The repetition of this image indicates importance. It is an indication of guilt and shock. .
In The Man I Killed, O"Brien shifts back and forth from factual information to speculative information about the young man. The speculative, or made up information suggests that O"Brien is internalizing the emotional pain of killing the young man. In doing this, Tim is able to relate to him, which makes the pain more of a reality. .
" the young man would not have wanted to be a soldier and his heart would have feared performing badly in battle Beyond anything else, he was afraid of disgracing himself, and therefore his family and village." (127).
These speculated feelings of the young man are those which we have seen in previous chapters pertaining to Tim and his personal feelings about himself as a soilder. The factual information changing into speculative information shows a retreat from the war mentality. We must also note the fact that this character is one of the only Vietnamese characters depicted in the novel, and this character is dead. O"Brien is letting this particular dead soldier stand for all. He is internalizing the emotional pain. More time passes and O"Brien is still emotionally paralyzed by the sight of the death of the young man. .
"The one eye did a funny twinkling trick, red to yellow. His head was wrenched sideways, as if loose at the neck, and the dead young man seemed to be staring at some distant object beyond the bell-shaped flowers along the trail. The blood at the neck had gone to a deep purplish black." (128).
The recurrence of this imagery places emphasis on shock, guilt, and even stronger emotions, these are stronger emotions than we see in Ambush. What is being focused on in The Man I Killed is emotion. When Kiowa asks Tim to talk about it, he can not, or chooses not to, this is further evidence of the internalization of emotional pain.
In Ambush O"Brien writes of the events that lead to the young man's death, something that was not included in the previous chapter.