Entry #15

Allusion- "'Tim it's a war. The guy wasn't Heidi- he had a weapon, right? It's a tough thing, for sure, but you got to cut out that staring'" (page 120).

When O'Brien killed a man and then saw the same man he killed, he went into shock. He kept staring at the man and his buddy, Kiowa is trying to comfort him here. He throws in the allusion to Heidi in order to point out that the man wasn't an innocent bystander or a young child. The man was coming to kill O'Brien and the other men and he only did what he had to do, but the guilt is still too much for him.

This quote shows how truly difficult the war was on the men who were fighting it. They had to see the terror they were reaping on others and although some acted like it was no big deal, it was. They knew that it was at any moment they fired their weapons they were choosing a persons fate. These men were basically playing God, choosing who would die and who would live. The only difference was that if they didn't choose correctly, it was their own life at stake.