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""Well, you carry that Bible everywhere, you never hardly swear or anything, so you must—"
"I grew up that way," Kiowa said." (Page 122)

In this excerpt, Kiowa's Bible symbolizes his own biblical faith (and subsequent moral values) that determine who he is.

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"The Silver Star?" his father might have said.
"Yes, but I didn't get it. Almost, but not quite." (Page 141)

In the novel, the Silver Star symbolizes the 'what could have been' of the war; all of the regrets, mistakes, potentials wins, losses, etc. experienced by every solider involved.

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"They were still my buddies, at least on one level,
but once you leave the boonies, the whole comrade business gets turned around. You become a civilian. You forfeit membership in the family, the
blood fraternity, and no matter how hard you try, you can't pretend to be
part of it." (Page 194)

The S-4 Headquarters Company symbolizes the disconnection between the soldiers working in the field of the war and the ordinary life faced by 'civilians' (and nonactive soldiers).

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"On the march, through the hot days of early April, he
carried the pebble in his mouth, turning it with his tongue, tasting sea salt and moisture." (Page 8)

Lieutenant Cross' pebble represents the love and emotion held by soldiers for others back in America, even over such long distances and through such trialling times.

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"All he could do was dig. He used his entrenching tool like an ax, slashing, feeling both love and hate, and then later, when it was full dark, he sat at the bottom of his foxhole and wept." (Pages 16-17)

Lieutenant Cross' emotion-driven actions and bipolar behavior characterizes him as a very moody character throughout the novel.

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"Rat sits down and
writes a letter to the guy's sister. Rat tells her what a great brother she had, how together the guy was, a number one pal and comrade. A real soldier's soldier, Rat says." (Page 67)

Rat Kiley shows himself to be a thoughtful character, at least in this instance, due to his sensitivity to the feelings of his fellow soldiers and their loved ones.

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"I'd head down to the wire and stare out at the darkness, out where the war was, and think up ways to make Bobby Jorgenson feel exactly what I felt. I wanted to hurt him." (Page 193)

Tim O'Brien is shown to be extremely vengeful through his severe hatred toward another soldier that spawned out of a desire for revenge.

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"It was his one eccentricity. The pantyhose, he said, had the properties of a good-luck charm. He liked putting his nose into the nylon" (Page 117)

The novel characterizes Henry Dobbins as zany through his portrayal of eccentricity relating to his girlfriend's undergarments.

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"In certain situations you could do incredible things, you could advance toward enemy fire, but in other situations, which were not nearly so bad, you had trouble keeping your eyes open.Sometimes, like that night in the shit field, the difference between courage and cowardice was something small and stupid." (Page 147)

Courage is thematically portrayed throughout the novel through soldiers' experiences requiring extreme bravery. These soldiers' insights on these situations are also shown, as seen above.

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"Various sounds, various smells. Later he'd found himself
lying on a little rise, face-up, tasting the field in his mouth, listening to the rain and explosions and bubbling sounds. He was alone." (Page 171)

Isolation is negatively shown throughout the novel in portrayals such as the above situation. In the war, each man faces tribulations so destructive that they feel they are entirely alone, leading to feelings of loneliness and isolation even after the war.

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"I felt something shift inside me. It was anger, partly, but it was also a sense of pure and total loss: I didn't fit anymore."
(Page 198)

Loss is a consistent theme throughout the novel. As participants of the war, every character has much to lose and very little to gain. These losses often included the termination of material possession, friendships, or even life itself. As such, the portrayal of loss is one of the strongest images spotlighted

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"I did not kill him. But I was
present, you see, and my presence was guilt enough. I remember his face, which was not a pretty face, because his jaw was in his throat, and I remember feeling the burden of responsibility and grief. I blamed myself." (Page 179)

The thematic portrayal of guilt is shown throughout the novel, especially by characters such as O'Brien or Kiowa. As soldiers of war, each man was forced to commit seemingly-unspeakable acts, many of which left long-lasting mental and physical repercussions (with guilt being the strongest of these).

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"A million things all at once—I was too good for this war. Too smart, too compassionate, too everything. It couldn't happen. I was above it. I had the world dicked—Phi Beta Kappa and
summa cum laude and president of the student body and a full-ride scholarship for grad studies at Harvard. A mistake, maybe—a foul-up in the paperwork. I was no soldier." (Page 41)

The setting of American academia shaped O'Brien's mentality toward the war, leading him to believe that he was above fighting in a war that was, at least in his mind, extremely insipid.

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"When she came in through the wire that night, I was right there, I saw those eyes of hers, I saw how she wasn't even the same person no more."
(Pages 106-107)

Mary Anne is dramatically shaped by the jungle war zone as a result of her exposure to the harsh realities of the soldiers' conditions. Her mindset is completely changed, quickly losing all of its girlish and innocent traits.

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""Well, you're new here. You'll get used to it." He paused for a second, studying the green and red sprinkles on a cookie. "Today—I guess this was your first look at a real body?"" (Page 227)

Kiowa is shaped through the traveling war setting because of how he is forced to react to different scenarios. Once fully involved in the war, Kiowa (out of necessity) adopts a mindset allowing him to survive in a place that completely challenges all of his Christian beliefs.

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"He bent forward and whispered something, as if talking to a
pet, then he shot it in the throat. All the while the baby buffalo was silent, or almost silent, just a light bubbling sound where the nose had been. It lay very still. Nothing moved except the eyes, which were enormous, the pupils shiny black and dumb.
Rat Kiley was crying. He tried to say something, but then cradled his rifle and went off by himself." (Page 79)

The death of Curt Lemon creates an atmosphere within the war group that eventually causes Kiley to crack. This situation, fueled by the loss of his best friend, triggers the sudden and dramatic mental and behavioral change experienced by Rat.