Sierra Calvert

Prof. Weaver

ENG 112

Due by March 22nd, 2019

Literary Analysis of “When Engaging Targets, Remember”

War is a complex thing. Soldiers have to make complex decisions in seconds. These

choices are life and death most of the time. Whether it be the life of you and your fellow soldiers,

the enemy or an innocent civilian. The things they have to decide can save lives or end them.

This is an extremely difficult thing to do and the consequences may effect your mental health.

This choose-your-own-adventure story displays how these quick decisions takes a toll on soldiers

health mentally by making the reader make the decisions.

According to the National Center for PTSD, almost 31% of Vietnam veterans have post-

traumatic stress disorder. As many as 10% of Gulf War (Desert Storm) and 11% of veterans of

the war in Afghanistan also have this condition. The war in which this story takes place is no

different. 20% of the American veterans that were a part of the Iraqi war have PTSD. This is

caused by many different events that each individual went through and just cannot handle

mentally. Many of these veterans have to live with the guilt of killing other human beings. Some

of these people they killed might not have even been the enemy. The enemy tries to look like

civilians and it is extremely hard to tell the difference for these soldiers. More than a few

civilians have been killed by American soldiers because they thought they were the enemy. More

than a few American soldiers have been killed because they thought the enemy was a civilian.

This only makes these decisions harder for the soldiers.

 “When Engaging in Targets, Remember” is set in late 2004 Iraq. This setting intensifies

the feeling of sympathy for the soldiers because of how recent it is. Most current high school

students were already born and people that were in high school then are in their 30’s now. So

they feel more because it happened when they were alive and breathing. For example, many high

school seniors were alive when 9/11 happened so they feel more emotional towards the event.

But, many high school freshman were not born before 9/11 so they are not typically as

passionate to learn about it.

The plot of this story was unusual in the fact that you got to choose which way it went.

This choose-your-own-adventure style let the reader make decisions and based on that decision,

the plot changed. This allowed the reader to sympathize for the soldiers because these choices

were not easy ones to make. This style of writing made reader’s think like the soldiers in Iraq. It

made them realize that they really have no good options.

The point-of-view in “When Engaging in Targets, Remember” is in second person. This

puts the reader in the soldiers shoes. It makes them feel like they are a part of the story. The

second person narrative makes them think like they are a soldier in Iraq in late 2004 and that they

are making the same decisions as they have to in real life. Being in second person narration

makes the reader the only character in this story. The soldier makes no interactions with any

other person.

The theme of “When Engaging in Targets, Remember” is to sympathize with the soldiers

fighting in wars around the world. This story shows the reader the types of choices they have to

make everyday and the kinds of things they think about daily. “You think about going back to

UC Riverside and enrolling in ENGL 302 with no lower jaw or tongue, having to write out your

conversation or type through some text-to-speech thing like a twenty-year-old Stephen Hawking,
your old roommates looking at you with kindness and awkwardness and pity, no one really

wanting to talk to you in that condition, and you not wanting to talk to anyone either.” The story

goes on to talk about how you wouldn’t get any girls because of how your face looked and how a

bomb could blow your genitals off as well. Making it hard enough to get girls but now your

friends have to help you change your catheter bag. This all goes to show what these soldiers

think about everyday and makes the reader sympathize with them even more.

All of this exhibit the way the author, Stephen Crane, tries to get the reader to really feel

for the soldiers in Iraq. He does this really well mostly by choosing to do the second person

narration and the choose-your-adventure style. The combination of these two really gets the

reader into the soldiers shoes. He also chose to include the inner thoughts of the soldier so that

the reader starts to think like him as well. Crane sets the story in late 2004 Iraq because most of

the people reading “When Engaging in Targets, Remember” were alive during that time. The

majority of these readers are more likely to either remember it clearly, know someone who does

or know someone who was actually there. This all makes them feel for the soldiers even more.