Chapter/Story #17: In The Field

I found this story very interesting. It captured my attention. It helped me realize the significance of the shit field and how it represented the chaos of the war. When O' Brien refers to Kiowa's death, he refers to Kiowa being caught up in the field and the war. The experience in that field was horrifying just like the war. I understood the fact that everyone felt guilty for the death of Kiowa because it had a serious affect on all the men. I respected the fact that they felt the need to find his body because it would have been messed up for them to leave him there. I can't imagine viewing Kiowa's dead body, I know it wasn't a good sight. In the beginning of the story, O' Brien says: "The rain was the war and you had to fight the war". This is a true statement because no matter if you wanted to be involved in the war or not, if you were there you had to deal with it or die. It is a struggle for survival. This whole book reveals that in different ways. It presents difficulties, like if Lieutenant Cross actually has to write Kiowa's dad and explain how good of a boy his son was and his death. I'm sure that's something that nobody would want to have the duty of doing. I think Lieutenant Cross shouldn't be blamed for the death of Kiowa because he had no idea that field would end up taking a life. I don't think that the younger boy should be blamed either. Like O' Brien said: "it was one of those freak things, and the war was full of freaks". That sentence explains a lot. The series of sentences where O' Brien comes up with all these reasons you could blame for a man dying emphasizes the fact that they could come up with a million reasons for a man's death but at the end of the day, they have to deal with the war. The field was powerful because any moment of carelessness or bad judgment carried consequences that could last forever. Just like the war.