How Does Rat Kiley get injured?

He begins to see his own. Finally the tension gets to him and he shoots himself in the foot, a war wound that would rotate him out of the combat area. Lt. We know that Rat Kiley gets “hurt,” but we do not know how badly and the nature of the wound.

How did Rat Kiley leave Vietnam?

How did Rat Kiley get out of active duty in the Vietnam? Rat Kiley got out of active duty in Vietnam as he “took off his boots and socks, laid out his medical kit, doped himself up, and put a round through his foot” (O’Brien 212). Specifically, prior to this, Rat couldn’t adjust to the shift in moving only at night.

What is night life in the things they carried?

“Night Life” pits the drive for survival against the desire for social acceptance. O’Brien mentions that though most soldiers knew it was an option, they did not deliberately shoot themselves in the foot, out of a sense of shame, since shooting oneself would be an act of cowardice.

What happens at the end of The Things They Carried?

The book ends with a story titled “The Lives of the Dead,” in which Tim remembers his childhood love, Linda, who died of cancer when she was 9. Tim says that in a story, he can “steal her soul. Not only will he save others who have died by remembering them in his writing, the act of writing will save him, too.

Why did O Brien’s first love wear a red cap?

During the spring of 1956, O’Brien was in love with nine-year-old Linda, his beautifully fragile schoolmate who had taken to wearing a red cap everywhere. O’Brien later explains that Linda had a brain tumor and soon died.

What is the theme of the lives of the dead?

The primary themes of “The Lives of the Dead” are humor, resurrection, and storytelling. When O’Brien encounters the old man, dead in a pigpen, he “hadn’t yet developed a sense of humor” about the war.

What was O Brien’s worst day?

In “The Lives of the Dead,” O’Brien described how his “worst day at the war” was during his assignment to carry “the bodies [of twenty-seven soldiers] down the mountain to a clearing alongside a narrow dirt road” (230).

What is the theme of The Things They Carried?

The primary theme in the novel The Things They Carried is the burdens we all carry. The first chapter of the novel is dedicated to the physical and emotional burdens the men carried with them as they marched: the guns, the gear, the photos, the letters, the hope, the fear, the memories, and the guilt.