"The Blame Game"

Jasmine Jordan(summarizer/ blog-master):


"Like Jimmy Cross, the boy was explaining things to an absent judge.  It wasn't to defend himself.  The boy recognized his own guilt and wanted only to lay out the full causes..."When a man died, there had to be blame.  Jimmy Cross understood this.  You could blame the war… A moment of carelessness or bad judgment or plain stupidity carried consequences that lasted forever." (In the Field, pg. 115)


      During this section of the book, the troops are dealing with the recent death of Kiowa (the religious baptist trooper, from Oklahoma) and the men are trying to process what just happened. Similar to all the other burdens the men carry, this one is no different. Tim automatically accepts his part but with partial guilt in Kiowa's death that he doesn't even try to rationalize.  Instead he decides to relive every single reason that could be the answer to what just happened. 


     On the other hand, Jimmy Cross blames himself for Kiowa's death. He starts to think of who in particular should be blamed for the lost- sources such as the war, the rain, God, munitions makers, voters, etc.  are deemed worthy. Even despit the many reasonal blames he comes up with, its ultimately his own faults that win the clear vote.  Jimmy chose to camp in the field despite the warnings of old Vietnamese women so most would say its safe to place the blame on him....what do you believe?