16. A World of Difference

While reading "Field Trip," I found it a little strange that O'Brien took Kathleen to see war sites in Vietnam as a birthday gift. No ten year old girl wants to go visit open fields that hold no meaning. Kathleen does not understand what O'Brien does. She does not get the purpose of the war and why her father had to fight it in. She sees no need for her father to come visit these places again. On page 175 Kathleen asks her father questions about it:

"This whole war, why was everybody so mad at everybody else?"

"They weren't mad exactly. Some people wanted one thing, other people wanted another thing."

"What did you want?"

"Nothing. To stay alive."

"That's all?"

"Yes."

Kathleen sees no purpose to the war. She cannot relate with her father in this regard. She later calls him "weird" for "...coming over here. Some dumb things happens a long time ago and you can't ever forget it," (175). I think this story of Kathleen kind of represents the idea that many Americans' attitude towards the veterans was similar. They did not see why it was as big a deal as some made it. This further proves O'Brien's point as to why he had to use made up stories in order to tell others the truth. Just seeing the war for what it was if you are an outsider does not seem that huge of a deal. But knowing the feeling and emotion behind it is what makes you understand, just like seeing the field was boring to Kathleen because she could not feel the connection to it like her father was able to do.