I have been reading "Rock'N'Roll Soldier". It is about a young musician named Dean Kohler who was drafted in the Vietnam War and became a military policeman. The book ends with Dean was sent home and he was integrated back into "The World" (that is what Dean calls normal life). He got a new job after he was discharged and then soon bought a new car. I find the ending interesting because after all the crazy stuff that Dean has seen in Vietnam (burning trees, snipers hiding in rice paddy's, etc.) he was just expected to go home like he was supposed to forget everything he saw as soon as he got home. Though he was able to do that with the occasional night terror. He described a reoccurring one like: "I saw him again. The soldier lying dead on the sidewalk, His brains blown out behind him. The blood pooled around the soldier. 'It should have been you.' whispered the body. I turned around and I saw Ioli, Sugden, Jessen, Lynda, Judy, Dad, even Mom this time standing around me chanting what the body whispered, 'It should have been you!' 'It should have been you!' I woke up when my alarm clock blared in my ear jolting me from my nightmare. I was drenched in my own sweat."(Kohler 261) This shows being a soldier is no easy feat and the soldiers' lives should not be sacrificed for war.
I believe this book matters because it shows a normal person like us get turned into a machine of war. It shows the tolls that war has on an individual mentally and physically. It shows the sacrifice soldiers give for normal citizens of the USA (who don't go to war). Today soldiers STILL sacrifice themselves for us in places like Syria and Afghanistan. We should most definitely be grateful towards them.
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