A machine gunner with a heart.
Or so it would appear. Thus far in the story Henry seems to be the one who wants things to be right. As we would look at right. I'm sure he wanted to stop the senseless slaughter of the baby water buffalo. Azar probably got lots of black looks from Henry when he blew up the puppy with a claymore. And finally, and it's the last thing I read so it's stuck in my head, Henry attempted to throw Azar into the well for his mocking of the young Vietnamese girl.
Henry seems to be the conscience of the platoon. Big and graceful and slow and strong and quiet and dumb and expressive and feeling and caring. Henry is all of these things. He is also moral. Henry understands that war sucks and sometimes soldiers do things that don't make sense, but he also knows what is right and what is wrong. Henry knows what should and shouldn't be done. He let Rat Kiley grieve for Kurt Lemon, but I know that he was not the one who kicked the water buffalo. I'm sure that had he known Azar's intentions, he would have never let him near Ted Lavender's puppy.
The reason Henry picked up Azar, and threatened to throw him into a well is simple. Azar was mocking that dancing girl's pain. She was alone, in a village of corpses, in a village of burnt out shells of huts. Her mind was gone, probably retreating to a happy time. A time of dancing and music. Henry understood this. Not only could he not take Azar's mockery of such human suffering, he couldn't take Azar's erotic twist on the girl's dance, it was all too much for him.
I am also sure that if Azar had said yes, Henry would have dumped him into that well without a second thought.
I'm not sure what that all means, but it's what struck me.
I agree with you on this character. Usually a big character is not always the nicest one. Well, he is the "Soldier Jesus" by the view of the Vietnamese monks. I definitely can see a kind human being, "Just being nice to people, that's all. Being decent....Visit sick people, stuff like that. I would've been good at it too." (O'Brien 121).Though he mentions his desire is from childhood experience, one could infer that maybe this whole war has shined light on him. Probably, leading him to a being a better human being with others. This could possibly be his reason of being moral throughout the whole book.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading your post, I was struck by the consistent use of phrases such as "I'm sure" or "he would have never," phrases that denote an unflinching resolve on your part. These phrases were curiously underscored by your closing sentence of relative uncertainty: "I'm not sure what all that means." I wonder how you would reconcile your seeming certainty of individual goings-on in the text, particularly with regard to morality, and your uncertainty toward any overall meaning. Interesting...
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