Going After Cacciato: Chapter 6 Summary & Analysis

Following Harold Murphy’s desertion, the soldiers continue West into Laos, led by an increasingly unhealthy Lieutenant Corson. Along the way, they find other small objects that seem to signal Cacciato’s presence nearby. After many miles, they come to the end of the jungles of Laos: they’re now in a vast savannah.

As they walk along the road that stretches through the savannah, the soldiers find further clues of Cacciato’s presence, such as a Black Jack wrapper. Suddenly, the soldiers see a pair of buffalo (water buffalo) dragging a cart across the savannah, not far away. Reflexively, the soldiers open fire on the two buffalo. Even after the other soldiers realize their mistake and cease their fire, Stink continues shooting at one of the animals. He doesn’t stop until his gun is empty. Then, he grins and places his leg on the dead buffalo, as if posing for a photograph. One buffalo survives the shooting.

The soldiers survey the dead buffalo lying in the middle of the road. Suddenly, they hear crying and yelling—there were women sitting in the cart, herding their two buffalo across the savannah, when the soldiers opened fire. Slowly, the three women—all of whom are weeping hysterically—stand up with their hands high in the air. Stink laughs and admires his own handiwork, calling himself “Fastest hands in the West.”

The night after Stink kills the buffalo, the soldiers spend the night at the edge of the savannah. Eddie and Doc drag the buffalo off the road, leaving one buffalo for transportation. Then, the soldiers prepare to interrogate the three women who were herding the animal. One of the women, who speaks little English, says that she and her two companions (who are much older than she) are refugees. She weeps over the dead buffalo—whose name, she insists, is Nguyen—and claims that she raised it since it was a calf. The woman becomes angry, and shouts that the soldiers must pay “reparation” for Nguyen’s death.

The soldiers continue asking the women questions. The youngest woman’s name, she claims, is Sarkin Aung Wang. She has been a refugee for many months, and has been traveling West, away from Saigon, where she once lived. The two older women are her aunts. Lieutenant Corson asks Sarkin where she and her aunts are heading, and Sarkin replies that they’re heading for the “Far West,” a long way away. Sarkin asks Lieutenant Corson if he’ll lead her to the Far West, as a way of apologizing for killing Nguyen. The Lieutenant says something under his breath, but neither Sarkin nor the soldiers can understand him.

The evening progresses, and the soldiers eat fish and rice with the three women. The aunts continue weeping for Nguyen. As everyone eats, Paul Berlin watches Sarkin, whom he finds very beautiful. He can’t place her age—she could be twelve, fifteen, or twenty. The next morning, the soldiers bury Nguyen and proceed to leave, accompanied by the three women. Eddie and Stink hitch the surviving buffalo up to the cart, and Paul Berlin decides to sit in the cart, next to Sarkin.