"You knew where you stood. You knew the score. The pieces were out on the board, the enemy was visible, you could watch the tactics unfolding into larger strategies. there was a winner and a loser. There were rules." (page 31)
To O'Brien and the other men, a simple fame of checkers was "restful" to them. It was the exact opposite of war in that there were no surprises. You knew where you were and where your enemy was. There was a definite beginning and end and the in between was orderly and clean, unlike war.
This was another thing that the men would carry in order to not only entertain them, but also reassure them. To think that such a small thing could help these men so much is dumbfounding. All they wanted was some order and something to reassure them that somewhere, things weren't how they were in Vietnam.
When I think about checkers, I also think that it is opposite from life in some ways too. In life, nothing is for sure. There aren't rules layed out or instructions on how to live you life. Although some people try to prepare you, nothing can really be done to ever prepare kids for what is to come. Things can change in the blink of an eye like they did for these men who were unexpectedly thrown into a war that they didn't even understand. After thinking about this, i don't think I'll ever be able to look at a game of checkers in the same way. It is one of few things that is trully set in stone.
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