3. Simile

In the third section, O'Brien again describes memories from the war. On page 31, he uses a simile to help him explain what some parts of war are like. "On occasions the war was like a Ping-Pong ball. You could put a fancy spin on it, you could make it dance." I am not completely sure what O'Brien meant, but I believe that this simile is his way of saying that the war was not entirely bad. He found ways to make it a more positive experience than a negative one. Later in the chapter, however, he resumes talk of the negative experiences. As he says, "The thing about remembering is that you don't forget," (33). As he shares more positive experiences, he always leads back to the negative because he cannot ever forget no matter how much he may wish to do so. No matter how many good things happened, the bad will still always be a huge part of who O'Brien is.