Chapter 12, 13 & 14

"The Man I Killed" 

Important Sections of the Chapter 

1). "The butterfly was making its way along the young man's forehead, which was spotted with small dark freckles." (pg. 127)

ANALYSIS

This quote belongs to one of the most impacting chapters of the novel "The Things They Carried." In it, soldier O'Brien tells about the man he killed at war with so much vivid description that the audience can but sympathize with the narrator's remorse. 

The fact that a "butterfly", a symbol of beauty, is present in a scene of death illustrates that life continues no matter our actions, and that it is time for soldier O'Brien to move forward and forget the crime he committed by assassinating a man at war. As well, the author employs a gruesome comparison between beauty and death which emphasizes his techniques of enhancing the beauty of life through the crudeness of the war.   

2). "Frail-looking, delicately boned, the young man would not have wanted to be a soldier and in his heart would have feared performing badly in battle....He loved mathematics... and at school the boys sometimes teased him about how pretty he was, the arched eyebrows and long shapely fingers....Beyond anything else, he was afraid of disgracing himself, and therefore his family and village." (pg. 126)

ANALYSIS 

In this fragment we see as soldier O'Brien imagines a life for the man he killed. This accentuates the remorse he feels for having killed the young man and the fact that he uses phrases like "the young man would not have wanted to be a soldier" is a direct reflection of his life. In other words, O'Brien sees this man as himself, as what he will be converted on if by any chance the war took his life away. 

He finds similarities in his fantasy of what the man's life was like, and these similarities (not wanting to be in war, afraid of disgracing himself and his village) are the ones who make the character feel an overwhelming guilt and gives us, the readers, a sense that the time in this vignette has stopped, and that the only thing that is important is the crime that O'Brien has committed and the shock that came with it. 

3). "He devoted himself to his studies. He spent his nights alone, wrote romantic poems in his journal, took pleasure in the grace and beauty of differential equations...And as he waited, in his final year at university, he fell in love with a classmate, a girl of seventeen...One evening, perhaps, they exchanged gold rings." (pgs. 128-129)

ANALYSIS

This final quote emphasizes the remorse of the character. The fact that he imagines the young man as someone who "dedicated his life to his studies, wrote romantic poems" and "fell in love with a classmate" merely emphasizes the ugliness of his crime. O'Brien wants the readers to feel his guilt. He depicts this man as fragile and romantic, in others words, naive and it is this imagined candor what allows O'Brien to feel guilty for having killed him, accentuating the crudeness of war and the horros it forces the soldiers to commit.


"Ambush" 

Important Sections of the Chapter


1). "But here I want to pretend that she's a grown-up. I want to tell her exactly what happened, what I remember happening, and then I want to say to her that as a little girl she was absolutely right. This is why I keep writing war stories..." (pg. 131) 

ANALYSIS

This quote belongs to the first part of the chapter when soldier O'Brien lies to his daughter. The child asks him if he had ever killed someone at war and instead of answering with the truth, O'Brien decides to lie. However, the fact that in this quote he "wants to pretend that she's a grown-up" and that he "wants to tell her exactly what happened" suggests that this chapter is about seeking answers.

As readers, it is never clarified whether or not the narrator is trying to find a justification for his crime or a justification for his lie to his daughter, but what we are certain of is that what doesn't leave soldier O'Brien alone is the "why?". He wants to find an answer for his cowardice and he finds his release in the form of storytelling, where he can pretend that his daughter is mature and that together they will find a justification for his actions. 

2). "Even now I haven't finished sorting it out. Sometimes I forgive myself, other times I don't. In the ordinary hours of life I try not to dwell on it, but now and then, when I'm reading a newspaper or just sitting along in a room, I'll look up and see the young man coming out of the morning fog. I'll watch him walk toward me, his shoulders slightly stooped, his head cocked to the side, and he'll pass within a few yards of me and suddenly smile at some secret thought and then continue up the trail to where it bends back into the fog." (pg. 134) 

ANALYSIS

This last paragraph of the chapter deals with the feeling of remorse and the eternal doubt of the "what if." The narrator talks about how he hasn't "finished sorting it out" which suggests that through this chapter he is seeking for closure. However, it is never clear whether or not the closure he needs is forgiveness for his crime or a justification for his lie. towards his daughter. 

The fact that he sees the man "coming out of the morning fog" and "walking towards [him]" gives a glimpse into O'Brien's head. He wishes us to know his mind, how he thinks and the possibilities he sees if he hadn't killed the man; how his life would have turned out. The "smile" that the man shares at "some secret thought" suggests that he is enjoying the fact that O'Brien still feels guilt, that he hasn't yet found the necessary closure for his life, that he still does not know why he killed the young man. 

"Style" 

Important Sections of the Chapter

1). "That night, after we'd marched away from the smoking village, Azar mocked the girl's dancing. He did funny jumps and spins. He put the palms of his hands against his ears and danced sideways for a while, and then backwards, and then did an erotic thing with his hips. BUt Henry Dobbins, who moved gracefully for such a big man, took Azar from behind and lifted him up high and carried him over to a deep well and asked if he wanted to be dumped in. Azar said no. 'All right, then,' Henry Dobbins said, 'dance right.' (pg. 136)

ANALYSIS 

This quote belongs to the final paragraph of the chapter entitled "Style." In it, narrator O'Brien again gives an insight to the character's mind, particularly into Azar's and Henry Dobbins' mind. 

The fragment talks about how the platoon of soldiers encounter a girl who was dancing after her house was burned down with her family in it. Through the quote we see how Azar, one of the soldiers, mocks, once the Company leaves the place, the dancing of the girl. The narrator intends, with these actions, to illustrate the degree of disrespectfulness that the war brings to the soldiers who don't understand the Vietnamese culture. The fact that Azar does "an erotic thing with his hips" signifies that he doesn't care about the girl's grief and hence, does not respect her way of mourning the death. 

However O'Brien, who has always depicted Henry Dobbins as an exemplary man, enhances this idea by saying that he "took Azar from behind and carried him over to a deep well and asked if he wanted to be dumped in" when he saw how he was mocking the girl's grief. The phrase "dance right" said by Dobbins after Azar refuses to be thrown in the well shows that although he is a soldier and part of the war, he respects the Vietnamese culture and believes that others should respect the innocent as well, even though they don't understand them. 

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