As Joshua has finished reading the novel, we today began our final analysis first exploring scenes in the novel that are reminiscent of Hemingway's "Farewell to Arms" ,also a war novel. We discussed areas that were both stylistically and thematically quite similar. We then expanded on our study of the author's view on the purpose of "war fiction." I reviewed the prior lessons on "story truth" vs .historical truth" and then we discussed how the novel's ending offers another purpose -to bring the dead to life again through imagination and thus perhaps rescue the writer from loss, pain ,and guilt. We noted how the novel resurrects many of the deceased characters and began a study of whether Hemingway or O'Brien best conveys the war experience.