How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from Platoon.
Quote #1
TAYLOR: I think I made a big mistake coming here.
Really? You think? Here, Taylor's reality changes almost immediately. If before his arrival in Vietnam, the reality was the war was a noble effort, after a week in the bush he's had enough and realizes that he's entered a terrible, horrible, cruel place.
Quote #2
BARNES: Elias is a water walker, like them politicians in Washington trying to fight this war with one hand tied around their balls. Ain't no need or time for a courtroom out here.
For Barnes, both Elias and "them politicians in Washington" have no clear concept of the reality of Vietnam. They want to fight the war in a humane way; a way that Barnes believes does not square with the reality of the war or with his sense of what it will take to win.
Quote #3
TAYLOR: Day by day, I struggle to maintain not only my strength, but my sanity. It's all a blur. I have no energy to write. I don't know what's right and what's wrong anymore.
Taylor's reality—his sense of "what's right and what's wrong"—is destroyed by the war. He finds himself needing to adapt to a different world where the normal categories of right and wrong are hopelessly confused.