Guns, guns, war, death

War stories always hit me a different way ever since I was old enough to sit down with my Grandfather and have him explain to me some of the small details of being in World War II. And a lot of the time the stories he told me were not of guns blazing or bayonet fights but of the relationships he developed with the men he served with. And reading O'Brien's stories brought me back to listening to my Grandfather, something that has not been accomplished for a long time.

In "Spin" O'Brien appeales to a different side of war then most people are used to. He dives into the most vital part of war and that is the relationships soliders develope while being under the most severe conditions. He introduces us to the little things that you remeber about war, soliders tendencys and hobbies like playing checkers everyday. But I knew this was going to be a different type of war story when I read the first line, "The war wasen't all terror and violence. Sometimes things could almost get sweet." You know O'Brien was going to explore a side of war that was different then most. I personally like these type of stories or films better then the Rambo's that are out there. The appeal to a different part of war and that's the psychological part of being in battle. These are regular men who had to endure the most intense situations day after day. Something that I would never be able to do under those circumstances. "I remember the monotony. Digging foxholes. Slapping mosquitos. The sun and the heat and endless patties." I think this is an intresting side of war that we rarely see, we saw it a little bit in the film Jarhead but I didn't think it was done to well.

The Man I killed hit me the most out of the three short stories, the idea is a comeplete mind job. Staring face to face with the man you killed is haunting to me. And he did exactly what I would have done and over analysed the situation, thinking about the young man and his math skills. This was one of my favorite war images and it reminded me of the series Band of Brothers when a soldier kills a young German soldier but before he shot him, he had a second to think and then pulled the trigger. And throughout the rest of that show it was a constant flashback of the soldiers young face. Really letting you in on the fact that you just killed somebody. The detail about the soldiers eye was fantastic and he repeated it throughout the entire story which really made you think about it.

O'Briens technique of using small intimate detail really shined in these stories and brought to life the horror of war without even talking about the machine guns and the tanks. I think that it's something special when you can illustrate your idea of violence by not showing it.