Final post for the book

There are still many aspects of this book I have yet to even touch upon. there are so many different layers in this novel. But to round it all up, I decided to do my personal reaction to the book itself. As I mentioned in my first post, being called to war is my biggest fear. Up until this book, I had only a generic run of the mill idea of what war was. This book clarified some of these speculations, but for many of them it gave them a whole new twist.

"Your out of touch man... he is with us now." (O'Brien 188). O'Brien clearly says that there is no way to describe something to someone unless they were there. Army buddies are stereotypically men that sit around, share stories, and remember the days of their service. They discuss topics normal men can not comprehend, but the retired men try to explain it anyway. They are trying to warn about the terror they witnessed. It does not matter if what they say is true or not, or exaggerated a little here and there. What is important is that the lessons they learned, the knowledge they gained, is passed down. My speculation that many stories are changed a bit has stayed in tact, but the reason for the change has been given a whole new light to shine in.