The other person, besides martha, who is a recurring motif in "the things they carried" is

a)virginia woolf

b)rat kiley

c)norman bowker

d)ted lavender

The appropriate response is D. In “Love,” for instance, Jimmy Cross trusts in O'Brien that he has never excused himself for Ted Lavender's demise. Norman Bowker's distress and disarray are strong to the point that they incite him to drive carelessly around the place where he grew up lake in "Talking about Courage," to compose O'Brien a seventeen-page letter clarifying how he never felt directly after the war in "Notes," and to hang himself in a YMCA.