Monday, January 25, 2010

Exploration 4: The Things They Carried

The chapter that ingaged me the most was In The Field. I liked it a lot because it Jimmy Cross shows self reflection during it. He is blaming himself for Kiowa's death. He keeps thinking to himself about how he should of got the platoon to higher ground and not had them spend the night in the field of waste. I think that the main theme is a feeling of guilt by multiple soldiers. Norman Bowker thinks that it is his fault because he was not able to pull Kiowa out of the mud. Jimmy Cross thinks it is his fault because of bad preparation, and is thinking about what to say to Kiowa's mother. The young soldier knows that it is his fault becausee of the flashlight he used to show Kiowa a picture of his girlfriend, but he is reluctant to admit the fact that that is what happened.
This book really hits on the wrongs and rights of war. Tim O'brien says that is a bad war to be fighting in and I believe that it really was. What did the United States army actually acomplish in Vietnam? It makes you think twice about whether the decision to go to war is right. The war being fought over seas now is wrong too. What were the terrorists main objective on 9/11? They wanted to make the United States mad. They wanted the military to take action and start a fight. Where has the war got us to now? In my personal opinion, I do not think we have acheived anything. Families have just lost their children for no reason. We have spent loads of money and gotten the country into unfalable debt. The thing that is really hurting us though is that we did react on such a large scale. How can we finish what we have started when there is not an end in sight?

3 comments:

Kelly Mignogna said...

I think it is really interesting to see throughout the book how each of them at one time or another feel extreme guilt/pain for one of their partners who has died. Jimmy Cross had it the hardest, being the lieutenant. It just shows you how close each of these individuals became to each other.

ahlam said...

Spending so much time with those people risking your lives together having trust for them like that creates a extreme bond so having that type of loss can be extremly painful.

Seth said...

I agree, they all became really close and they all depended on each other. Jimmy Cross showed what kind of bond they all had when he kept dwelling on the fact that it was all his fault for Kiowas death.