A Star-Shaped Story

The Man I Killed is told by Tim O’Brien, but it is not told from first person. Instead, Tim relates the story by describing the man and questioning the facts and through these details; the reader tries to decipher what Tim might be feeling. This chapter has an excellent description of the young man Tim killed and it all has an extended double meaning. What I love about this chapter is the tone Tim uses to depict the guilt and agony that death creates in him. He feels lost and he lets this excruciating pain take over him, and as if guilt itself were writing this chapter, I was able to experience what he felt when killing.

Throughout the whole chapter Tim describes the young man, and knows many details about him; what he did before the war, what he was carrying, what he loved, what he wanted. All of these details are impossible to be known by an American soldier, and this leads us to feel the guilt that Tim carries after killing this man. He decides to make up a life for the man, to imagine all he could’ve been, all he lost after dying. And through this story, he sees himself in the man. He was just another boy, with hopes and dreams of his own, a keen dislike for war and no stomach for violence. He was just another boy that got killed but this time, it had been Tim’s grenade, and it had been his fault.

After reading this chapter, I remained skeptical about all the knowledge Tim had on the man he killed; however, when I read Good Form I was able to fully understand why Tim made up a life for the young man. He explains that not knowing the faces and lives of those he kills creates an empty feeling and he’s only left with faceless responsibility and faceless grief. In a way, I think this is true; however, it led me to deeply think about the following question:

Would you rather know about the life of the man you killed, or not know anything at all, yet be left with doubt, faceless responsibility and faceless grief?

This chapter is incredibly deep in thought and is a great example of how the presence of guilt can take over a man’s soul.