Letting go

On page 187 of the book Tim O’Brian writes, “Twenty years. A lot like yesterday, a lot like never. In a way maybe, I’d gone under with Kiowa and now after two decades I’d finally worked my way out….I felt something go shut in my hear t while something else swung open.” To me this is the point where Tim O’Brian is finally able to let go of the war. He is finally able to let go of the pain and he no longer lets the memories of the war consume him.When he says he’d gone under with Kiowa and now after two decades he’d finally worked his way out, to me he is saying that he was in a way stuck in the past, the war and the memories. In the interview Tim O’Brian says, “I was examining myself essentially, my own terror inside.”I think he allowed this terror to continue to live in his heart and allowed that terror to hinder him from enjoying life as it should. I think that once he was able to go back to the scene where some of that terror came to haunt him, he was in a way able to let some of it go.He was finally able to dig his way out of his own pit and live once again. At that moment the desire to live in the past in a way shut and the desire to live life and move on opened.