Personification

"The rain fell in a cold, sad drizzle" (page 169). O' Brien uses personification by giving emotion to the rain. He does this to emphasize the sad tone of the day. Kiowa died the night before, and now the soldiers were searching for his body. Many of them felt responsible for his death, so they each took the blame upon themselves. They were all sad because they had lost a good soldier and a friend. Kiowa was friends with many of them, and they all felt responsible for either causing his death or not being able to save him. There was a sad tone around the camp that day, so O' Brien portrayed this through personifying the rain.

Re-Thinking

After reading the chapter "Notes" which begins on page 155, it made me completely re-think the previous chapter. "Speaking of Courage," the previous chapter, displayed a day in the life of Norman Bowker after the war. Originally, I thought this chapter was simply showing the day he returned to his hometown and how things had changed. However, the next chapter made me realize that past chapter meant more to Norman Bowker than I had thought. The chapter showed the situation and feelings that he had felt not only on that single day but throughout the rest of his life. After he returned from the war, he did not know where he belonged. The life he had left before the war was no longer the same now. "The thing is, there's no place to go. Not just in this lousy little town. In general. My life, I mean. It's almost like I got killed over in Nam...Hard to describe" (page 156). Norman Bowker did not know what to do now that the war was over. He did not know where to go or what to do. Then, he hung himself. This made me completely re-think that past chapter. It gave new meaning to that Fourth of July that seemed like a simple drive around the lake.

???

So...I ran into a bit of confusion in the chapter "Style" which starts on page 135. The chapter talks about the girl that the soldiers found in a town that had been burned down. The girl looked to be about fourteen, and we learn that her family died when her house burned down. Yet...the girl was dancing? It seems to me like if her whole village had just been destroyed, her house burnt down, and her family killed, then she might be more...concerned? worried? scared? Why was she dancing? I could not think of an answer for this. Henry Dobbins suggests that "The girl just liked to dance" (page 136). I thought maybe it was some sort of ritual or cultural tradition, but maybe she just like to dance? Or, maybe she was just dancing because she could not really comprehend what had just happened? Was she dancing as a way to not focus on the loss of her family, but instead she wanted to just dance and try to ignore it all? Or, maybe it's some kind of symbolism? ...Any ideas or solutions?

Anecdote

In the chapter "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" which begins on page 89, O' Brien tells an anecdote. He tells the brief story of Mary Anne Bell to show the effect war can have on someone. War changes people. Even someone as young and innocent as Mary Anne Bell was able to be transformed by the war. She changed to the point where no one even recognized her - not even Mark Fossie who "had been sweethearts since grammar school" (page 94). She had become involved in the war to the point where she craved more because "she wanted to penetrate deeper into the mystery of herself" (page 114). O' Brien tells this anecdote to prove that war has varying effects on people. "What happened to her was what happened to all of them. You come over clean and you get dirty and then afterward it's never the same. A question of degree. Some make it intact, some don't make it at all" (page 114).

Juxtaposition

"War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery. War makes you a man; war makes you dead" (page 80). O' Brien uses this passage to state the various contradictions of war. He shows that war is dangerous and grotesque. However, he also mentions that "you can't help but gape at the awful majesty of combat" (page 80). There are many different views and opinions of war, and most of them seem to contradict one another. This contradiction emphasizes the point O' Brien is trying to make. He wants to show the dangerous, nasty, life-threatening, and violent side of war. In addition, he also wants to show the fun, thrilling, and feeling of achievement one may also gain from the war. War is a very contradictory subject, and O' Brien shows this through the use of juxtaposition in this passage.

A True War Story

"In any war story, but especially a true one, it's difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen...And then afterward, when you go to tell about it, there is always that surreal seemingness, which makes the story seem untrue, but which in fact represents the hard and exact truth as it seemed. In many cases a true war story cannot be believed. If you believe it, be skeptical. It's a question of credibility. Often the crazy stuff is true and the normal stuff isn't, because the normal stuff is necessary to make you believe the truly incredible craziness" (page 71). We have all heard war stories before. Whether it is a heroic "normal" story or a "crazy" adventurous story, we have all heard one. However, we often find them difficult to believe. Sometimes the "crazy" stories seem simply too unreasonable to possibly be true. The "normal" war stories are often more believable because they are things we expect to hear and picture when we think of war. This is what O' Brien means when he says many people are skeptical about the stories. What seems to be true and what actually is true are not necessarily the same thing.

Simile

"A giddy feeling, in a way, except there was the dreamy edge of impossibility to it - like running a dead-end maze - no way out - it couldn't come to a happy conclusion and yet I was doing it anyway because it was all I could think of to do" (page 47). O' Brien uses this simile to describe when he is driving away from his home. He is leaving to try to escape the war and the draft. He does not agree with the war; thus, he does not want to be a part of it or support it. He tries to leave and drive to Canada. However, he knows that he is doing something that has no way of ending well. He is trapped in a "maze" that he can not escape from. Eventually, he will have to face reality and accept the path before him. A "dead-end maze" only ends one way, and that end is inevitable.