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The Yellow Ribbon
In his helmet, Murph keeps a photograph of his girlfriend and him, as well as a casualty feeder card that contains all the information necessary to identify his body if he dies. Throughout the course of the novel, these two objects represent Murph’s gradual detachment from life (culminating in his emotional breakdown and death), as well as Bartle’s attempt to come to terms with Murph’s death (culminating in the decision to let go of the past). Although Murph initially keeps the picture and the casualty feeder card in a Ziploc bag, revealing how much he cares about his home life and the protection of his own body, he later discards them, leaving them in a laundry bucket—an act that shows how disillusioned he has become with the war and that highlights his intention to die. When Bartle finds these objects, he decides to save them. However, after trying to keep Murph’s memory alive, Bartle ultimately throws the photograph and casualty feeder card in the river, revealing that he wants to feel free from the pain and guilt that Murph’s death evokes. Through their alternation of protection and abandonment, these objects thus reveal the evolution of Murph and Bartle’s relationship with memory, as each character initially wants to hold onto the past, before deciding—for various reasons—that they need to let it go. In making Murph and Bartle’s difficult relationships with the past and the future more visible, these concrete objects reflect the two characters’ potentially fatal struggles to remain sane without giving up on their essential identity as human beings.
Murph’s Photograph and Casualty Feeder Card Quotes in The Yellow Birds
The The Yellow Birds quotes below all refer to the symbol of Murph’s Photograph and Casualty Feeder Card. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 2 Quotes
We’d had small lives, populated by a longing for something more substantial than dirt roads and small dreams. So we’d come here, where life needed no elaboration and others would tell us who to be. When we finished our work we went to sleep, calm and free of regret.
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At the military post of Fort Dix, New Jersey, Bartle reflects on the impulse that led young people like Murph and him to join the military. He concludes that it was more the result of boredom and monotony than of a deep commitment to the ideals of the U.S. military. Paradoxically, part of what Bartle identifies as the attraction of the army is the way it allows soldiers to obey orders blindly, without having to think for themselves and exercise much agency—the very lack of control that, when taken to an extreme, haunts both Murph and Bartle, leading them to Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur q
Chapter 3 Quotes
I felt an obligation to remember him correctly, because all remembrances are assignations of significance, and no one else would ever know what happened to him, perhaps not even me. I haven’t made any progress, really. When I try to get it right, I can’t. When I try to put it out of my mind, it only comes faster and with more force. No peace. So what. I’ve earned it.
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In Germany, after leaving Iraq, Bartle concludes that he has a duty to remember his fellow soldier Murph with precision. His desire to remember correctly is a way for him to honor Murph’s life, but also to try to parse out the meaning of the war—a war that seems senseless in the gratuitously horrific way it killed Murph. Before Bartle even reaches the U.S., however, he realizes that he has very little control over his own memory. He is able neither to forget the past, nor to grasp the meaning of the memories he has accumulated over the past year. Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possi
Chapter 8 Quotes
It’s impossible to identify the cause of anything, and I began to see the war as a big joke, for how cruel it was, for how desperately I wanted to measure the particulars of Murph’s new, strange behavior and trace it back to one moment, to one cause, to one thing I would not be guilty of.
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When Murph begins to adopt a distant attitude toward Bartle and the other soldiers, barely talking to anyone and often disappearing on his own, Bartle tries to understand what is happening to his companion. He wants to keep Bartle from giving in to despair and letting himself die, because he cares about Murph’s well-being and feels responsible for him. Bartle denounces the war as a cruel joke because it is utterly unpredictable, follows no inherent logic, and destroys everything in its wake, killing soldiers physically and/or mentally. Bartle’s desperate search for key events in Murph’s life as a soldier does Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque
He wanted to choose. He wanted to want. He wanted to replace the dullness growing inside him with anything else. He wanted to decide what he would gather around his body, to refuse that which fell toward him by accident or chance and stayed in orbit like an accretion disk. He wanted to have one memory he’d made of his own volition to balance out the shattered remnants of everything he hadn’t asked for.
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After discovering that Murph has abandoned the photograph and casualty feeder card he kept preciously in his helmet, Bartle goes to look for him, worried that these objects might signal that Murph has given up on life entirely. Bartle discovers his companion by the medics’ station, watching one of the doctors’ daily routine, and realizes that Murph has isolated himself to try to control at least a small part of his time in Iraq: the memories he chooses to make for himself. Unlike Bartle, who has made a mental shield of indifference, Murph has been consumed by the emotions growing Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore
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Murph’s Photograph and Casualty Feeder Card Symbol Timeline in The Yellow Birds
The timeline below shows where the symbol Murph’s Photograph and Casualty Feeder Card appears in The Yellow Birds. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 4: September 2004 – Al Tafar, Nineveh Province, Iraq
In the meantime, Bartle watches as Murph takes off his helmet, retrieves a photograph from inside it, and reads his letter carefully. When Bartle asks him if he has...
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...by the horrors of the war. During this conversation, Bartle asks to look at Murph’s picture and see that it shows Murph and his girlfriend in a peaceful setting on a...
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...resisted more, shown a greater desire to fight for his life. When Murph puts the picture back in his helmet, Bartle sees the card that all soldiers must fill out and...
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Chapter 8: October 2004 – Al Tafar, Nineveh Province, Iraq
After finding Murph’s casualty feeder card and the picture he kept in his helmet, Bartle begins to follow Murph, searching desperately...
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Chapter 9: November 2005 – Richmond, Virginia
...handcuffs Bartle, Bartle asks if he can take something with him, and he grabs the picture and casualty feeder card that were in Murph’s helmet. As the captain’s car drives Bartle...
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