Chapter 22

"The Lives of the Dead"

Quote 1:

"But this is true: stories can save us. [...] in a story, which is a kind of dreaming, the dead sometimes smile and sit up and return to the world." (page 225)

Analysis:

By starting the last chapter of his book with "[...] this is true: stories save us.", we can see that the author is trying to make it explicit for us, that without his stories he wouldn't have been able to be the person he is now a days. Also throughout his book O'Brien has been bringing the dead back to life, such as Kiowa, Kurt Lemon, Linda, Norman Bowker and the young man on the trail. All of them reviving in his stories. But, what is more essential and appreciated by the author is that this characters will remain a life in the pages of this book.

Quote 2:

"You did a good thing,' [Kiowa] he said. 'That shaking hands crap, it isn't decent. The guys'll hassle you for a while-- especially Jensen-- but just keep saying no. 

Should've done it myself. Takes guts, I know that." (page 227)

Analysis:

Soldiers tend to do this 'ritual' to the dead so they protect their reputation and show that they are tough, when in reality they are affected by the person's death, and know it is wrong to disrespect a dead person's body in such a way. In this quote when Kiowa says "Takes guts, I know that." what he really means is that it takes guts to admit that you are not always tough. 

Quote 3:

"I'm skimming across the surface of my own history, moving fast, riding the melt beneath the blades, doing loops and spins, and when I take a high leap for into the dark and down thirty years later, I realize it is as Tim trying to save Timmy's life with a story." (page 246)

Analysis:
In this extended metaphor we can see how the author, examines how the stories he tells evolved from the dreams and memories he had from Linda. Also Tim O'Brien is confident about the capacity that memories and stories have to give a certain kind of immortality to both to the dead- In this case his friend Linda, making her 'alive' again and giving her the possibility to skate with Timmy through the night- and also for the one who tells this story- in this case Tim O'Brien, permitting him to cope with his horrible and terrifying past.

In O'Brien's last story "The lives of the Dead" he deepens the meaning of his work by juxtaposing his first confrontation with death as a solider with his first encounter with death, when at age nine he lost his friend Linda to a brain tumor. In this fragment we can also see how O'Brien uses his memories and writing as comforting thing so he can cope with the mourning.

Chapter 21

"Night Life"

Quote 1:

"This whole war,' he said. 'You know what it is? Just one big banquet. Meat, man. You and me. Everybody. Meat for the bugs." (page 223)

Analysis:

For soldiers, imagination was another aspect of the the psychological baggage that soldiers had to carry. The fact that soldiers had the disadvantage of being in an unfamiliar place fighting against an unfamiliar enemy made them mentally unstable. Such is the case of Rat Kiley that imagines bugs clawing and nagging at his skin the whole time, he is just there a piece of "[...] Meat for the bugs.". Sometimes hallucinations take over the soldiers, partly because their body finds it difficult to adapt to the foreignness of the war and also because sometimes it is just too much to bare.

Quote 2:

"He took of his boots and socks, laid out his medical kit, doped himself up, and put a round through his foot. 

Nobody blamed him Sanders said." (page 223)

Analysis:

Before, we found out the real reason why Rat we might have assumed that he was hurt in combat; nothing else was expected of him since he had proved himself to be brave throughout the war. This is why it hurt to see him like that and give in to madness. It  may be true that "Nobody blamed him [...]" for doing what he did, sometime or another the soldiers have chickened out. But in Rat Kiley's mind he would see himself as a failure for committing such a cowardly act.

Chapter 20

"The Ghost Soldier"

Quote 1:

"Getting shot should be an experience from which you can draw some small pride. I don't mean the macho stuff. All I mean is that you should be able to talk about it [...]". (page 191)

Analysis:

In this quote we can see that back then, men still bragged about who had the biggest scar or the biggest wound, to proof who was the manliest of them all. Its the same with being shot, if you were shot, you could later share the experience with your buddies and proof to them that your masculinity and audaciousness was superior to theirs. But, being shot in the butt, and having to apply an ointment three times a day in your rear end, is not something someone should be proud to share with his war buddies.

Quote 2:

"He was sitting there with Dave Jensen and Mitchell Sanders and a few others, he seemed to fit in very nicely, all the smiles and group raptor.
That's probably what cinched it." (page 203)

Analysis:

What this quote makes us understand is that truly, the troop-buddie bonds that you create are only temporary and last until the war is over. Jorgenson, as inept as he was, had become part of the troop, and O'Brien who had left the group even though he was part of the troop longer than Jorgenson, wasn't anymore. This inclusion and exclusion of people in the group had nothing to do with precedence of a group member but it had to do a whole lot to belonging to the fighting group.

Quote 3:

"Azar shrugged. After a second he reached out and clapped me on the shoulder, not roughly but not gently either. 'What's real?' he said. 'Eight months in fantasyland, it tends to blur the line. Honest to God, I sometimes can't remember what real is."

Analysis:

In this quote Azar manifests what the problem with giving teenagers  automatic gun, and letting them use them on situations where society expectations do not apply. Due to the young age at which Azar is asked to join the war he creates his own rules of what is acceptable and what isn't for the "[...] Eight months in fantasyland [...]".

Chapter 19

"Field Trip"

Quote 1:

"Like coming over here. Some dumb things happens a long time ago and you can't ever forget it." (page 183)

Analysis:

Here we can see how the new generation sees history; "[...] Some dumb thing [...]", if it is in the past you should leave it on the past, they say. In this case Kathleen still doesn't understand what the war meant to her dad and how foreign it all seems for her. This is also a reason why Tim O'Brien writes this story; so that hundred years from now people from the generations to come know how it was back in the day were the Vietnamese war was still being fought. 

Quote 2:

"The sun made me squint. Twenty years. A lot like yesterday, a lot like never. In a way, maybe, I'd gone under with Kiowa, and now after two decades I'd finally worked my way out." (page 187)

Analysis:

Through this quote we can infer that the author felt imprisoned with all the memories roaming around his head and not having anybody to share them with. But after writing this book, and finding the courage of accepting some things; such as being partly responsible for Kiowa's death, reliefs him, and it is as if he had been underwater for a long time and had finally surfaced to finally lay back and breath.

Quote 3:

"The old man," he said, "is mad at you or something?" 

"I hope not."

"He looks mad."

"No," I said "All that's finished." (page 188)

Analysis: 

This quote can be interpreted in two ways. You could see it from the 't way', meaning that the man is just mad because O'Brien submerged himself on the sewage. Or in the other hand you could see it from O'Brien's perspective; the rivalry between Vietnam and America was over and there was no need for people from these countries to still feel tension and hatred between each other.

Chapter 18

"Good Form"

Quote 1:

"Its time to be blunt [...] I want you to know what I felt. I want you to know why story-thruth is truer sometimes than happening-truth." (page 179)

Analysis:

In this quote we can see that the author starts the passage by pointing out that almost everything said in the book is false, and it can also be inferred that that from now on in the book he will lead you through the roller coaster of emotions that he went through. In this quote we can also see that he differentiates the story-truth and the happening-truth; the story-truth is what is feels like for Tim O'Brien and the happening-truth is what actually happened.

Quote 2:

"There were many bodies, real bodies with real faces, but I was young then and I was afraid to look. And now, twenty years, I'm left with faceless responsibility and faceless grief." (page 180)

Analysis:

Through this  quote we can see how O'Brien is ashamed by civilians' thought that by ignoring the body and face of a person you've killed makes it easier to cope with the fact that you have killed a man. In the contrary to what helps Tim O'Brien cope with his conscience he has to give a face and a body to the person he has killed.

Quote 3:

"What stories can do, I guess, is make things present. 

I look at things I never looked at." (page 180)

Analysis:

One way in which Tim's stories help him, is by making them present, making all the memories he has from his past comeback to him and stick with him. Also by writing his  experiences down it helps him analyze things that he never had the guts to look over, for the fear of 'discovering' things that he overlooked before.

Chapter 16 and 17

"Notes"

Quote 1:

"I did not look on my work as therapy,and still don't. Yet when I received Norman Bowker's letter, it occurred to me that the act of writing had led me through a swirl of memories that might otherwise have ended in paralysis or worse." (page 158)

Analysis:

Here we can clearly see Tim's dislike for therapy. Although sharing his war "adventures" through this story he avoided suffering from PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) because otherwise he would've ended up in a "[...] paralysis or worse.", he still doesn't come to realize that for him, writing was a kind of therapy.

Quote 2:

"Norman did not experience a failure of nerve that night. He did not freeze up or lose the Silver Star for valor. That part of the story is my own." (page 161)

Analysis:
In this quote we can find the use of an allusion. This can be seen when the author states that "Norman did not experience a failure of nerve that night. He did not freeze up [...] That part of the story is my own." meaning that the one who lacked courage to save Kiowa and was paralyzed with horror was Tim and not Norman.

This quote is an eye-opener for the reader because it leads you to believe that all along you were blaming the wrong person for Kiowa's death. In this quote we can see how the author puts the blame on himself indirectly by saying "that part of the story is my own.", meaning that Bowker wasn't the one who lacked "[...] nerve that night." it was him.

"In the field"

Quote 1:

"Ten billion places we could've set up last night, and the man picks a latrine." (page 166)

Analysis:
Here we can also see a hint of allusion, when O'Brien sates that "[...] the man picks a latrine.", pinpointing all the guilt on Jimmy Cross. But he doesn't just blame him for picking "the wrong place", he also holds him responsible because he has to blame somebody, for his friend's death. He can't accept that his buddies' death was meaningless.

In this quote we see Mitchell Sanders blaming Lieutenant Cross for Kiowa's death. The accusation those not entirely come without merit, but Sanders also points out that after all who knew that it was a "shit field anyway."

Chapter 15

"Speaking of Courage"

Quote 1:

"And a pity about his father, who had his own war and who now preferred silence.

Still, there was so much to say." (page 147)

Analysis:

It is weird how Norman's father also participated went to war (apparently he went to World War II) and was such a traumatizing experience for him that he couldn't talk about it, and share experiences with his son about how it felt like going to war. Even thought both father and son went through the same experience, Norman's father can't come to realize how in great need of talking to someone.

Quote 2:

"Sometimes, like that night in the shit field, the difference between courage and cowardice was something small and stupid.

The way the earth bubbled. And the smell." (page 147)

Analysis:

Its kind of absurd, that what separates courage from cowardice, is sometimes so small. We tend to think that there is a abysmal difference between the two; some are heroes and others are cowards. But what can be seen in this quote is that even "[...] the smell." of something insignificant can change you from being "the man of the moment" to the coward of the story. 

Quote 3:

"He could not talk about it and never would. The evening was smooth and warm.

If it had been possible, which it wasn't, he would have explained how his friend Kiowa slipped away that night beneath the dark swampy field. He was folded in with the war; he was part of the waste."

Analysis:
Through the book, after incident, Norman keeps trying to find people he can talk to about Kiowa's death, but he just can't find the words. Even when he gets the chance to talk to the A&W, burger place, intercom; a nonjudgmental entity who's got all the time to spare, he finds himself unable to speak, and realizes that he too, like Kiowa "[...] was folded in with the war; he was part of the waste.".