While reading the different stories told by these soldiers, I felt like I was learning how a soldier in war thinks and feels. One story in particular caught my attention, that is, A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo. His focus was very much the depressing, guilt filled, melancholy feelings that each soldier feels. He also focused on the idea that every soldier has both good and evil in them and all are susceptible to falling into the natural man.
By Caputo’s definition, the natural man fights in war only for the survival and protection of himself and his fellow soldiers. He says that the average American didn’t come to Vietnam being overpowered by their evilness inside, but while being continually exposed to death, hatred, and gore, the evil portion of every soldier is bound to unveil itself. After being exhausted, physically, emotionally, socially, and mentally, Caputo was given the ability to take a well needed break from the front. He was transported to Saigon where he enjoyed three peaceful days of sleeping, eating real food, reading, and just being in luxury. Those three days ended all…show more content… After this experience, Caputo still feels a sense of guilt, but also believed that these actions were a product of being soldiers in a war of attrition. Counting dead bodies and killing VC being the entire strategy made for a unavoidably, inhumane, animal-like soldier.
The joy those soldiers felt as they climbed onto the plane to fly home, ending their part in the war was immense. War creates a sense of brotherhood your fellow officers, a hate for the enemy, and a longing and love for peace. I feel like A Rumor of War stood out to me because Caputo portrayed war in the way I imagine it. War brings out the best and worst in people. War is mostly full of ugliness, but there is a simplistic beauty of life that can only be recognized with the backdrop of human
