War is... A Vivid Memory

War is an experience. War is an unforgettable experience. Many horrible events take place during a war. What most people fail to see if the beauty within the horror. Many soldiers experienced firefights that they would describe images and memories as being intriguingly beautiful despite the harsh reality. Tim O'brien highlights this in his novel, The Things They Carried. O'brien states, “You hate it, yes, but your eyes do not. Like a killer forest fire, like a cancer under a microscope, any battle or bombing raid or artillery barrage has the aesthetic purity of absolute moral indifference- a powerful, implacable beauty…”(77). The visual depicts a firefight in Vietnam. Clearly the artist did not enjoy the firefight, but the beauty was clearly captured in this image. Most everything in the image is green, the trees, the buildings, even the reflection in the water. There are orange tracer bullets flying across the battlefield from what appears to be the trees. The vivid colors show that the memory of this event is still very clear in the artist’s mind. When O’brien says “moral indifference” he is explaining that one feels as if they should not enjoy the event of two groups of people firing machine guns at each other with the intent to kill, but when he adds “implacable beauty” it is understood that only the visual is seen as intriguing and not the fighting and death. When near death, it is common to start to appreciate the little things around you such as nature. The artist did a good job of capturing all of the green landscape and bright orange tracers. The artist has a vivid memory of this experience because of its beauty within all the horror.

Lindsay, Richard. Green Mansion Near Cambodia. Digital image. NVAM Collection. Web. <http://collection.nvam.org/index.php?artist=Lindsay, Richard&artwork=Green Mansion Near Cambodia>.