10. Imagery

"The Man I Killed" was practically bursting with unpleasant imagery. O'Brien relives the memories of the first boy he killed in the war. "His jaw was in his throat, his upper lip and teeth were gone, his eyebrows were thin and arched like a woman's, his nose was undamaged, there was a slight tear at the lobe of one ear, his clean black hair was swept upward into a cowlick at the rear of his skull, his forehead was lightly freckled, his fingernails were clean, the skin at his left cheek was peeled back in three ragged strips, his right cheek was smooth and hairless...his neck was open to the spinal cord and the blood there was thick and shiny and it was this wound that had killed him," (118). O'Brien continues to describe the way the boy is lying on the ground. He begins to imagine how he just took away everything from this young man. I could feel his guilt and his confusion and the pure shock he was experiencing in that moment. He was not able to speak because of it. He just stood there examining every square inch of this man who he killed. He frequently repeats parts of this first paragraph throughout the entire section. It shows that that is all he could think about at the time. He could not seem to grasp everything about what he had done and had to do to save his own life. Just reading this section made me feel sick, I cannot fathom how terrible it would have been to be in O'Brien's place in that moment. His description has not become rusty at all. The imagery he provides for the readers is as clear as the day it happened. This has stuck with him through the years. Something like that could never escape my mind. I would feel guilty forever.