No Sweat

I'm trying so hard to figure out this book, but then I remember O'Brien told us that none of his stories will have a real point to them. He just wants us to read them and react with an "Oh". So far I've been reacting with a "huh?". It's not that I'm not enjoying it, I just don't know what to say about it.

I'm sorry Tim, but I'm going to have to come up with something.

Humping. "To carry something was to hump it" (page 3). I thought that was a really weird way to describe it, but I didn't put much thought into it until now.

Henry Dobbins umm.. "humped" the memories of his girlfriend through her pantyhose. I think there is a bit of situational irony when she breaks up with him and he still uses the panty hose as a good luck charm: "'No sweat,' he said. 'The magic doesn't go away'" (page 112). You expect him to be like Mark Fossie.. getting rid of the panty hose and finding something else to hump. Kinda like in Dear John, where John burns all the letters from the woman he loved.. I forget his name. So I'm thinking that maybe these soldiers don't really need something to be real to hump it, they just need the idea. Unlike us, they don't see their girlfriends every day, they probably don't really communicate either. All they have are thoughts (unless your dumb enough to bring your girlfriend to war).

As I'm thinking about this more, I'm realizing that Cross (from the beginning) humped the love he had for his girlfriend through pictures and rocks.. but he didn't have that love in return. All he did was imagine it. And apparently that is enough for men at war.