4. Throughout the story the author alternates between Vietnam where the war is taking place and back home in the U.S.A representing the changes between before the war and after the war as far as the mentality of the soldiers. The author alternates between these two settings to demonstrate what lead him to the war. First thing the author does is describe the war some, describe his leader lieutenant Jimmy Cross and the other members of Alpha Company. A while later he changes the settings back to his hometown where he tells of what left him to the war, he states, "I would go to the war-I would kill and maybe die- because I was embarrassed not to" how he felt sad about going for such an irrational reason. Later he changes the setting back to the war and then back to after the war. He does this setting change to let the reader compare and contrast the two.
5. The one way that the author could do to improve the book would be to completely rewrite the last chapter. He starts with a story of when he barely joined up with Alpha Company, then he starts reminiscing about his first girlfriend who died of cancer, his first death experience ever. Furthermore I understand how he compares it to his first death experience on the battlefield. However to put that chapter at the end just doesn't seem quite right. At the very end how the author states in the last page "I'll never die.im skimming across the surface of my own history, moving fast, riding the melt beneath the blades," it all just sounds cheesy maybe even forced, not natural I any way. So to improve the novel either get rid of the last chapter altogether, move the chapter more towards the beginning, or rewrite some parts.
6. Tim has a very pacifistic, rationalistic type of personality. However he is also a coward which is a feature that I do not like. This very feature is what led him to a war he did not want to go to. This characteristic is apparent in pg.