Two Vietnam Tales: "Rockets Like Rain" and "The Things They Carried"
Summary:
Individual stories of Vietnam soldiers in "Rockets Like Rain" by Dale Reich and "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien.
"Rockets like Rain" was a story about soldiers caught in the confusion of the Vietnam War. There are a lot of apparent themes that are dealt with when writing a story about war, especially about death. I enjoyed reading this story, however there were some things about it that I was concerned about.Throughout much of "Rockets like Rain" the main character Dale Reich, goes through many transitions on his way to Vietnam and during his one year tour in Vietnam. In the beginng of the story Dale was attending the University of Wisconsin and he has just flunked out and he ponders his next step to take in his life. Dale, similar to Tim O'brien feels as though the war is for the uneducated and he himself has three semester of college under his belt. At this point, Dale's only fear is being drafted into the war. Dale finally decided to enroll into a state college to avoid being drafted at all, but when he returns home to share the news with his father, a World War two veteran, he calls his son a "draft dodger"(pg.36). Dale is shocked. Instead of awaiting his draft notice he decided to volunteer into the armed service. Another example of a transition that Dale makes is when he finally meets up with his company called D Company. When he arrives no one there is quick to make friends but over time cliques begin to form, the biggest cliques being the pot clique which made up 75% of the company. Dale, who is an innocent kid from the Midwest was not afraid to have a couple beers but never in his life crossed the line of actually doing drugs. Dale was already and outsider and couldn't stand to be alone in such an alien environment, so he slowly began to experiment with this new drug and found himself right smack in the middle of the biggest clique in D Company. The alst example of Dale's transition from his normal self to the life changing experience called Vietnam was his presence in D company. Dale was the quiet type who was in no rush to kill or be killed. He never volunteered to go on patrols and when his troop set up camp for the night he stayed and dug ditches, in the case of a mortar attack, while the other men established a perimeter around the rest site. He wanted to avoid using his M-16 at all costs.
One day Dale received mail from his mother in which she said that his friend David Price had been killed in action. This was the first time that the war effected Dale on a personal level. That same night the platoon leader was looking for volunteers for a night patrol and Dale was the first to raise his hand. "I don't know why I wanted to go. Maybe I was looking for revenge for David's death"(pg.63)
"Rockets like Rain" by Dale E. Reich has many parallels to Tim O'Brien's "the Things They Carried. One event in particular that jumped out to me was when both me needed to be nurse back to health. Both men spent several days away from their company, but both men had completely different thoughts about returning to their company. In "Rockets like Rain" Dale Reich drank bad water from a well while on a hike in 100 degree weather. He ended up getting falsiparum malaria which was the worst type of the malaria. Dale spent ten days in the hospital but he enjoyed being clean, sleeping on soft mattresses, using toilets and eating hot wholesome meals instead of the C-rations. Dale would have rather been sick and in bed ridden in the hospital than been in the battle field crippled with the fear of attack at any moment. "When I woke the following morning, I could almost smell moms cooking"(pg.71)The hospital made him feel at home and that of course was his overall goal, to get back home to his family. Tim O'Brien on the other hand when shot for the second time, was placed in a much safer, and more comfortable company, but instead of being relieved and relaxed about it he was still steaming mad at Jorgenson. I think this action shows a soldiers need for camaraderie. O'Brien misses the adventure of combat unlike Dale and is now for the first time throughout the war, a listener of war stories instead of the teller. Dale and Tim O'Brien are total opposites. Dale does not see himself as a good soldier because of his cowardice but he would consider O'Brien to be a prototype of what kind of soldier the US army needs. "If the US army had 500,000 men like that, the war would have been over in a week"(pg.47)
works cited: Books (the things they carried by tim obrien and rockets like rain by dale e reich
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