The story that means the most to me so far is the one about Rat Kiley torturing the water buffalo. This story involves the horror of any war. The story starts off with Rat’s best friend, Curt Lemon, stepping on a land mine and blowing up. His body is thrown, and strung up in the tree. The visual that is given to readers about his death is very graphic. This further describes the awfulness of the Vietnam War. After Curt’s death, Rat writes a letter to Curt’s sister. He poured his heart into that letter. This shows how close of friends they were, and how devastated Rat was. What pushed him even further off the edge was not getting a response back from Curt’s sister. Rat was very upset and this is shown when he started to torture the baby buffalo the squad had captured. He shot “not to kill; it was to hurt”(O’Brian 75). Thst is how Rat felt, he was hurting from losing his best friend, and, that Curt’s sister never Escondido. The story shows the emotional impact the war had on men, but even younger men like Rat who was only 19.
My favorite character in the book so far has to be Rat Kiley. He is the most relatable character to me because of his age and how he acts. He seems to be a fun guy that tells stories, even if he exaggerates. Rat is an entertainer, he enjoys spreading information. He also seems to care a lot about people. He likes his platoon and has no problems with anyone. He cares about the people who have died.
I agree with you about the chapter, it just goes to show us how much stress and how emotionally unstable these young guys were. I could not imagine having to go through that at my age. Plus if it wasn’t for all that rage and grief there is no way someone could do that to an animal and not feel any remorse.
ReplyDeleteI love the second paragraph; Rat is my favorite character too! I think he really brings out the positive energy in any situation he can, and almost acts as a "comic relief" to war itself. I find it funny how his "embellishment" of his stories is how he's described and known by most people. He adds comedy to the story, and shows that in every negative situation, some kind of laughs and fun can be brought out of it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said about Rat always being caring a lot about people, he shows this when Curt dies and he sends a letter to Curt's sister telling her how much Curt meant to him. This shows how the war affected people and changed them.
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