Their War, My Memories

"In the Field" held a lot of images that jogged memories from my childhood- surprising I know considering the tragedy behind Kiowa's death.

The imagery used in this part of the story put me right there. I could see "the filth [that] seemed to erase identites, transforming the men into identical copies of a single soldier..." (page 156). When I read this, an image of the toy soldiers marching around Andy's room in Toy Story popped into my head, the soldiers all green and alike.
On page 158, I remembered a time at my Aunt and Uncle's lake in Michigan when I read, "Their boots sank into the ooze, which produced a powerful downward suction, and with each step they would have to pull up hard to break the hold." In the middle of my Aunt and Uncle's lake is an island. My sisters and I will kayak out to the island and walk around it. When we were little, we'd call it exploring; it was like we were the only people around! Once on our walk wading through the water around the island my sister Olivia was suddenly sucked down, the sand reaching her knees. She thought it was quick sand, but later my aunt told us that the natural springs which fill the lake make pockets for the sediment, giving it the feeling of quick sand. And this stuff smells! And it's blueish green and sticky and pulls you down. So in a way I can see the dislike of this muck-filled field! However, I can't imagine drowning in something like that as Kiowa did.