The Things They Carried Part 2

Anna Lacy

Trauma

March 24, 2014

The Things They Carried Part 2

In Tim O’Brien’s book The Things They Carried, O’Brian talks about a letter that his friend, Bob 

“Rat” Kiley, sent to a fallen comrade’s sister. In the letter Kiley goes on and on about how great the 

girls brother was and how he seemed more of a brother to him because of how close the war forced 

them to become. After Kiley doesn't receive a reply to the letter he begins to call the girl a ‘cooze’ 

which is slang referring to either woman’s genitalia or a woman who is seen as sexually attractive and 

promiscuous. O’Brien then goes on to state, “Cooze, he says. He does not say bitch. He certainly does 

not say woman, or girl. He says cooze. Then he spits and stares. He’s nineteen years old - it’s too

much for him - so he looks at you with those big sad gentle killer eyes and says cooze, because his 

friend is dead, and because it’s so incredibly sad and true: she never wrote back” (O’Brien 66). While 

upon first read it seems that O’Brien is implying that the fallen comrade’s sister should be referred to as 

a bitch or girl instead of an obscure slur word. In reality, O’Brien is commending Kiley for not 

referring to the girl as a bitch, which at the time was considered much more of an insult than it is taken 

as today. Kiley instead chose a slang word from the 1950’s, who's meaning may have been lost the 

youth of the platoon.