People feel guilty for many different reasons. Many people feel guilty when they tell a lie or do something they know is wrong and get away with it. In Tim O'Brien's “The Things They Carried,” the men in the book deal with a different kind of guilt. These men deal with the guilt that many people feel after losing a loved one or partner. This guilt is difficult to deal with, and all men have different ways of dealing with it. Three men who have had to deal with guilt are Tim O'Brien, Lieutenant Cross, and Bob Kiley (aka Rat Kiley). The death of a loved one or partner is difficult to deal with. When you add guilt, it becomes even more difficult to deal with. These men have 3 very different ways of dealing with their guilt. A man brutally kills a baby buffalo. A man burns photos of a girl he loved to help him concentrate. The Last Man wrote stories to address the things he did during the war. Rat Kiley must deal with the guilt of losing a dear friend in the war. It happened on a sex day. The men stopped in a very quiet place to take a break and relax. Rat Kiley and his friend Curt Lemon sat under some giant trees with a quadruple canopy and no sunlight coming through. The two men began playing chicken with smoke grenades. They tossed them back and forth until one of them backed away or was covered in grenade smoke. Smoke grenades were harmless, so when one went off the men danced and giggled, having fun. Curt Lemon and Rat Kiley were having a great time under their tree canopy. After the two men play with smoke grenades for a while, Curt Lemon comes out from under the trees. When he takes a step, he activates a 105-round booby trap... in the center of the card... and how Norman almost saved him but let him go. Tim wrote the story, but it didn't feel right to Norman. A few months after Norman read the story, he was found at the YMCA. "Speaking of Courage" was rewritten and added to "The Things They Carried" after Norman hanged himself at the YMCA. O'Brien felt guilty about the original version not satisfying Norman, and also about Norman's death. Correcting the story and adding it to the book was O'Brien's way of getting rid of his guilt. For many people, guilt is a difficult thing to deal with. Everyone deals with the situation differently. Some people write stories, some try to make others feel their pain, and some people simply detach themselves from the things that make them feel guilty. Dealing with the situation can be difficult, but everyone has their own way of not feeling guilty. This is clearly shown in “The Things They Carried.”