I have read the next three chapters in "The Things They Carried," and I would just like to say I enjoyed them, mostly because they were war stories, but that was the whole point. I liked you telling the reader the truth about war stories and how the "normal" sounding ones were probably made up and the "crazy" ones were probably the ones that actually happened.
One of the stories you told I thought was really weird and sort of depressing, but you tell it in a very un-depressing manner. You said, "Sharp gray eyes, lean and narrow-waisted, and when he died it was almost beautiful, they way the sun light came around him and lifted him up and sucked him high into a tree full of moss and vines and white blossoms"(70). This seems like one of those stories that is "crazy," but actually happened, which I think is what freaks me out the most. The idea of someone being blown up into a tree while playing with a grenade sounds perfectly "crazy" to me, but I believe it actually happened. Also, how you describe his death as "beautiful," I find a little weird, but at the same time I can picture it perfectly and how you thought it was beautiful.
That was just one of my favorite war stories told in those chapters. Although I also like hearing about your companions back on the war grounds because I'm a firm believer in friends and having people you would kill yourself for, or in one case, kill them in their favor. Like the two soldiers who hated each other at first, but then became really good friends, and made a pact to kill the other if they were ever amputated. Of course one of the men has his leg blown off, but doesn't want to be killed so his friend promises to not kill him. It is partly morbid, but also heartwarming.
Sincerely,
Grace
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