Quote 1
"When everybody got a bike I didn't get one 'cause there was no way we could get the money for a bike. But anything anybody got in the army, I got. You got a gun, I got a gun. You got boots, I got boots. You eat this lousy-ass chip beef on toast, guess what I eat?"
"Lousy-ass chip beef on toast," I said. (2.24-25)
Peewee likes at least one part of being in the army: it puts everyone on an even playing field, at least more or less. Which kind of gives you an idea of what Peewee's life was like before the army. His standards (chip beef?) are not very high.
Quote 2
"Johnson asked him to his damn face," Peewee said. "He asked him how come he put a brother on point and another brother in the damn rear with the sixty?"
I looked at Monaco, he looked back at me.
"What did he say?"
"Dongan—that's his name—" Peewee said, "he said he do what he think he should do and it ain't for Johnson to tell him what to do." (17.38-41)
Dongan puts the black men in the most vulnerable positions in their formation. In other words, if the group is fired at, Johnson and Peewee are the most likely to die. Thanks a lot, Dongan.
Quote 3
"What the f*** does that mean?" Peewee asked. "We get a Cong, we supposed to kill his ass twice?"
"No, monkey face, it means that we're supposed to kill as many of these g***s as we can," Brunner said.
"You going to 'monkey face' your way right to Arlington Cemetery," Peewee said. (17.138-140)
Brunner's always said racist things, but do you think he would have called Peewee "monkey face" earlier in the book? Now that they have a possibly racist commander (Dongan), Brunner seems to be getting worse. Don't encourage him.