Take That Martha Stewart- Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong

Step aside tough manly soldiers. You may think that women are only meant to serve you and to comfort you but let Mary Anne Bell show you how it's done. I love how the men are surprised that this women is able to step up and embrace the life at the compound.
Lets take a history lesson
Starting in WWI women were stepping up even more. While their men were off fighting the war they were taking up the slack and earning their keep. After WWI they were pushed back in their houses and baked their cookies. Then WWII came along and by this point women had learned their lesson. By the end of this war women had earned the most rights ever expressed to women in any society before that point. If that wasn't enough women were becoming more and more part of the battle field then before as well. So why is it such a shock that Mary Anne is able to embrace this war. I hate to break it to every confused person reading this book but males and females are not that different. Besides those few physical differences we are the same, and this war isn't about reproduction so it makes perfect sense that Mary Anne is able to fit in at the compound. Luckily for women today it's better, and it can always improve (but hey so can many things in life)

Sorry lads she isn't there to make you a sandwich

Dental Care- The Dentist

I've been to the dentist a thousand times so I know the drill, I smooth back my hair sit back in the chair. But somehow I still get the chills- Owl City "Dental Care"

The dentist with bad breath (irony?) waltzes in and brings Lemon to his knees (apparently Lemon is alive now, I hate how O'Brien jumps around his story like a jumping bean). I personally hate the dentist so I have sympathy for Lemon. However I don't understand why he's "all smiles" at the end of the chapter. He had to invent a type of pain to get over his mental anguish towards the dentist. Lemon may be only a flat character in this story (at least thus far) but he brings a a new tone to this story. How these soldiers would rather take their physical pain over mental pain. While physical pain can be come with a yanked tooth, the embarrassment of fainting in front of your troop leaves a emotional scar for long periods of time to come.

Two Truths and a Lie- How to tell a true war story

"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?

The Joker- Friends

I firmly believe this chapter is a great anecdote to illustrate the bond between battle buddies in this war. What I find mostly ironic is that these two are friends after the last chapter but that's beside the point. Even though these men face death and injury everyday and tried to fight that by trying to conquer it, hence the dreaded wheelchair wound pact on page 62 (although I'm always insanely jealous of those power wheelchairs while I'm in the grocery story). However you can see this fear once Strunk is injured, he cries and begs Jenson to let him live, wheelchair or not. Although Jenson lets him live he doesn't seem to sad that his best friend dies. In fact he was "relieved".
I think this shows another theme in this book that the men from war are dramatically changed and different from the ones at home. How the things they carry are pushing them to be different than society.

Enemies-Two Faced

I think this chapter length really shows the amount of pressure and new sense of justice the soldiers have. To show this pressure re-read this chapter Jensen was going through after the fight "At night he had trouble sleeping-a skittish feeling- always on guard, hearing strange noises in the dark, imagining a grenade rolling into his foxhole or the tickle of a knife against his ear. The distinction between good guys and bad guys disappeared for him." (page 60)
This "little" quote reminds me of the scene in "Emperors New Groove" when Kronk is running around singing his theme song, paranoid of everything. Sure these two men had fought but they're not out to kill each other. It just adds to another thing they carry, and then they are filled with a new sense of justice when Jenson broke his nose (or Jenson couldn't afford plastic surgery). I mean that type of Justice wouldn't of worked in a court house but it makes thing easier on the battle field.

The New Guru- On the Rainy River

All men are born truthful, and die liars
-Vauvenargues

When I first read this chapter I thought I found my new favorite character Elory Berdahl. My heart strings were pulled as Tim fought with the drafting issue. Then after my spark notes search (This chapter was so vast I didn't want to miss anything) I read that this chapter was fiction. A complete figment of O'Brien storytelling ability (and even if it's well written lyres are meant for marching band not war stories)
LIAR
I don't care if this is chapter shows the stress of someone drafted
I don't care if this chapter had a great character
I don't care if I almost cried along with O'Brien while he was on the river
O'Brien lied
this chapter stinks

Storytime-Spin

This story has this style of jumble-ness. For example chapter one is spent on the crew, chapter two on the love of Martha then now I get to read about checkers, chocolate bars and sitting under trees. Perhaps Time O'Brien is trying to show how much a soldier mind jumps to the past? I know I was a little tired of reading this chapter after reading a multitude of different subjects at once.I agree with Kathleen when she requests that O'Brien to write about something else. He only seems to bring out the boredom and horribleness of war... it's time to tell a different story