Exploration 5

1.) Like the majority of the class, the chapter that really hit me the hardest was " On the Rainy River." For me, like most young people, I think that this world is a very unforgiving place, but we manage to surround ourselves with people or things that we feel are good for us. Over time we grow to love them and look forward to spending endless amounts of time and energy to make what's best of what we have for us. Things like this keep us going. Whether it's your passion ( art, sports, science, etc..) the love of your life, your best friend, or anything else you would die for, these are the things that we hold onto, the things that make us happy. Now imagine all of that being ripped away from you, the decision is made for you by someone else that it would be best for you to go off to Vietnam to fight a seemingly pointless war, to risk your life every single day. Wouldn't you be a little scared?

2.) I believe that I connect myself the most with Tim O' Brien so far. Like him, I believe the very idea of war is idiotic, I mean I see the reasoning behind it and am not trying to downplay the major role it plays when it comes to the safety of the population, but  the fact that it is used as a weapon to gain more power is messed up if I do say so myself. I would have probably acted the same way Tim did when he was notified about the draft. Yes, I also wouldn't have been very happy if someone else had made MY decision for me. It's not right, but there's not much that you could do about it. I may have also felt as if i shouldn't have to fight in a war, but not because of how successful my future was looking, but because my freedom of choice was taken from me.

3.) I like how Tim O' Brien, still tells his war stories, even years after he's been actively on duty, and not for the sake of boasting by any means, but to "connect the past to the future." I feel as if he really could care less if his stories are even acknowledged, he wants the lives' of the innocent men, who were mostly also stripped of there freedom of choice, and were pushed into battle with him, who lost their lives' for this country. Over time these people grew to be his friends, he spent everyday with them, he wholeheartedly trusted them with his life. To me, Tim feels their stories are the one's that really matter and should never be forgotten.

4.) "He was a slim, dead, almost dainty young man of about twenty. He lay with one leg bent beneath him, his jaw in his throat, his face neither expressive nor inexpressive. One eye was shut. The other was a star-shaped hole." This passage comes from the story, The Man I Killed, and it's is an in depth analysis of the young Vietnamese man Tim had blown up with a grenade. I just think that it is so saddening that, young people like Tim, who did not sign up to kill people, were forced to kill or be killed. These memories of over kills haunt soldiers like him for the rest of their lives'.