What?

"She died, of course. Nine years old and she died. It was a brain tumor. She lived through the summer and into the first part of September and then she was dead." Page 223 and 224

This chapter was honestly my least favorite part of the book. It even beat the buffalo torture. It just didn't make sense. War story after war story and then he reflects on the death of his childhood sweetheart. It just didn't fit. He had a few mentions of his family but it always connected somehow to the war. This story was too random. I know O'Brien was simply trying to reflect on death in general and end with a sentimental story, but for me it didn't click. It was a great story and it was very well written. If I read it in another collection of short stories I'm sure I would have liked it. However, I don't think it belongs in a collection of war stories.

Anthroporphism

"Talking about bugs, for instance: how the worst thing in Nam was the goddamn bugs. Big giant killer bugs, he'd say, mutant bugs...Whispering his name, he said-his actual name-all night long-it was driving him crazy." Page 209 and 210

Anthropomorphism, or personification, is a great literary term. However, when people start legitimately treating animals or objects as if they have human traits, their sanity should be examined. As I mentioned before, Rat was one of my favorite characters. But first he tortured a poof buffalo. Then he basically goes insane. But he makes an interesting point. In the face of war, sometimes everything can be the enemy. Bugs and insects can bite and make you uncomfortable during battle. They are a handicap. Those bugs may have not been after Rat, but they weren't helping the soldiers' situation. This use of personification was quite effective in showing the difficulties faced by soldiers.

Foil Characters

"I was shot twice. The first time, out by Tri Binh, it knocked me against the pagoda wall, and I bounced and spun around and ended up on Rat Kiley's lap. A lucky think, because Rat was the medic. He tied on a compress and told me to ease back, then he ran off toward the fighting... I kept waiting for the pain to hit, but in fact I didn't feel much. A throb, that's all. Even in the hospital it wasn't bad... Jorgenson was no Rat Kiley. He was green and incompetent and scared. So when I got shot the second time, in the butt, along the Song Tra Bong, it took the son of a bitch almost ten minutes to work up the nerve to crawl over to me. By then I was gone with the pain. Later I found out I'd almost died of shock. Bobby Jorgenson didn't know about shock, or if he did, the fear made him forget. To make it worse, he bungled the patch job, and a couple of weeks later my ass started to rot away. You could actually peel off fillets of meat with your fingernail." Page 180 and 181

Rat and Bobby are definitely foil characters. Rat is prompt, efficient, confident, and a great medic. On the other hand, Bobby is scared, unsure, and still unused to the environment of war. I have no doubt that he grew to become a great medic. He simply did not have the same experience as Rat. This passage again shows how the war changed people. The soldiers began as boys who were naive and scared like Bobby. They eventually grew to be confident and skilled soldiers as Rat did. They simply had to settle in and the rest would follow.

A Distant World

"'Billie's picture. I had it all wrapped up, I had it in plastic, so it'll be okay if I can... Last night we were looking at it, me and Kiowa. Right here. I know for sure it's right here somewhere.' Jimmy Cross smiled at the boy. 'You can ask her for another one. A better one.' 'She won't send another one. She's not even my girl anymore, she won't... Man, I got to find it.'" Page 165

I think this passage really shows the desperate morale of the men. This young soldier was extremely desperate to find this picture of his old girlfriend. It surprised me at first. I wondered why he couldn't just let her go. But then I realized it wasn't a picture he was desperate to find. He was really searching for his connection to the outside world. He could not let go of that world and who he was in it. The war may have seemed distant to those left at home, but those fighting felt even more out of touch.

Unexperienced

"Jimmy Cross did not want the responsibility of leading these men. He had never wanted it. In his sophomore year at Mount Sebastian College he had signed up for the Reserve Officer Training Corps without much thought. An automatic thing: because his friends had joined, and because it was worth a few credits, and because it seemed preferable to letting the draft take him. He was unprepared. Twenty-four years old and his heart wasn't in it." Page 160 and 161

I was shocked by one thing in this passage. Jimmy Cross was twenty-four. A twenty-four year old was in charge of an entire platoon of men. He had no experience and no military ambition. He had this huge responsibility on his shoulders. This responsibility that he had never wanted. He was just as naive as the rest of them. He didn't think he was worthy of this job and neither did his men. So, how did he end up in charge?

Local Color

"To provide a dramatic frame, I collapsed events into a single time and place, a car circling a lake on a quiet afternoon in midsummer, using the lade as a nucleus around which the story would orbit...For the scenery I borrowed heavily from my hometown. Wholesale thievery, in fact." Page 152

This passage references the previous chapter 'Speaking of Courage'. It specifically talks about the local color used in the chapter. He used this strategy very effectively. He states that the purpose was to provide a dramatic frame. I think he definitely succeeded. 'Speaking of Courage' was actually one of my favorite chapters. It was intriguing and suspenseful. I don't think I would have liked it as much if he had not written it as a single event at a specific place. The scenery kept me questioning. For a while, I was just trying to find out the purpose of the lake and scenery. With the use of local color, O'Brien really drew the reader in and made the story dramatic.

Third Person Point of View

"The war was over and there was no place in particular to go. Norman Bowker followed the tar road on its seven-mile loop around the lake..."

I found this passage interesting especially when I compared it to the second chapter entitled 'Love'. In both chapters O'Brien is telling the story of one of his fellow soldiers. Both soldiers told him the story and then gave him permission to write about it. Very similar circumstances but the final stories are written very differently. The biggest difference I noticed was that 'Speaking of Courage' is written in third person while 'Love' is written in first person. Third person was a very good choice for Norman's story. It made it more dramatic and interesting. It seemed more suspenseful. I wondered about his choice. Jimmy was living when his story was written, but Norman was deceased. I don't know if this is connected at all, but I think it is an interesting detail.