About 80 pages into Tim Obrien’s The Things They Carried, we’re confronted with a grotesque and inhumane scene. Curt Lemon just had his life snatched away by a booby trap, and his best friend, Rat Kiley, took it pretty hard. After Lemon got a dustoff, the platoon came across a baby water buffalo, chased it down, and tied it up. After supper, Kiley went up to the water buffalo, stroked its nose and offered it some rations. The water buffalo did not take any of the food. Kiley shrugged, and then proceeded to shoot the buffalo. He shot the buffalo meticulously: at the knee, ear, hindquarters, back, twice in the flanks, the mouth, tail, and below the ribs. Before long, the whole platoon began to watch, as Kiley went automatic, shooting randomly at the buffalo. Eventually, the buffalo fell to the ground, and Kiley shot it in the nose and throat. Finally, the buffalo died. Kiley began to cry, and then went off by himself.
Was it justified? Do we have a right to let our emotions go? Did Kiley have to take life to avenge a lost life? Granted, he was feeling the emotional pain of losing one of his best friends. But, did he take it too far? Did Kiley need to take his anger out on something in such a grotesque and inhumane manner? I don’t think so.
Losing a loved one sucks. I’ve been there, and I have a fair idea of what Kiley went through. However, I completely disagree with the way he dealt with the situation. Kiley could not control his emotions. I’m not an animal-rights activist or anything, but he definitely crossed a line. Kiley may have been one of the thousands who was drafted into the war, and this action may have been a physical manifestation of the anger and discontent that had been brewing inside of him for many months.
BUT - what is self-control? You can handle yourself in the heat of battle, but you can’t let that carry over into all aspects of your life? As a soldier, your job is to be a heartless, ruthless, killing machine. Part of being a soldier is to put the lid on your emotions. Be a man and suck it up! If you can’t maintain self-control, you’re not doing your job. As far as we know, Kiley did not seek any help or guidance from those in his platoon. He did not have enough self-control to do that. What if all the soldiers who lost something or someone acted in the manner Kiley did? Obviously, they wouldn’t be taking their anger out on just water buffalo. For all we know, soldiers might go on their own personal vendettas, wandering to other towns and killing innocent people, just so they can let go of that anger. Running rampage is not the mark of a soldier - especially an American soldier - in any shape or form.
So he cracked. But then someone from the masses will say: “It wasn’t his fault that he over-reacted.”
So this was “society’s” fault? His environment “forced” him to take brash and uncontrolled action? His anger is this just another byproduct of the terrible war? I beg to differ, dear friends. Yes, what happened to him was the result of his environment/society, but his REACTION to Lemon’s death was something that came from within him.
Notice the LACK of society in this whole situation. In America, Kiley would’ve faced jail time, lawsuits from animal rights activists, and other penalties if he tried to shoot through a buffalo enough times to see light come through it if he were caught. However, Kiley isn’t in America; he’s in a war. He is free from the rules and regulations of American society. He’s fighting a war, where anything goes. The effect is that Kiley is given freedom to deal with this situation in whatever way he chooses. And he let his emotions loose. What does this tell us about our own nature? Are we evil right down to the bone when rules are not placed over us and bad things come our way? This is a humbling thought, and many people don’t have the self-control to consider it.
The soldiers recognized something was different. After Kiley left, Tim Obrien says: “For a time no one spoke. We had witnessed something essential, something brand-new and profound, a piece of the world so startling there was not yet a name for it” (Obrien 79). The men in the platoon had never truly seen a man act out of pure, uninhibited, and genuine emotion; they had never seen such a clear glimpse into the heart of a man. And it moved them.
It’s scary to see what we can really be. Human Nature undoubtedly had a factor in Riley’s actions.
You didn’t get drafted to have a party. Next time it might be you who receives the satisfying thud of lead into some part of your body. Crap Happens. That’s life. Move on. Stay alive.
Citation: Obrien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Broadway Books, 1990.
