Grant Trainer - Exploration 5

The story that has meant the most to me so far would be the story about when Curt Lemons dies and then Rat shoots the Water Buffalo. This is because the brutality of it stuck with me. The whole concept of the chapter: how to tell a true war story. That if it made sense or was beliebable then it wasn't true. If it contained a lesson and everyone acting of courage then it wasn't true. This really stuck with me because that is what most people tend to think. It was gruesome what Rat did to the Buffalo but also sad for Rat himself. The stress of the war and the things that happened got to people. Not everyone handles it with amazing skill like it is portrayed in movies and stories. People crack, it happens. Although he shouldn't have shot the water buffalo and it was wrong no matter what, nobody can understand why except him and maybe the people that were in his platoon. The character that I connect with the best so far is Jimmy Cross. This is because many times in a situation i am the leader and i understand that it is a lot of pressure. And sometimes that pressure can end up causing you to mess up and blame yourself for whatver happens. Sometimes, like in jimmy cross's case, it sticks with you forever. In this book, something that stood out to me is the use of sensory details by Tim O'brien. Anytime he describes something, it is so detailed and descriptive that you can picture it almost perfectly. Almost feel exactly as they feel. "They would sit down or kneel, not facing the hole, listening to the ground beneath them, imagining cobwebs and ghosts, whatever was down there-the tunnel walls squeezing in-how the flashlight seemed impossibly heavy in hand and how it was tunnel vision in thevery strictest sense, compression in all ways, even time, and how you had to wiggle in-ass and elbows- a swallowed-up feeling-and how you found yourself worrying about odd things: will your flashlight go dead? Do rats carry rabies? If you screamed, how far would that sound carry? Would your buddies hear it? Would they have the courage to drag you out? In some respects, though not many, the waiting was worse than the tunnel itself, imagination was a killer." This impacted me because of the sensory details. They were so vivid and detailed that i felt like i was crawling through that tunnel. It really sticks with you.