“I bend at the waist and place the butt stock of my rifle against the deck. My thumb rests on the trigger. I bite into the steel muzzle and feel my teeth reversing into my gums. With my tongue running between the slits of the flash suppressor, I imagine the trip my bullet will take, its movement through cerebrum, cerebellum, corpus callosum, pineal body, medulla oblongata. I think of a bullet traveling around my head and exiting through an eye socket or never exiting but rather spinning and spinning and ripping my brain to shreds until the momentum of ballistics is overpowered by fleshly resistance. Stop. Dead” (97).
This quote tells a lot of what goes through a marines mind. Anthony Swofford is considering suicide at this point in the story. He keeps thinking about his mom, his dad, his suicidal sister, and the possibility of his girlfriend cheating on him back home. This quote is kind of scary in a way. It makes me think that even if you make it out of the war alive, then you still might not survive in life. Swofford hasn’t even seen action yet, and he already tries to kill himself. He also keeps referring to another marine at this point in the story, who just received a video from his wife. In the video, it was the marine’s wife with their neighbor. That’s just so messed up in so many ways. That seems to me like the wife wants the marine to kill himself. The other marines just use the video as entertainment which is also messed up. Even though the fighting hasn’t even started yet, this story makes being in the army sound like the worst play to ever be. It seems to me like nothing will ever go right for you and that you’re in a hell hole that you can never get out.
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2 comments:
Wow. This book sound messed up and almost perverted. I kind of wish I saw the movie because it sounds like it’s something a typical teenage guy would like. It also makes me think about my friend who is thinking about joining the army. I wouldn’t want my friend having to deal with the mental strains that Anothny deals with.
Great incite, I seen the movie but the book sounds even better.
This makes me think about my uncle who is in the Navy and is currently in Baghdad but cannot talk about the things he sees and or does half the time, i wonder if what he is going through is anything like this.
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