Wednesday, October 16, 2013

"In the Field"



Luke Binet


To be quite honest the first thing I thought of when I read the chapter In the Field was Easter Egg hunting. Every Easter children run through their front yard frantically in order to collect Easter Eggs and the goods that are in them. In this chapter, the whole squad is searching for their dead friend Kiowa who is buried in “shit” somewhere in a flooded field. Something about kids frantically searching for easter eggs reminded me of an army squad searching frantically for a long lost friend in a field of shit. Neither the little kids nor the squad would ever give up until all of the eggs were in their baskets.

The connection that I made to searching for Kiowa’s body and Easter Egg hunting led me to think about connections in character between Kiowa and Jesus. I found many ties between Kiowa and Jesus. Kiowa is described as the perfect warrior and an amazing kid. He carries a bible everywhere he goes, and he is a gentle and soft spoken man. Lieutenant Cross describes him as “...a fine soldier and a fine human being, a devout Baptist…(p.156)”. Cross complements Kiowa very often saying, “And Kiowa has been a splendid human being, the very best, intelligent and gentle and quiet-spoken. Very brave, too. And decent. (p.157)”. Jesus is also described as a model human being who is perfect. Kiowa might not be perfect, but he is a model citizen. Kiowa was friends with everyone in the squad and everyone respected him. Jesus also made many friends and was respected by many, however Jesus was also hated unlike Kiowa. I also found that Jesus and Kiowa died in similar ways. Both died a gruesome death for the things they believed in. Kiowa died supporting his country and the American cause, and Jesus died to relieve the people of their sins. Lieutenant Cross stated that Kiowa’s death was a “crime (p.156),” because such a good man did not deserve to die in such a horrible way.  Both were resurrected in the end. Kiowa was literally lifted up from the shit field, and Jesus ascended into heaven. One of the most ironic similarities between Kiowa and Jesus is that the people that felt responsible for both of these great men’s death ended up killing themselves. What is even weirder is that they both hanged themselves. Both Judas and Norman Bowker committed suicide because they felt guilty for their friend’s death. Jesus and Kiowa had lasting effects on the people they interacted with.
There is an overwhelming amount of evidence that O’Brien tried to relate Kiowa in a way to Jesus. Irony plays a huge role in the book The Things They Carried, and in this chapter irony is repeated over and over again.




8 comments:

  1. This blog post is deep, Luke. You made some nice connections between Jesus and Kiowa. You provided many great points of similarity between these two. To add to that list, the platoon was trying to find Kiowa's body. Along the same lines, during the time of Christ, many people sought out Jesus to receive miracles or wisdom. Your opening paragraph was lightheartedly unexpected and I think you did a great job on the whole.

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  2. Awesome job Luke!
    When you talked about how the kids and squad were "frantically" searching, the word "frantically" fit the description very well. Also, great comparison to Kiowa and Jesus, you are right in how they both affected a lot of people.
    Good job!

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  3. Good job Luke! Your comparison between Jesus and Kiowa was very on point and gave good analysis of the character of Kiowa as a whole, and I also like how you tie this religious theme back into your first point about how them searching for Kiowa's body was similar to looking for Easter eggs.

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  4. Your connection between Jesus and Kiowa is quite profound. I like how you ensured to explore both the similarities and differences between the two people. I also liked your comparison between Judas and Bowker. It is really a unique comparison. Great job!

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  5. I think that's a fantastic connection between Jesus and Luke. This post is very different because most posts talk about a concrete thing, like a movie or an event that happened; however, you focus on a relgious figure that people look to for hope and inspiration. I also think it was actually Tim O'Brien's intention to make Kiowa seem slightly holy, and I was actually wondering about that while I was reading through the chapter, but I pushed the thought away as a doubt. I'm really glad you confirmed what I originially thought.

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  6. Great job, Luke! I liked how you talked about something as innocent as Easter egg hunting and then went back to the roots of Christ. I also liked how you addressed Kiowa's religion as it seems to be a big part of his character, and so connecting him to Jesus was really powerful.

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  7. I really like how you started off by telling us your thinking process: Searching to eggs to Easter to Jesus. Easter is such a happy time, but yet you were able to compare it to the dark times of war when soldiers are digging through mud in search for their friend. You were also able to think even deeper and find similarities between Kiowa and Jesus. Great job!

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  8. I really enjoyed reading your post. I love that you had that first paragraph comparing the search for Kiowa to an easter egg hunt, it was so clever and really good way of creating a visual of the soldiers and the children searching frantically. I also liked how you transitioned to compare Kiowa to Jesus, that was genius and it worked out so well that both of the things you were comparing were related to one another, Easter being a Christian holiday that celebrates the birth of Jesus. Great Post.

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