I agree with O'Brien about why the carry such items during the Vietnam War, and how he explains each reason in each new paragraph. I think it's strange how he mentions Martha every other second and relates Lavender's death to his own fault in relation to constantly thinking about Martha. It also confuses me how he believes that burning the pictures and letters will help him through it. I also think that O'Brien is somewhat of a confused person in general because of the sketchy pattern in which he writes his story.
Paul Morrison
3 comments:
Paul has a good point to the way O'Brien writes. It seems as though O'Brien in this story writes what he thought about, that's why we hear about Martha and the death of Lavender so much because he thought about those things so often. His way of writing isn't a favorite of mine because he's alomst rambling on and on about the same things. As I am reading I cannot fully understand if Cross's love for Martha is true love or just seems like that because he's at war..All in all not a bad story, but surely O'Brien is different when it comes to his writing.
I think also that Paul makes an interesting point about the way he writes. I think you could attribute his unsuccesive writing style to the fact taht the war in itself was a confusing and iratic time. There was no reason for buring the villages or klling the livestock or women and children. The whole reason for the war in the first place was not very clear and justified. I think that by writing in this manner O'Brien is trying to convey to the reader what it was like to just think in Vietnam. I think that he loves Martha becuase he his in the war and not at home where he can see her everyday. He is creating this fantasized image in his mind of her and I think that this makes him feel better especially at night. It also though inhibits his ability to properly lead his men. This is sort of shown by the death of Lavender. I find his writing style to be enjoyable and intense at times. The way he describes the things they carried by listing the weight of each thing shows how important to them it was to carry the least amount as possible but at the same time carry the most important things. All in all i think that this atory is a very unique acount of the Vietnam War.
the previous comment was posted by Andrew Kerth
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