Just as Kathleen doesnt know why they are on the trip OBrien didnt know why they were fighting the war. Its twenty years after Kiowas death. Memory As An Unreliable Narrator Writing Images Good Essay The Things They Carried During the touristy part of their trip Kathleen has held up well. Field Trip Quotes The Things They Carried . Blog Archive 2010 13 March 13 Open forum 12. Start studying The Things They Carried Section 19. Kathleen represents what OBrien was like before the war had. There are yellow butterflies grass sunlight blue sky and a breeze. This is physically the closest he ever gets to her although he dreams about her the whole time he is in Vietnam and possibly it is his laxity that gets Lavender killed. There were yellow butterflies. She wonders why was everybody so mad at everybody else She thinks her father is weird because he cannot forget the past. The soldiers all want to be somewhere else but they feel it isnt right to leave Kiowa in the field.