"You hate it, yes, but your eyes do not. Like a killer forest fire, like cancer under a microscope, like any battle or bombing raid or artillery barrage has the aesthetic beauty-and a true war story will tell the truth about this, though the truth is ugly" page 77
To be quite honest I found this chapter to be a little strange. First off this guy obviously knows how to tell a war story, otherwise we wouldn't be reading his war story we would read something differnt. Also since the River chapter I haven't believed a word this man has written, but have taken it as beautiful fiction. However this chapter has struck true to me.
The men in this war are able to cope/survive with war due to the beauty they find in it. I mean look what happens to Lemon dies "when he died it was almost beautiful, the way the sunlight came around him and lifted him up and sucked him high into a tree full of moss and vines and white blossoms" (page 67). Our hero doesn't mention one word about the blood or the body in the tree. So while the reader can use O'Brien's beautiful imagery to see the foliage in the war we can't see the evil of the war.
Another thing to carry?
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