Exploration 6: Miguel Radilla

            The story that meant the most to me would definitely be “On the Rainy River” Reason being is that in this story Tim O’ Brien fully describes an insurmountable crossroads that lies in front of him of whether to run away from a war and face being ostracized by his community or go fight knowing there’s a chance that he won’t survive.  “In the evenings I’d sometimes borrow my father’s car and drive aimlessly around town, feeling sorry for myself, thinking about the war and the pig factory and how my life seemed to be collapsing towards slaughter.” (2^nd Paragraph on pg. 41)  I feel that this chapter is the most relatable in my opinion because I would definitely share those same feelings if I were in that situation.

            I relate to Tim O’ Brien the most because I think it’s really hard not to. All in all, I feel a sense of just knowing him a lot more than the rest of the characters in the platoon. He does a phenomenal job in describing other characters, but qualities and things that stick out is his metamorphosis from a young kid through an adult in his forties. He describes his naiveté from pure sense of trepidation to how he had become indifferent where he couldn’t feel sadness, pity, and passion. “There were times in my life when I couldn’t feel, not sadness or pity or passion, and somehow I blamed this place for what I had become, and I blamed it for taking away the person I had once been.” (pg. 176)

            I definitely thought  the part where somebody had the realization where they ended up discovering that they were “camped in a goddamn shit field” was humorous. (pg. 139) Scene= Conventions of Narrative. On Pg 139 it gives a good description of the “shit field”

            “He could not talk about it and never would. The evening was smooth and warm. If it had been possible, which it wasn’t, he would have explained how his friend Kiowa slipped away that night beneath the dark swampy field. He was folded in with the war; he was part of the waste.”  (pg. 147) This resonated with me the most because this particular passage makes me feel for Norman Bowker. How he couldn’t talk about anything because he did not have anyone to talk to. I feel that all this bottled up emotion contributed to his suicide, which is unfortunate. A good interpretive question is, had he someone to talk to, would he had committed suicide?