In What It Is Like To Go To War, Karl Marlantes tried to build common ground with his audience in his, “lying” chapter by having the audience mentally place themselves in the Vietnam War. “Assume you’re a decent soldier like me…You know there’s a bunch of lying bastards the other guys, who will do anything to get ahead and who aren’t decent at all.” By trying to appeal to the emotions of the reader, Marlantes has the reader contemplate the morality of lying. By placing themselves in the situation of a soldier in any war, the reader may question what they would do in the situations war can present to a person. As a person opposed to war, this was a failed attempt to connect to me because the situation that was created seemed to be completely
