This emphasizes the war’s senselessness as

it absorbs those who die and strips them of their life’s meaning.

To continue, Kiowa’s death negatively affects the other soldiers. One

being Norman Bowker who blames himself for Kiowa’s death. Kiowa’s death takes away the

sense of life from Bowker. Bowker believes he lost point in life and later takes his own life.
Kiowa’s death in the waste absorbed Bowker’s sense in life leaving him senseless like the waste.

Kiowa, like the war absorbs Bowker’s sense of life leaving him guilt ridden.This adds to the

theme of war not having meaning because it strips people of their meaning in life as seen in

Bowker. Kiowa’s way of death also symbolizes this as he sinks into the waste and becomes lost.

The soldiers have to find Kiowa who has sunken into the waste and become part of it. Bowker

was with Kiowa when he died and tried helping Kiowa out but let go already feeling that Kiowa

died. This represents that Kiowa lost his identity at that moment because, at the point Bowker let

go of him Kiowa was just another part of the waste.

To finish it off, Bowker’s suicide helps contribue to the meaning of war

being senseless and wasteful. Bowker believes that ever since Kiowa died he did not really have

a point in life. He could not find himself, he was lost to the war. He commits suicide because he

becomes guilt ridden. He is like the war, becoming senseless contributing to the theme. The war

wastes his life as well as Kiowa’s leaving them just as part of a bigger picture not truly their own

person. O’Brien touches upon this theme of people losing who they truly are from the war, losing

their sense. O’Brien emphasizes this through the death of the man he killed and Bowker but it

becomes prevalent in Kiowa. Kiowa like the rest of the deaths before him slip away into the

bigger picture of war, losing who they truly were. Slipping away and becoming senseless like the

war itself.

To conclude, O’Brien’s thoughts of the war being pointless is further

emphasized in the people that die because of war, slipping away. Kiowa emphasizes this as he

becomes waste and becomes part of the field of waste. The field of waste represents the war as

he takes those who fought in it and strips them of their true meaning. Kiowa’s death is senseless
as he loses his own meaning but takes Bowkers as well. This act of slipping away adds to

O’Brien’s theme of war being pointless and not something to fight for as it takes away your true

identity.