"Today I killed a man. Yesterday, I helped drop napalm on women and children."
This poem was one of my favorite's of the chapter. I think it was easy to visualize, understand, and relate to. The speaker is a narrator describing the letters being sent between a son and his family, while he is serving for the military. Based on the questions after the poem, I realized the title is the mailing address of the 25th Infantry Division in the Vietnam War. The poem is full of understatements, which are all the letters the son shares with his family about his experience, except for one. He talks about the rain, the funny monkeys, and the sunset, until finally he gives into his family and tells them what is really going on. His response was the quote above. Situational irony comes in when his father writes back saying, "Please don't write such depressing letters. You're upsetting your mother." This response represented most of America's view of Vietnam. They wanted to act like they cared and were involved in the war, but really did not know what was going on and did not want to hear the terrible truth.
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