How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
What emerged on the paper was a picture of a GI in a wheelchair, his right leg amputated at the knee and wrapped in a white bandage. He looked so much like TJ, I gasped and took a step backward. I had to force myself to look again and see for sure that it wasn't my brother in the wheelchair, that it was someone I'd never seen before in my life. (9.43)
Jamie thinks she wants to be a part of the war, but she can't even stomach looking at the pictures of it. Here, she squints at the photo because she can't face reality. It's tough to see images of war up close and personal, and that's exactly what she's looking at in all of TJ's film.
Quote #8
And, when you got right down to it, if I lost all those things, I had practically lost my own self. Which is a sad and depressing thought to have. (11.39)
When she doesn't feel positive about the war anymore, Jamie questions who she is. All her life she's known herself as someone who supports war. Once she loses this major part of her identity, Jamie questions reality. She doesn't know how to be herself without promoting fighting or the army in some way.
Quote #9
"We got into it for the right reasons," the Colonel said, leaning forward and looking straight at me, like he needed me to believe him. "That's what all those antiwar types don't understand. They don't understand that the Soviets and the communist Chinese are a real threat to our security. We can't let 'em have Southeast Asia." (13.27)
We finally begin to understand what the Colonel's issues with the war are when he explains this to Jamie. There are different versions of reality at play here. Some people are for the war; others think it's gone south and has to be stopped. The Colonel highlights a real debate that the country grappled with at this time.