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 boards the plane to fly back to America. He thinks that leaving Vietnam feels underwhelming, lacking any drama or real emotion. The lack of feeling seems wrong, somehow. A stewardess with a plastic smile walks through the cabin spraying disinfectant, keeping mosquitoes and “Asian evils” away from America. O’Brien reflects on the war, how he lost some friends and gained some and learned things about death, fear, and survival. He learned that the veterans of old wars found some reason to survive, some part of their life at home that they valued enough to live. The plane flies to Japan, then to Seattle.
The stewardess’s disinfectant spray keeps the “Asian evils” away from America, symbolizing the way that Americans do not want to hear about the realities of the Vietnam War or the horrors their country has perpetrated. Although America’s sense of duty and patriotism drove O’Brien to defy his conscience and participate in an evil war, Americans hypocritically do not want to face the consequences of that dutiful patriotism.
Themes
O’Brien eats a military-issue steak dinner, signs a lot of paperwork, says the pledge of allegiance, and takes a taxi to catch a flight to Minnesota. During the flight, he goes to the bathroom, changes into civilian clothes, and realizes that he’s beginning to feel happy again. O’Brien doesn’t have civilian shoes but he thinks no one will know the difference anyway. “It’s impossible to go home barefoot.”
Although O’Brien changes out of military uniform and into civilian clothes, symbolizing his changing identity from soldier back to civilian, his military shoes signify that he will never entirely be a civilian ever again. His statement that one cannot “go home barefoot” implies that it is impossible to return home from the Vietnam War unchanged.
Themes
