Comfort

In the chapter, The Man I Killed, Kiowa's attempts to comfort his friend were so real to me. O'Brien does a wonderful job of writing Kiowa as a best friend who is deeply concerned for his buddy's well-being. It surprised me how spot on the phrases were. Kiowa acted just like every friend does when their best friend is going through a crisis. The hysteria growing is almost tangible; the fact that O'Brien will not answer Kiowa even with the smallest of words, creates a fear in Kiowa every friend can understand. We all have tried to comfort a friend with similar phrases to the ones Kiowa uses on page 124 such as "man, I'm sorry" or "why not talk about it?" or "come on. man, talk" or simply the word "talk." It is clear that Kiowa feels that he can only help O'Brien if he talks to him, but isn't everyone like that? Sometimes when all a friend needs is you to just quietly stay with them, we feel the need to listen. I think this is because people think they can fix things if they know exactly what is going through the minds of their friend; uncertainty scares us. Kiowa is proving himself to be the man in the platoon who has the incredible want to fix each of his fellow soldiers. Every person is a little like Kiowa, which makes him so easy to relate to.