Chapter 2, Pro Patria Summary and Analysis

In this chapter the narrative changes to visit O'Brien's past and the circumstances that lead to his service in the Army. A child of WWII veterans born during the baby boom, O'Brien grows to manhood on the plains of southern Minnesota. Through the stories told by the town's old men at gatherings or on long afternoons, the legacies of WWII and the Korean War form a backdrop to his upbringing

Nevertheless, O'Brien's childhood and adolescence is full of the happiness of small town Mid-western life. He ice skates in the winter, plays baseball in the summer, obeys his aging teachers, and longs for pretty girls in middle school. In high school, between pep rallies, dances, dates at drive-in movie theaters, and the A&W Root Beer Stand, O'Brien takes up reading Plato. He develops an interest in...