Detailed Reality

Davidson and Lytle write about the mythical representations of war in modern films such as The Green Berets and The Deer Hunter while O’Brien gives us his account of the war from his own perspective as a foot soldier. If Davidson and Lytle were to read some of the excerpts from O’Brien’s book, I believe that they would call O’Brien’s work authentic because they understand that this writing comes from personal experience and emotion, rather than money or entertainment. The two authors wrote about the movie Platoon and praised it for showing the true nature of war. They wrote, “Platoon also dramatizes the anguish of fighting in Vietnam. Sheen is tormented by ants that crawl over him; he faints from the heat and humidity of the hard march; he stares anxiously into a rainy, impenetrable dark, trying to spot the enemy” (424). Rather than an epic tale of a seemingly invincible hero, Davidson and Lytle admired the sheer reality of war.
O’Brien writes about just how real war really can be in his short story titled, “The Man I Killed”. He gives us a startling detailed image of a man who he believes he has killed with his own hands. He writes, “His jaw was in his throat, his upper lip and teeth were gone, his one eye shut, his other eye was a star shaped hole” (139). The reader can imagine this picture so clearly because of all of the vivid details. Davidson and Lytle would deem it authentic just by reading the first couple lines of this short story.