Reading this script was uncomfortable, yet addicting. Even the crudest of characters become endearing in their own ways. I admit, having genuine sympathy for killer, was the last thing I expected to feel going into this. “And I searched my soul for how I felt about the death that I had brought that day. Searched for some sort of human feeling of regret or compassion. Searched and searched and came up with nothing” (Huze, 17). This soldier wants to go within, to understand and connect with his experience. He has become irreversibly desensitized from his shocking environment. “…Maybe the only casualties weren’t the ones lying dead on the streets of Nasirya. Maybe some of us are the walking dead, soulless shells of the men we were” (Huze, 17). These dead bodies are mirroring the emptiness felt and caused by Rodriguez and his fellow soldiers.
These men who have served their country, in the harshest of conditions, aren’t just selfishly trying to cope with their distress. They may have survived, but a piece of them has died too. The memories of what took place, is what is now living inside of their empty shells.
Works Cited
Huze, Sean. "The Sand Storm." Susan Schulman Literary Agency. 2004.1 September 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqh26E3RIEc&feature=related
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pleadingforfreedom.jpg
