// War Literature

This story starts out by saying that he had never told anyone this story before because of his embarrassment. This device draws the readers in and makes us curious of what he has to tell us. Before the story went on, I thought he was going to tell us about the shame that he felt after killing many people during the war. Instead it focused on the shame he felt for not wanting to fight and running away. This short story took an interesting turn and showed us why he finally went to war and the thoughts that ran through his head which led him to this decision even though he was so against it.

O’Brien had other plans after graduating from college. All of his plans shattered once he received a letter in the mail that he was drafted to war which changed his whole life. Before, he even felt queasy at the sight of blood but now he had to struggle to decide whether to fight in a war, which he didn’t know anything about or to run away to Canada and leave his whole life behind while feeling the shame and losing respect from his family and community. He worked at a meatpacking place where he was drenched in pig’s blood everyday until he finally broke down and took off for six days until he decided to go back.

Through this story, we are able to sympathize with him and his struggle to decide whether to fight for his country even if it might mean death or to flee and never be able to face his family or ever go back to his community ever again. In the end he decided that he had to go back and fight in the war because he felt a tremendous amount of guilt. It also makes me wonder if this is even a valid reason to fight in the war because you don’t want people to look down on you?

I found this story quite interesting because his reason for finally going to war is because he feels embarrassed not to. Imagine a 21 year old straight out of college ready to live his life. The only thing stopping him is war and fear. This story is very realistic because many people who gets drafted doesn’t want to go but they feel like it is their obligation and they have to go. I think if people try to run away from it, rarely would anyone go back home and decide that they should actually go to war.