Comments on "The Things They Carried"

"There were red checkers and black checkers. The playing field was laid out in a strict grid, no tunnels or mountains or jungles. You knew where you stood. You knew the score. The pieces were out on the board, the enemy was visible, and you could watch the tactics unfolding into larger strategies. There was a winner and a loser. There were rules" - O’Brian

-This is one of the problems with WAR; I think that war should be like a sport... a football, basketball, baseball, etc...It should have rules ...rules that everybody follows...and like in a sport if broken there is a penalty, a foul or what have you. With rules applied to a war, I think that it would be much better because instead of death you would be "shot" (but not dead) and be taken out of the game ...pretty much like paintball. The only downfall with WAR is the Death, anything else is just legal... you fight for land of respect, or what ever you want.


“It was a sad scene when the choppers came to take us away. Jimmy Cross gave the old poppa-san a hug. Mitchell Sanders and Lee Strunk loaded him up with boxes of C-rations” - O’Brian

-This was interesting because it shows that not all soldiers are unforgiving and cruel, the soldiers appreciate that poppa-san saved their lives by leading them away from dangerous minefields. It sounds that poppa-san was a hospitable guy and truly wise and that the soldiers did respect him, which shows when they give poppa-san some food to help him and thank him for taking his time in helping the soldiers live on.