7. Anecdote

In the next section, The Dentist, O'Brien begins talking about Curt Lemon again. He starts off talking about his death, but then he suddenly sways the topic away from death and gives an anecdote from pages 82-84 about the February afternoon when "...an Army dentist was choppered in to check our teeth and do minor repair work." The anecdote was used to "guard against" O'Brien becoming sentimental over Lemon's death, as he states on page 82. This section shows how brave and macho these men feel like they have to be. O'Brien cannot get sentimental about death and Lemon is ashamed that he fainted at the dentist, so much so that he makes the dentist rip out a tooth, just so he won't seem so sheepish. I believe this is still true of a lot of men these days today also though. Not all, but most men seem to have trouble showing their sensitive sides and always try to act braver than they actually are. (No offense to the men out there, it's just a natural difference between guys and girls). I guess that is one thing that makes this novel timeless. The same rules still apply.

13. Mike's Anecdote

In Chapter 13, Bill and Jake finally meet up with Brett, Mike, and Robert. They all meet at a cafe and Mike shares an anecdote about the war, found on pages 140-141. It is not a typical war story sharing scenes from a battle, rather it is meant to be a somewhat comical story about a rather insignificant part of Michael's time serving in the war: "Don't you think that was funny? It was. I swear it was." I find it interesting that no one ever mentions anything of substance about the war really. This anecdote from Michael told us nothing of what he actually witnessed in the war. Everyone just seems as if they are trying to forget what happened, usually with the help of alcohol it seems. The characters in this novel continually run from their thoughts and feelings by becoming consumed in other activities like drinking or sexual endeavors.

Something from this chapter confused me as well. When Jake arrived at the hotel, he had a discussion with Montoya about the bull fights. On page 136 it says, "He always smiled as though bull-fighting were a very special secret between the two of us; a rather shocking but really very deep secret that we knew about." I am slightly confused by all this talk of secrets. Is there really a secret or is this just some type of metaphor? If it is a secret, am I supposed to know what it is and kind of pick up on it? If so I most definitely am not.