This quote brings to light the theme of death that is all over the story. O’Brien and the rest of the men nonchalantly talk about and prefer death to being embarrassed. I know for many of the men as the war is going on, it is hard to tell whether the men who are alive see themselves as the fortunate ones.
The different stories being told throughout the novel were one of the major motifs that were present. O’Brien has expressed multiple how he believes that “stories are for joining the past to the future.” Stories were also a way to bring together facts of one’s life and the individual’s truth of their own life. O’Brien believed even if the individual whom the stories are about may die off, as long as it was a great story, the individual will live on through their story.
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The discussion of what is right and wrong is present throughout the novel, especially when it comes to the men deciding to go to war. O’Brien questioned his decision to join the war and thought long and hard about the morals concerning them. Initially, he didn’t see anything wrong with him escaping the draft by leaving for Canada, especially since he did not want to participate in the war. He only really truly started to see that his decision to escape was the wrong choice when he started to realize the shame and embarrassment that it would bring to his name. ‘Brien’s actions display how easily our morals as humans shift when it comes to personal gain.
In this quote, O’Brien symbolizes the Rainy River as the line that divides the two choices that the men who were drafted into the war had to make. They can either leave their home in shame or save their face and fight in the war. O’Brien had that decision to make and as most men did then, he decided to stay and fight in the war. It seems that society’s peer pressure and shame will overpower a person's free will.
In the eyes of these men at war, there is no difference between dead and getting embarrassed. O’Brien (and most of the other men) in this quote most likely felt as though the only way for him to validate himself is by going to war. The peer pressure that society had placed on men during the Vietnam War made them feel that the only way to prove masculinity was by participating in the war.
The connection that I interpreted from O’Brien in this quote about his relationship with joining the war was kind of ironic. One would think that someone participating in a war of any kind that could result in their death, that person would be seen as everything but a coward. However, that is not the way that O’Brien perceived himself joining the war. It seems that he sees his decision to go to be a cowardly choice because it is not what he wants to do. He gave in to the social pressure that requires masculinity from men by joining the war; to him, that was a cowardly decision.
In the novel, the baby water buffalo is used as a way for the men to vent out a little bit of their anger at themselves. The water buffalo represented the soldiers and the fact that they were not at fault for the war and pain that was going on. There wasn’t much that men could do about their situation and I am sure that they resented themselves because of it. By killing off the baby buffalo, they were able to vent out a little bit of their anger at themselves without having to hurt themselves. They might have felt too much shame if they ended their lives by their own hands.
This quote addresses the slow transformation that Mary Anne was going through as the war continued. Mary Anne was no longer the same feminine and joyful girl that she was when she first came. It’s clear to see that the great enthusiasm and interest that she had for the war was probably too much and too real for her to continue living her life as her original, sane self. This just shows that life in war can make any sane person, man or woman, question themselves.
His quote is an example of the isolation and sorrow motifs that were all over this reading. This quote describes the somewhat absurd drive that Bowker took after he came back home from the war. Seeing that he was driving with no clear destination in mind only shows how lost and alone he felt after the war. He most likely feels as if there is no one he can talk to who will be able to understand him. As he was looking out at the lake, he was in a way trying to find a way to comfort his loneliness and find a solution to his problem. I know a lot of times when things get hard, we as humans tend to just stare off into space, deep in our thoughts just hoping to find a way to fix ourselves.
In this quote, O’Brien is addressing just how close courage and cowardness truly are. After his experiences in the war, to him, there isn’t much that sets the two apart. He probably sees not much of a difference between the two because, at the end of the day, he couldn't rely on either one of them to save him from himself. O’Brien entered the way because of his courage against death, but he also entered the war because too much of a coward to not participate.
Norman tried to save Kiowa’s life but ended up failing to do so due to his struggles. He took the initiative to go save Kiowa, but he couldn’t handle all of the “shit” that was coming at him, so he ended up letting Kiowa die. This is a great example of when courage and cowardness come into play. I think Norman wanted to be courageous by trying to save the life of someone who was not himself; however, when the situation got too hot for him to handle, he had to become a coward and save himself.
O’Brien’s daughter was one of the only few representations of someone from a younger generation in the life of someone from an older time. In the quote, Kathleen sees her dad acting a bit different and she immediately categorizes it as him doing something stupid solely because she doesn’t understand as she is still young. Even when grows up and understands all that her father went through, at the end of the day, she is still a part of a younger generation who will likely never have to go through an experience like that.
Throughout the book, I notice that the dark/darkness was mentioned quite a few times in a context that I see can be both positive and negative. In this quote, O’Brien stated that people can only really their true selves in the dark and I agree. It is clear to say that no one likes to be watched and have their privacy invaded; however, daylight gives people the chance to invade the privacy of others. That is why usually in the daytime, people wear a mask to cover up their true selves up until nightfall when they can take off their mask since there is no one to able to see them. Due to the fear people have of the dark, they end up letting go of their masks and start instinctively acting like their true scarred selves in hopes of getting themselves out of their situation.
In this quote, O’Brien was talking about Rat Kiley and the war leaving him to become a man without much sanity left. O’Brien and the rest of the men are fearful of the possibility that they are looking at a mirror of what they are yet to become when they see Kiley if the war continues. The men's fear of becoming like Kiley likely outweighs the actual compassion and pity that they have for him.
This quote states Linda’s analogy of what her death “could” feel like. Linda uses a book that’s not being read as her analogy, which correlates with the storytelling motif. As O’Brien said, the only thing that could be left to remember about a person is their story. If their story is forgotten, the person will also be forgotten.
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