O’Brien employs different strategies for dealing with the very difficult subject. Discuss O’Brien’s technique from at least three different vignettes. As always pair text with commentary.  

             One instance where O’Brien shows a strategy for dealing with death is when Curt Lemon is killed.  The soldiers each have a different way of dealing with death but for Rat Kiley, Curt Lemon was his best friend.  In dealing with the death of his best friend he massacred a baby buffalo.  “…Rat took careful aim and shot off an ear.  He shot it in the hindquarters and in the little hump at its back.  He shot it twice in t he flanks.  It wasn’t to kill; it was to hurt. He put the rifle muzzle up against the mouth and shot the mouth away.”  This was Curt Lemon’s way of dealing with death.  “Curt Lemon was dead.  Rat Kiley had los this best friend in the world.”  Being his best friend, Rat had been especially hurt and affected by the death.  Rat Kiley cried for his friend’s death, he was very hurt.  O’Brien says as a response to Rat’s actions, “We had witnessed something essential, something brand-new and profound, a piece of the world so startling there was not yet a name for it.”

               Another instance where O’Brien shows a strategy for dealing with death is when Ted Lavender died.  Lieutenant Jimmy Cross took his death especially hard because he felt it was somehow his fault.  He felt that his love for Martha got in the way of him doing his job as a lieutenant.  “…First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross crouched at the bottom of his foxhole and burned Martha’s Letters.  Then he burned the two photographs.”  This was Jimmy’s way of dealing with Ted Lavender’s death.  He thought by burning the things that dealt with Martha that he would somehow forget about her and focus on the war.  However Martha was still with the Lieutenant.  “Lavender was dead.  You couldn’t burn the blame.  Besides, the letters were in his head.  And even now, without photographs, Lieutenant Cross could see Martha playing volleyball in her white gym shorts and yellow T-shirt.”

                A third instance where O’Brien shows a strategy for dealing with death is the way O’Brien deals with it.  His way of dealing with Curt Lemon’s death is by telling a story about him.  Even though O’Brien wasn’t very close with Curt Lemon he still finds it necessary to talk about him.  He says, “When Curt Lemon was killed, I found it hard to mourn.  I knew him only slightly, and what I did know was not impressive…”  O’Brien goes on to tell the story of Curt and the dentist.  Memories are how O’Brien deals with Curt’s death.  He didn’t mourn it he just accepted it.