English 015 - Americans Abroad
A Senseless Conflict
A Senseless Conflict
Category: 08B: Going After Cacciato | Hope Stockton
The soldiers in Going After Cacciato display a confusion of purpose; they remain unsure of why they are in Vietnam, what exactly they are doing, and who it is for. This confusion is reinforced when the side the characters appear to be on turns against them, a recurring idea in the novel both in battle and while on the road to Paris. The soldiers experience this with an army airplane, while the enemy is trapped by the land itself. Both the enemy and the soldier grapple with fighting for a side that seems to fight right back in a pointless war, leaving them with a sense of hopelessness.
O’Brien describes a Chinook airplane on a simple mission to deploy troops, “[bucking] hard, throwing the men against the walls”(O’Brien, 130). The men on the plane are forced to scream to one another, while the plane becomes a sort of beast, knocking the men to the floor and making “gnashing, ripping, tearing, searing noise[s]” (O’Brien, 130). The plane finally spits the men out, only to open fire upon Pederson. “The Chinook’s shadow [passes] right over [Pederson],” an eerie presence dominating instead of aiding its man (O’Brien, 132).
The enemy fares no better within the novel. Li Van Hgoc, a Viet Cong member, describes the Americans’ greatest enemy as the land. However, this land has also trapped Li in “a maze, tunnels leading to more tunnels, passages emptying in passages, dead ends” (O’Brien, 96). Li too feels dissatisfaction and confusion; he has been trapped for ten years “and for what? What?” (O’Brien, 96).
The reoccurring image of being trapped by one’s own ally enforces the senselessness of this conflict and helps illustrate the desperate need for escape to Paris.
Posted by on December 02, 2003 at 02:03 PM