Abnormal

Growing up I loved to read. It was a way for me to escape reality and become someone else for as long as I wanted. I would spend hours at time reading about people who made me thankful for the life that I had. That being said, Kiowa’s death affected me more than Rat Kiley loosing his mind. The mind is an easy thing to loose. It is almost expected during war. Everyone looses parts of themselves when faced in traumatic situations, such as Vietnam. I always hear post-war stories of grown men who wake up one day reliving battles and running around trying to protect themselves from things and people who aren’t there. Just like Rat scratching away bugs that were not crawling on him. Don’t get me wrong, the story of Rat is powerful but it’s generic compared to the death of Kiowa. Kiowa died in a field of feces he was literally sucked into the ground by bowel movements and rain. I think that I took to this story more than Rat’s because I enjoy reading about the abnormal. Things that make you feel uncomfortable almost to the point you want to stop reading. O’Brian talks about this in his interview when he says storytelling is “how we deal with conflict and with struggle and tensions in our lives”. Only for me I would rather hear or read of others struggles instead of tell mine. That is why I prefer “In The Field” instead of “Night Life”.