Tuesday, November 10, 2009

The Man I Killed #2

Discuss the character of Kiowa.
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10 comments:

  1. xiao-liNovember 10, 2009 at 10:38 PM

    I think Kiowa was an emotional and sympathetic people.
    Kiowa did many things to console O’ Brien feel better after he killed a soldier.

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  2. dtwelve89November 11, 2009 at 4:10 PM

    Kiowa seems to be very similar to Tim in how he does not find pleasure in taking a life. Kiowa however seems to be more experienced with war than Tim is. Kiowa seems to have gone through the same thing Tim is experiencing right now but has already moved on from it. Kiowa understands that this is the nature of war, people must die so he tries to comfort Tim through his moment until he too understands that he had no choice.

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  3. Dev[PM]November 12, 2009 at 1:09 PM

    Kiowa is perceived as a more stern and militant character, in which his objective is to finish his service and go home, as well as following the trite motto "kill, or be killed." In stark contrast to Azar who blatantly congratulates O'Brien for his kill, Kiowa attempts to take another approach, attempting to persuade O'Brien that his kill was justified. Kiowa specifically mentions that the young man that O'Brien had become so obsessed with was armed and that if he had not killed him, that someone else on their unit would have done the same thing.

    Kiowa appears to be the most affected by the war, perhaps to a higher degree than O'Brien. Rather than struggling to cope with the strain of the war, Kiowa seems to embrace it to the degree of accepting kills and deaths as natural and common in the battlefield. In order to continue the war, he feels that he needs to quickly move on to continue his task as a soldier so that he may eventually return to his country.

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  4. Tsegu KahsayNovember 13, 2009 at 2:34 PM

    Kiowa appears to be more experienced than Tim is and that's why he keeps asking Tim to not stare at the soldier who was dead due to the grenade Tim threw.

    Kiowa can understand what is undergoing through Tim's feelings and he tries to make things easy to Tim by justifying that the death Tim has caused was the nature of war not product of his will. Had he not killed the Viet for first, there would not be a choice left to the other soldier to kill Tim. This is how Kiowa escapes from inflicting pain to himself, because, even Kiowa, was killing not because he believes in doing so but because he is in war and does not have any other choice.

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  5. kalNovember 13, 2009 at 6:28 PM

    We can tell that Kiowa is a very experienced soldier. He was neither emotionless like Azar was but nor was he as distraught as Tim. When he saw how traumatized Tim was and tries different approaches to make him feel better. First he tries a casual approach by saying “No sweat, man. What else could you do?” Afterwards, he becomes a bit more serious and asks Tim if he wants to trade places with the man he killed. Then, he goes back again and tries a more softer approach by saying, “Tim, it’s war. The guy wasn’t Heidi- he had a weapon, right? It’s a tough thing, for sure, but you got to cut out that staring.” When that doesn’t work either, he tells him to lie down and gives him a minute. After a little while, he tells him to take it slow, but, he still could stop Tim from staring at the man he killed. Later on, Kiowa starts to become impatient and just says “Stop staring.” But he realizes that that wasn’t working either so he becomes a little soft again and asks him if he’s ok. Still, no change at all, so he gets tired of waiting and tells him that he better get his shit together because they are moving out in five minutes. Kiowa covered the body and after some time he tries a new approach; he pretend as if he sees some change in Tim and says, “Hey, you’re looking better. No doubt about it. All you needed was time-some mental R&R.” Then he says “Man, I’m sorry. Why not talk about it? Come on, man, talk.” But even after all this there was no reaction from Tim. Kiowa finally runs out of patience and just says “talk”.
    These several different approaches tell us the character of Kiowa. We can see that he is definitely not perfect because he gets impatient and mad from time to time but then again he has a great ability of not giving up and making himself calm.

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  6. Daniel FreemanNovember 13, 2009 at 6:34 PM

    excellent interpretations of the character of kiowa-- you all read him very deeply.

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  7. MingTaoNovember 13, 2009 at 6:41 PM

    Kiowa sure is Tim's teammate, and from his action, he seem to be a experienced soldier，because he was not like Tim who feel distressed when he killed a young man in a battle. Kiowa must be fought many battle, so he was getting used to these death sences, might be even insensibility of these death sences.
    I agree with Tee Kaey, when in a war, a soldier have no choice, because if he don't want to kill enemies, then enemies will kill him.

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  8. JosephNovember 13, 2009 at 9:27 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  9. JosephNovember 13, 2009 at 9:31 PM

    Kiowa was a person of warm-hearted, composed, and he had many experiences of war. When he saw the man Tim killed he was not shocked and was staid in contrast to Tim. He was understading that killing people was a nature of war. When Tim killed a man and was distressed by his murder, Kiowa took care of Tim and encouraged Tim not to be distressed by killing the man.

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  10. Anya liuNovember 19, 2009 at 11:39 PM

    Kiowa seen to be more experienced than Tim, not only he is a old soldier, he is a Indian. As the background of the history of Indian, they were attacked and foray by the American. i think in Kiowa's hart, he sympathized the man who was killed by Tim. so he try he best to comport Tim who have the same feeling about the war like him, And because he have more experience than Tim, he is composed during the War

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