Hello Readers!

Last week in ASTU we read Philip Klay’s insightful, riveting, and wholehearted short story, Redeployment. This short story depicts upon the experience soldiers and veterans had when they served in the Iraq War. As a class we discussed countless aspects about the short story; however, the significance of the dog, Vicar, distinctively stood out to me. When I first read Redeployment I didn’t really see any importance to Vicar except that he was the  Sergeant Price’s best friend. While Klay tackles many different perspective of Vicar’s representation, I believe that Vicar is a metaphor for an Iraqi soldier. When Vicar needed to be euthanized, Sgt. Price thought he needed to take matters into his own hands and end his best friends life. With the connotation of Vicar being an Iraqi soldier it conveys how Sgt. Price’s emotional trauma altered mind set because he thought killing Vicar was the only choice to ultimately end his suffering forever. As well, the physical trauma plays into context because he used his rifle from the war to shoot Vicar intimating what it would be like in the war. Even though the brutal image of an owner shooting their own dog it was almost a normal aspect of Sgt. Price’s life. This extends to explain how nobody knows the feeling of war until they have gone through it themselves. This was probably something Sgt. Price had to do everyday when he was on the war zone, which made it a normal part of his life and something that had to be done. While suffering with both emotional and physical trauma Sgt. Price is trying to adapt back to the way his old lifestyle was yet he is extremely struggling to adjust to life outside of the war zone. In another manner, a close friend with my father served in the Iraq war. He did not kill his own dog although my father told me that when he came back home he was not the same man. My father could only imagined what he had gone through as he would tell him stories about the war but he would never truly understand every single obstacle his friend must have faced. Even though my father could not relate to his stories it was more traumatizing to hear because my father knew he could not do anything about it which made him feel miserable. Similarly, Cheryl felt like there was nothing she could do to make Sgt. Price go back to the way his life use to be. Reiterating the interpretations about Vicar I purpose this is why he believes that ending his dog’s life is his responsibility. This reveals that since his life had changed so dramatically he could never be the man he once was. Although Vicar is only one part of Sgt. Price pain and trauma being displayed after the deployment there are still so many aspects about his life that have changed significantly which I really enjoyed reading. This short story real made me ponder how the severe the affects from war can alter one’s mind set in such a horrific way.