These feeling are expressed in the story about Rat Kiley's letter, with which the chapter is started - with his feelings of grief about loss and final «cooze», because he was not written back and he could not cope with his loss. His pain is shown in the shoking story of shooting baby buffalo. However, all these stories might have never happened, the soldiers were fighting the war and facing blood, troops and losses, struggling because of their youth and immaturity, fear that cannot be ignored about war. This terrible experience of war is the only truth that author wants to make the readers understand in his
Like, Nguyen Van Khien, he had his leg blown off during the war. He felt “sad and wanted to cry” because now he has only one leg (Adams). Many other soldiers in the north must have experienced injuries like him as well. Even with a severe injury though, the soldiers believe that “life is still good” because at least they made it out alive (Adams). The three things that affected North Vietnamese, hating Americans, living in harsh conditions and receiving severe injuries were all things they had to deal with during and after the war.
(Chpt.3 pg.44) Here Carlson is telling Candy how worthless it is to the ranch and to itself. Candy struggles with this harsh reality, but eventually lets Carlson take the dog outside and shoot him. Candy later regrets letting Carlson do this, and he thinks that he should have been the one to end the dog’s life. George will remember this later on and take it upon himself to end the life of Lennie. Lennie was an obedient and hard worker for many years with George.
In O’Brien’s ‘How To Tell A True War Story’, the story he tells us about Rat Kiley shooting the baby water buffalo both disturbs and intrigues. The act itself is without a doubt horrific, but it does not elicit a response of disgust. The question itself remains however, why did he shoot the buffalo in the first place? Rat’s actions were not random, pointless cruelty, but are in fact indicative of a much deeper, more complex emotional state. We must eliminate several more obvious answers first, but we can find that Rat Kiley is trying to reconcile what he is feeling with the situation he finds himself in.
The effects of war not only affect the soldier, but also cause an effect on families and loved ones. It is hard for the family to accept what had done war to Henry, but it is even tougher for Henry, who is blind by the terrible things he saw and lived at Vietnam, and does not see another way out than committing
But his eyes say it all. You can tell that his eyes are tried, puffy, and scared by the mission and Rougle’s death. Cortez seems like he’s about to start crying possible because he’s utterly exhausted and so scared to how he will over come this tragedy. Hijar also talks about the death of Sergeant Rougle and he says, “I’ll never forget it, I’ll just have to learn how to process it differently.” Hijar posses and the look on his face is shocked, as if he mentally relived it for that quick moment. He just looks so sad and frightened.
Some families acted as if the vet only had been stationed at any other base. It was as if the families were apathetic to the subject (Maberry, and Hunt, n.d.). Many of the vets returning from the fighting came back with issues. Some of the issues experienced were drug use, mental issues, which is now called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), physically disabled, or suffered from the poisoning of Agent Orange. Our country was not prepared for the multitude of issues that Vietnam would cause in the men.
It is hard for him to deal with throughout the story because it causes him to think of many different things, not only about what he did, but about the man he killed. No matter what it may be, death was a huge part of the war and one of the hardest things to face and deal with. Whether they spent a day or a year in Vietnam, it changed the soldiers in some way, either physically, mentally or both. Even the men who were very mentally stable found it hard to deal with all the aspects of the war. It was very difficult
The man states that “[his] duty was to kill the snake.” When the man uses the word “duty” it gives a sense that there are no other options and that it’s imperative that he does it. The reader knows the man is unskilled at killing animals since his actions are described as hacking and messy, so his attempts look horrific as the reader reads in disappointment. The reader can still condole with the man and pity him for making the decisions that he does. Also, the man reflects “that there were children, dogs, horses at the ranch,
Veterans needed to write in order to give themselves closure of some sort. The veterans expressed how they felt and what happened in the war through the literature. They needed that outlet but the American public was not quite ready for it. Tim O’Brien states, “She’ll explain that as a rule she hates war stories, she can’t understand why people want to wallow in all the blood and gore.” Most literature written was uncensored, the Vietnam veterans didn’t hold back with what actually went on. But the American public wasn’t ready for that type of exposure.