Two particular chapters explain why O’Brien felt the way he did and why he wrote the book. Both “Ambush” and “The Man I Killed” are the same story described in different ways. In the chapter “Ambush” Kathleen, O’Brien’s daughter, asks if he ever killed a man. Even in the present, even though years have passed since the war, his past has come to haunt him. Just when he thought he could live at peace, the topic of “death” is brought up.
In the chapter “The Man I Killed” the reader is able to understand how this one action has led to him have guilt for killing an “innocent” man. He is described in an unsure manner. “He had been born, maybe in 1946 in the village of My Khe.” Pg. 125
In “Ambush” fog is mentioned “dawn began to break through the fog.” Pg. 132 This also adds to the mysteriousness of the man who was killed. …show more content…
He has used imagery to allow the reader envision what he saw. The sensory detail makes the reader “lose themselves” in the story as if it were real, something that can only be accomplished when being fictionalized. The figurative language expresses emotions. Words can only classify emotions. However they are unfathomable and can only be expressed through “exaggerations”. To compare one self to the author’s feeling is the only way for the emotion to be understood. The repetition is used to show the struggle of letting go of the past. O’Brien becomes a writer and finds that he can’t let go so easily. He writes stories more than once to find a point in why it haunts him and why he must move