“He was a citizen and a soldier”(125,O’Brien). Out of all the passage we were able to read I choose to write about “The Man I Killed”. It is a short passage in the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. This passage really caught my attention because O’Brien decided to repeat himself three times. When the main character looked at this man’s body, who he just killed, he saw just a normal person. He saw a man who had dreams of being a Mathematician. I believe the main character saw a normal citizen just like him, who had to go to war, who had dreams and had a family waiting for him at home. Throughout the passage this man realized how small the body was, I think he felt terrible for taking this man’s life away. He was a small Vietnamese man who never was violent and was picked on for having such a dainty figure. Even though the main characters friend told him that it was going to be alright, he knew it wasn’t alright. The main character possibly could have seen himself laying their dead. This was probably the first man he has ever killed, I believes this because Tim O’Brien repeats himself about how mangled this body is. I definitely enjoyed this passage, and when I get a better understanding for it maybe then ill be able to understand why O’Brien continues to repeat himself.
I thought you chose a very important section of the book to blog about. You are right, the man that O'Brien killed could have been O'Brien himself and this was made clear in the story. The soldiers were trained to view the Vietnamese as the enemy, as nonhuman beings, in order to be detached from killing them, but O'Brien shows that this is impossible to really do. He killed another human being and, as he stares at the dead young man, all of the reasons and excuses fall short and are of no comfort.
ReplyDeleteHey There,
ReplyDeleteVery nice post! I also agree that you picked to write about a very important part of the story. This poart of the story really goes into detail about O'Briens experience and struggles with his emotions.
I also found it very intersting how he had so much information about the man he killed. I didn't know whether it was the narrator or the author talking. It's impossible for either to have that much information about a man he killed under those circumstances. Very good post!
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