Going After Cacciato: 7-16

Cacciato is still leading Paul Berlin and the rest of the third squad through the southeast area of Asia. Along the way they have picked up and lost people. More importantly, they have met a group of three women on the read to Delhi, India. They call themselves refugees from the war. One in particular, Paul Berlin has taken a fancy to. Her name is Sarkin Aung Wan. The squad decides to take her with them. While in transit, the squad falls into a hole that was a crack in the road. Down and further down they tumbled which many people believe is a reference to Alice in Wonderland.

Once at the bottom, they meet Li Van Hgoc a major from the 48th Vietcong Battalion. He explains to them that he has been stuck there for years and now they are trapped there with him. Sarkin Aung Wan comes up with a brilliant idea, "The way in is the way out," she said. "We have fallen into a hole. Now we must fall out." (O'Brien 98) The squad saddles up and Sarkin Aung Wan leads them through the terros of the darkness.

The miagery of this journey is important. O'Brien includes almost every symbol that is feared by both men and women; bats, rodents, snakes, cobwebs, blindness, unbearable heat and cold, etc. This journey through the tunnels to the light above can be compared to the Vietnam War. Soldiers endure multiple hardships and they know that in the world outside the war, there is a better life. This is why they escape, or try to.

Meanwhile, there are the two other sections that I think I figured out. The chapters that are not "The Observation Tower" or the "Going After Cacciato" are focused on past experiences from the mind of Paul Berlin. When these chapters are put together as a whole, they act as the memoir section of Paul Berlin's time during the war so far. Some chapters are happy, for example, in one they talk about basketball. In others they can be depressing, like the chapter in which the third squad plots the death of Lieutenant Sidney. When put together with the "Going After Cacciato" plotline, they balance each other out really well.

"The Observation Tower" post still continues to address abstract aspects of life. Paul Berlin thinks a lot about his fellow soldiers or what it would be like to go home. He thinks about his past, present, and future.