Letter to Speaker.

Task: Write a letter to either speaker in O’Brien or Owen’s work, sharing your reactions to his narration and asking any questions you have about his experience. Letter must include your name, fake address, date, opening and closing salutations, admiration of their narrative, include two vocabulary words from list, include citations from the text to support, and questions. Must include introduction, body, conclusion. Approximately 350 words.

Dear Speaker,
I have just completed the narrative account called Ambush, and I must say, what I have read was shocking. The text was filled with so many literary elements and sense imagery that the "peril" you were in because realistic to me. Before reading this account, I truly believed that I knew what war was, but I guess I didn't. After, it because apparent to me that was was much more than what I first believe that I knew what was was, but I guess I didn't. After, it became apparent to me that war was much more than what I first believed it to be, that was changes a man, make him make choices that hold him responsible for a life, and emotionally damages them.

How you explained it, it seems that regret is a big cause and does change you. You state that "sometimes I forgive myself, other times I don't." I wonder if this is because you think that this man should be alive to this day, and that you shouldn't have killed him. But have you ever thought that what you did was a simple human reaction? In Ambush you also say, "of course not" when your daughter Kathleen questions you on weather you ever killed a man. At first I just thought she was too young to hear about death, but then I realized it was just your guilt.

I have always believed that going to war was prideful and you comeback a man of strength and heroism. I always thought, it was the case for every single person. However but you narrative it has become clear to me, that this isn't always the case. "Sitting alone in a room I'll look up and see the young man coming out of the fog." To me this shows how you haven't forgotten your time at war and probably never forget that you killed a man. Moreover, you also state, "and it will always be that way." Did you ever think that if you knew, the death of this soldier would effect you this much, would you have still thrown the grenade without thinking?

I also notice how mentally a person could go wrong and they state to become more and more paraniod, and I'm positive the surrounding didn't help at all. With "the night being foggy and hot" and "three grenades... lined up in front of me" must have been intense. To be near such deadly weapons and not knowing when to use them. By the quote "I had already thrown the grenade before telling myself to throw it." What this shows me, is that under such situations, a person freaks out at the first sign of danger. Would you have still thrown the gernade, if you came to understand that the solider must have been in the same position as you and if you made any sudden movements you'd freak him out and possible get shot at?

All in all, you narrative opened my mind and made me gape, as to how wrong I was about war. That it is more intense, frightening , and life changing than most people would ever believed. I do hope you take the time and reply to my questions.

Sincerely,
Kevin Toscano