Hurting Peace Back

When O’Brian says “All that peace man, it felt so good it hurt. I want to hurt it back”, he means that peace makes them weak after they have been in so much death and problems. Peace can make them weaker because they became unfamiliar to the problems that they have been thru. Peace is defined in the passage probably as a weakness. A person at peace will probably not survive in a battle field because they will not want to attack other people. Peace can get them out of shape because if they are too relaxed, they may not be in the physical conditions to go back to war. During the war this men were at constant stress and grew unaccustomed to sit down and take a nap. Even in R&R they are stressed knowing that this is just temporal and in short time it will be ripped out of their hands. As many people say, one doesn’t lament what they never knew. By going to a moment of peace after they have been in death and explosions, they are probably going to lament that peace was just temporal.

In the Vietnam War men were obligated to fight for their country without a choice. As said before in the book, they always have to be careful of where they step because there may be a mine that will blow them in pieces. Peace it probably never fully achieved even though they are playing checkers. There is always someone with their guards up because a person may always throw a grenade to their fox-hole.  One of the most horrible things these soldiers experience the change between calm to afraid that even taking a leak you are going to be shot in the head. For these men being in a peaceful place will be great for some time. The problem occurs when they remember that this peace is probably temporal and in short time they will home to go to the battle field were they will encounter more death and fear. This is like giving freedom to someone and when they are starting to discover all the benefits of it, take is away from that person. By hurting is back they are saying that they are going to probably leave it until the war is done for them to never have to feel hoaxed again.