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First Lieutant Cross Platoon

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First Lieutant Cross Platoon
English 112
November 13, 2013
The Soldiers War is devastating to the soldiers fighting in it, and they react in ways that seem abstract and foreign. Tim O’Brien’s short story “The Things They Carried” details the struggles of a platoon that represents the entire U.S. Army throughout the war effort in Vietnam. O’Brien writes about of the strange tactics of the people within First Lieutant Cross’ Platoon; whether it is bad leadership, drug use or the struggles of being Native American within Vietnam. O’Brien addresses the issues that were taking place in Vietnam by using the platoon to mirror what he saw was wrong. The initial issue O’Brien saw when he went to Vietnam was awful leadership. The largest issue O’Brien encountered in Vietnam …show more content…
”Thousands of Native Americans volunteered for military service at a much higher percentage than whites or African Americans…studies show as high as eighty percent of able body male Native Americans volunteered” (Holm). Kiowa represented many of these soldiers but also the traditions of his culture by what he carried with him. The soldiers of the platoon however, represented the rest of the military saying racist things towards him. Another soldier in his platoon, Norman Bowker, refers to Kiowa as “Indian” instead of by his name. Norman knowingly demotes Kiowa to less than a person, no name, just identifiable by his race. A deep racism is represented and did not help with the situations they were encountering. Kiowa realized the racism and carries it the burden of it, “his grandmother‘s distrust for the white man” (O’Brien 225). He carried the hatched which represented his strong Native American ties and related too many of the other soldiers in the war. “By war’s end more than 85,000 Native Americans had seen Vietnam War-era service in the U.S. military”(Holm). Native Americans were the largest of any ethnic group that served in Vietnam. That is why the other soldiers were so racist towards them, they had always someone to blame because they were everywhere and the time period of Vietnam, made it almost seem alright. Although the strength of Kiowa was very admirable it was often overshadowed by the immaturity of some of the other
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