Previous

“I don't wonder that the army was so glad to get my brother that they turned him into a Marine. He was built like a brick outhouse anyway. We liked to tease him that they really wanted him for his Indian nose. He had a nose big and sharp as a hatchet, like the nose on Red Tomahawk, the Indian who killed Sitting Bull….”

Early in the story, Lyman describes Henry Junior as large and strong, and he claims this is the main reason he is slated into the U.S. Marine Corps rather than into another branch of the U.S. Armed Forces. Henry Junior’s intimidating physique is a stark contrast to his easygoing and jocular personality. It is all the more jarring when these characteristics are stripped from him by his experiences in Vietnam. Lyman also describes Henry Junior as having a likeness to the Native American police officer, Red Tomahawk, who killed the revered chief Sitting Bull for the United States government. The allusion draws a parallel between the fact that Henry Junior is also strong-armed into doing the morally questionable bidding of the United States government when he joins the military.

“When he came home, though, Henry was very different, and I'll say this: the change was no good. You could hardly expect him to change for the better, I know. But he was quiet, so quiet, and never comfortable sitting still anywhere but always up and moving around.”

After Henry Junior returns home from his time fighting in the Vietnam War, Lyman describes the change in his brother as “no good.” This simple description carries a much heavier connotation as it is clearly wartime trauma that has changed Henry Junior for the worse. Henry Junior’s silence is at odds with his previously chatty and friendly personality. Similarly, he is no longer able to relax and is perpetually anxious and nervous. The unnerving change in Henry Junior is all the more poignant as seen through Lyman’s eyes because Lyman loves and looks up to his brother more than anyone else.

Previous section Lyman

Take a Study Break