Life is like a tangled web. It all comes from one point. So no matter how complex and vast it expands, people are still able to trace its origins, just like going back to the past. Through the eyes of one man, readers feel what it's like to be every soldier in the war. This is not just one man's experience, but all the experiences of men in war. O'Brien certainly touches on the gruesome and horrific experiences by reliving some of his experiences in unflinching detail, such as in "The Man I Killed." Tim has trouble talking about the man he killed and Tim discourages him from writing about it in the first person in this chapter. In this way, he is trying to alleviate some of his guilt. However, O'Brien can't help himself from visualizing an entire fictional life for the Vietnamese soldier. He discusses the similarity that both he and the dead man shared. By creating such a relatable character, O'Brien is in a way killing himself. Since this was a life-changing accident, O'Brien repeatedly portrays the dead man's appearance: "His jaw was in his throat, his upper lip and teeth were gone, his eye was closed, the 'other eye was a star-shaped hole...” (O'Brien 118) The vivid and stark imagery further demonstrates the importance of this scene because O'Brien was able to remember so many specific details about the'. man who killed. Repetition is used to emphasize to the readers that death is still haunting O'Brien. Furthermore, the writing style places emphasis on the traumatic factor felt by the narrator and has incorporated Tim's unstable feelings into the minds of the readers This chapter delves into the bigger picture, which is that even though killing is a soldier's job, killing... middle of paper... enhances your experience. (O'Brien 152) Writing for O'Brien is a technique of preserving the physical from deterioration, and thus he perpetuates life by making it imperishable in fiction. Immortality and preservation lie in people's memory. If the true measure of life is how long people live after we are gone, then keeping people's memories alive through fiction is a means of sustaining life. “…I realize that it is as if Tim is trying to save Timmy's life with a story” (O'Brien 233). Tim's life itself is the culmination of his past relationships with all the people who have been a part of it, keeping them alive does the same to him. O'Brien's writing ensures that the significant people in his life are eternal. Through their immortality, he has the ability to save himself with a simple story.