Morality in O’Brien’s Going After Cacciato Essay - 1708 Words

Morality in O’Brien’s Going After Cacciato Going After Cacciato, by Tim OBrien, is a book that presents many problems in understanding. Simply trying to figure out what is real and what is fantasy and where they combine can be quite a strain on the reader. Yet even more clouded and ambiguous are the larger moral questions raised in this book. There are many so-called war crimes or atrocities in this book, ranging from killing a water buffalo to fragging the commanding officer. Yet they are dealt with in an almost offhanded way. They seem to become simply the moral landscape upon which a greater drama is played-- i.e. the drama of running away from war, seeking peace in Paris. This journey after Cacciato turns into a†¦show more content†¦This certainly comes out in the fragging incident, when the squad kills Lieutenant Sidney Martin. But theres something more. Another time, OBrien was quoted as saying, My concerns have to do with the abstractions: ... How does one do right in an evil situation? (Bates 263). That is th e big question, of course, that this novel deals with. See, the point that OBrien is making is not that war is an evil situation. Hes trying to take that for granted and move beyond. Now that youve got this evil situation, what do you do? Where is the good? In the observation post, Paul Berlin remembered what his father had said on their last night along the Des Moines River. Youll see some terrible stuff, I guess. Thats how it goes. But try to look for the good things, too. Theyll be there if you look. So watch for them (OBrien 58). So he does look for the good things. Thats beauty being born out of despair, if you will. He enjoys watching the sunrise. And Bates refers to Paul Berlin helping treat a young Vietnamese girl and having sensitive feelings towards her (270). This is almost as if to say that war brings out the best as well as the worst in us. Some may argue that its almost worth it. (Almost being the key word-- for clearly the good in a war does not outweigh or even equal the bad.) Heres where purpose gets involved. Most believe that there is a greater good. Some reason for fighting the war. Politics. Ideology. The things Paul Berlin thinksShow MoreRelated Revelation through Experience in Heart of Darkness, Going After Cacciato, and The Things They Carri3247 Words   |  13 PagesRevelation through Experience in Heart of Darkness, Going After Cacciato, and The Things They Carried Foreign lands seemingly possessed by evil spirits as well as evil men, ammunition stockpiles, expendable extremities and splintered, non-expendable limbs carpeting the smoking husks of burnt-out villages, the intoxicating colors of burning napalm, and courage mixed with cowardice in the face of extreme peril. These are just a few examples of the spell-binding images presented inRead MoreThe Things They Carried By Tim O Brien Essay2097 Words   |  9 Pageswar. After he came back from the war, he decided to finish college. He attended as a graduate student at Harvard University and got an internship as a reporter for the Washington Post. O’Brien started writing at age 24 in 1973 upon his completion of his first novel If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home, an autobiographical story about his duties and the typical day as a soldier in the Vietnam War. In 1979, he won the National Book Award for his novels Northern Lights and Going After