Boom- Down Like Cement

           The novel began by describing many stories, and then proceeded to inform the reader that not all of these tales were true. Though I felt slightly betrayed, I could understand what the author was alluding to. The story of a soldier who went AWOL and fell in love with a Red Cross nurse, only to return to war because he wanted the "hurt back" (34), and the tale of the soldiers who heard Vietnam "talking" (60) were too longwinded to be true. The descriptions and conclusions that were added made them sounds like stories soldiers enjoyed to say to one another to pass time. The short stories though, the ones that were stripped of all their decorative adjectives and provided the listener with no concrete finale, were the tales that  I found to be the most truthful.

            The story of Ted Lavender, who was shot and then was "Boom-down like cement", made me feel something different (6). Immediately after reading that sentence, I knew it had to be accurate. Feelings of horror and disgust streamed through my blood and straight to my stomach. That sentence,  Boom-down like cement, somehow circumvented my objective and analytical mind and stirred all of my emotions. My mind did not need to process this, to question its validity, because all I needed to know was right there: Boom-down like cement. No one was trying to make me believe he died for a reason or trying to convince me that his death was unique because there was no need to. The facts alone were enough to convince me that this happened. O'Brien wrote that "a true war story, if truly told, makes the stomach believe" (74). A true story hits your guts and "boom-down like cement" makes you a believer without any other evidence.