Chapter 5 and 6

"Enemies"

Quote 1:

"In any other circumstances it might've ended there. But this was Vietnam, where guys carried guns, and Dave Jensen started to worry." (page 62)

Analysis:

In this quote the author explains how "little" things such as stealing a jackknife or breaking someones nose are not a big deal in day to day situations. But in the other hand when in Vietnam, those kinds of things smolder. In Vietnam "[...] where guys carried guns [...]" magnified all the guiltiness and the blame made everything so much worse.

"Friends"

Quote 1:

"Later we heard that Strunk died somewhere over Chu Lai, which seemed to relieve David Jensen of an enormous weight." (page 66)

Analysis:

Jensen Strunk in this chapter, had made a pact that if one of them was agonizing the other would put him out of his misery. But later, when Strunk is hurt by a bullet in the leg, and he has to have his leg amputated, nevertheless he pleads to David Jensen to leave him alive. Jensen agrees to this, but still feels a great burden because he  didn't carry out his part of the deal. This is because soldiers are normally committed to most pacts they make, but in this case Jensen found himself in a double bladed sword situation. By not killing Strunk, Jensen felt a huge guilt for not going through with the pact, but he would have felt even guiltier if he had killed Strunk.

"How to tell a true war story"

Quote 1:

"This is true." (page 67)

Analysis:

If we see that the author and main character of a book share the same name, and a book is based on a personal experience we know the author over went, it gives us an instinct that all of what is said in the book is true. In this quote we can see how O'Brien expects the reader to belief that most of what is said in this book is true. But then, the book is written in Tim's perspective, so in other words it is the author's definition of truth that is being portrayed throughout the book.

Quote 2:
"Rat pours his heart out. He says he loved the guy. He says the guy was his best friend in the world. They were like soul mates, he says, like twins or something, they had a whole lot in common." (page 68)

Analysis:

This quote shows the other face of the coin for soldiers. Normally soldiers tend to form strong relationships with their troop-buddies. Nonetheless due to the manliness that is looked for in the soldiers, it was really complex for the soldiers to explain what their troop members really mean for them. When "Rat pours his heart out." he starts by saying "They were soul mates, [...] ", we see how hard Rat Kiley is pushing his limits and admitting that he feels for his friend's loss.

Quote 3:

"if you don't care for obscenity, you don't care for the truth; if you don't care for the truth, watch how you vote. Send guys to war, they come home talking dirty." (page 69)

Analysis:

This quote here is a political statement in the book, and it giving us a sense that it is about the truth. Normally civilians, think that war is all gore, wreckage and bloodshed. But only those men who went to the war come home knowing things that citizens can't know or for the most part they do not want to hear. As it says in the quote "Send guys to war, they come home talking dirty.", meaning that if you send a man to war you shouldn't expect him to be the same person when he comes back.