Points of View

The story is told from the first person point of view of the narrator, Philip Caputo. As this story is represented as a memoir (a true life story) rather than a fictional account of Caputo's experience in Vietnam, telling the story in first person allows the reader to feel a certain closeness with Caputo as the novel progresses.

Caputo begins his life story with an urgent emotional plea to the reader to understand what made him feel like he wanted to fight in the war and what makes him feel now, as a grown man, that he cannot condone war. As he begins the novel with such strong emotional tones, the reader begins to feel that Caputo is a trustworthy storyteller. He will not lead the reader into dishonest accounts of his time in Vietnam, nor will be offer excuses or apologies for what he recounts...