Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in If I Die in a Combat Zone, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Evils of the Vietnam War
Courage
Duty vs. Conscience
The Enemy
Racism at War
Summary
Analysis
O’Brien states that the Bouncing Betty is the most feared variety of mine. Someone buries it in the ground with its tiny trigger prongs exposed. If someone disturbs the triggers, a small explosion launches the mine into the air so that it explodes at stomach-height. Booby-trapped artillery rounds are just as destructive, however. Chip triggered one in a hedge, which blew him apart, and another man sat on one during a break. Walking in a world covered in mines, soldiers start to hallucinate or become so afraid of taking steps that they can hardly move. One man simply snaps after he has to pick up the pieces of one his friends, sitting catatonic in a deep hole until Captain Johansen decides to reassign him away from combat.
Such heavy use of mines in Vietnam means that many American deaths occur even when the Viet Cong are not present. This further abstracts the traditional concept of an enemy, since the force that kills American soldiers is unseen, often not even present. O’Brien’s description of paralyzing fear over the mines suggests that these weapons make every inch of Vietnam feel potentially fatal, creating an extremely high-stress environment that easily leads to psychological breakdown or outburst.
Themes
The soldiers rarely discuss their fear of mines and the anxiety they cause. O’Brien details various varieties of mines that the Viet Cong use: anti-personnel mines that blow off feet and legs, anti-tank mines that can “shred[]” a person, directional mines like the claymores Americans use, hand grenades with makeshift timers deposited in vehicle gas tanks. In three days, three more mines go off, costing “seven more legs, one more arm.” All the deaths make O’Brien want to burn his catalogued list of mines, but that is how the soldiers speak about them—as something simple and “absurd.”
The soldiers’ decision to almost never discuss their fear of mines echoes their choice to never speak frankly about death or use each other’s real names. This suggests that they cope with the ever-present danger of mines by trying to minimize them, recognizing that they exist but downplaying the constant threat they represent and the strain they cause on each person’s psyche.
Themes
Everything is absurd. Alpha Company stalks through mine-riddled territory, trying and failing to find Viet Cong and fighting a war that will never be won. The Vietnamese hate the Americans now, and no matter how many Viet Cong the soldiers kill, there always seems to be more. The American soldiers begin laughing at the war, treating it as a joke. When they are old men, O’Brien says, they will be “bitter.” For any “patriots” who will claim that the war was necessary and that the old veterans should not be bitter, O’Brien will advise that they vacation in Pinkville, since there will certainly be some mines left over for them to find.
O’Brien’s depiction of the war reinforces his belief that the Vietnam War is evil: he sees it as a pointless exercise that causes horrific suffering and enflames racial animosity between Americans and Vietnamese people. The soldiers treating the war as a joke again suggests that they minimize everything that happens to them as a way to keep their emotional pain at bay.
Themes
