Exploration Four: In the field

The chapter I love most is “In the Field”, Kiowa was dead in the mud and the team kept finding his body in this chapter. Most of the soldiers blamed Lieutenant Cross for Kiowa’s death. He should have decided to go to a higher land as it was already raining heavily the night before Kiowa died. Jimmy Cross blamed himself for this too, and he had to write a letter to Kiowa’s father to express his condolences. The chapter also tells us that no one is to blame for anyone’s death in a war. It was a war, people die and its nobody’s fault. In addition, I really like Kiowa’s character because he is kind of a nice guy. He comforted Tim O’Brien when Tim killed someone and felt bad, he is a Baptist and he is a true friend to all the teammates. It is a touching scene when everyone tried to pull his body out of the mud. It’s sad to know that whenever a soldier died it was always the same. They find the dead body and slide him aboard a chopper, just for the sake to get it over quickly, and to forget the fact that someone died in the team.


As a college student and a daughter, I feel responsible for my academic results and my role at home. My responsibilities seemed really insignificant when comparing to Lieutenant Cross’s. Every decision he made affects his team members’ life. In the chapter “In the Field”, he made a mistake for not heading for a higher ground, and the consequence of it is the death of Kiowa. We have to be very careful when making decisions because we are responsible to bear all the consequences and deal with it. For Jimmy Cross, he was held responsible for Kiowa’s death and would have to be blamed by his peers for the rest of his life. For me, although my responsibilities aren’t as great as his, some of the decisions I am making will decide what kind of life I will live in the future. I will think twice before doing everything because it’s my responsibility to live my life with no regrets.