Twelve - Style

So in this chapter we see the development of this Azar fellow. I think he's pretty much the type who will crack jokes at anything in order to hide the fact that he's scared. Fairly one-dimensional I guess, although most of the characters so far have been pretty flat, from the holy-rolling Indian to the reckless tough guy. Maybe O'Brien is trying to show the many different ways that people coped with the horrors of the Vietnam War. Or maybe everyone in his squad was really just that bland. Who knows?

Anyway, I have no idea why he opens this chapter with the sentence "There was no music" (p. 129). I suppose it would effectively show that she wasn't dancing just because there was music and she was bored. *lightbulb* wait, I think I get it now. That's exactly the reason why he used that sentence. So then it sparks my intrigue, and I ask myself "well then why is she dancing, if not for the music?" And thus I make the connection that she is dancing for the same reason that Azar cracks his jokes; it is simply her own personal way of coping with the horrors that face her. Her family is dead, there are scary white people with guns in her village, she's probably going to die shortly, but hey at least she can just drown it out (by covering her ears, naturally) and dance to her heart's content. So then, I think that Dobbins is the only one that recognized this (which reinforces the inherent wisdom that he has shown already in the "Church" chapter) and thus tells Azar to stop mocking her and "dance right" (p. 130). I'm probably interpreting this badly, but I think that makes Dobbins pretty much the only character to even approach potentially "round" status. That definitely wasn't a shot at his weight, either.

This is a lightbulb. One did not actually materialize above my head. That is a figure of speech.