The Things They Carried

Elroy Berdahl is the author, and Jesus.
When a writer says that such things as “words can’t express” or “language is inadequate” or “words were insufficient” (p. 51), it can only mean one of two things. He’s lying, or he doesn’t understand the nature of language and thought. In this case, “narrator” Tim makes the case for the inadequacy of language, but the author clearly disagrees. I can see that from his treatment of Elroy on page 49. Elroy, though not a talker, is nonetheless a master of language – his bedroom was “cluttered with books and newspapers”; he “kills” the narrator at Scrabble (a vocabulary game) while “barely concentrating”; and most centrally, “he had a way of compressing large thoughts into small, cryptic packets of language.” (pp. 49-50) That’s key, it seems to me. His ability to express “large thought” concisely, even cryptically, demonstrated the author’s trust in language and its capacity. The word “cryptic” is important. It means “coded” – that is difficult to understand, perhaps even requiring a key (certainly some effort). But the idea of encryption is that the “code” can be understood completely, that meaning is fully revealed for the talented decrypter. Thus, Elroy is put into the position of novelist, conveying large thoughts in this somewhat cryptic novel. Elroy is author. And in this chapter, he is the novelist fully in control of the narrator Tim, manipulating him by way of discussion, silence and action. He brings Tim obviously and forcefully to the most important crisis thus far in his life, forcing him to decide finally to jump and swim to Canada, or to go to war. He creates the circumstances that force the choice to be made.
Some of the language and imagery surrounding Elroy and his manipulation of Tim have echoes of Christ. Elroy is a fisherman, who takes Tim to the Canadian shore while ostensibly fishing. He views his activity with Tim as a kind of fishing too. When Tim doesn’t leap for Canada, Elroy comments “Ain’t biting” -- not about the fish, but Tim. Elroy is the fisher of souls – Christ here. It’s important to see this in order to understand what seems to be a random reference to Christ earlier, as Elroy sees an owl and comments as follows:

One evening, just at sunset, he pointed up at an owl circling over the violet-lighted forest to the west.
“Hey, O”Brien,” he said. “There’s Jesus.”
The man was sharp—he didn’t miss much. Those razor eyes. (p. 50)

I don’t think it’s random. It serves to introduce the Elroy/Christ association that becomes clear as he and Tim approach Canada in the fishing boat. IT’s also important in that it gives an additional gloss to the idea of his “cryptic” stories – Christ’s parables told “large thoughts into small cryptic packets of language” as well – perhaps they’re the pre-eminent example of this for English readers.