Boys’ weekend
The narrator’s wife has left with her mother for Italy, they went to Rome for a trip. The narrator is left with his two sons – eight and ten years old. He is rather happy of such an opportunity to spend more time with them, and he gives an image of what the week would look like: “My sons and I were going to enjoy a boys’ week, filled with unwashed socks, REI rock-wall climbing, and ridiculous heaps of pasta.”
Old new Indian
The old man in the hospital is not given much attention to, but his appearance was an effective one. The old man “wore Levi’s, a black T-shirt, and eagle feathers in his gray braids.” The image gives an impression that the man belonged to two different worlds at the same time.
Tragic poetry
The narrator as interested in his grandfather’s service during the World War II. He found another man who served with him in the war and interviewed him. The old man gave quite a picture of the action in Okinawa: “it was hell. That beach, that island, was filled with sons and fathers, men who loved and were loved, American and Japanese and Okinawan, and all of us were dying, were being killed by other sons and fathers who also loved and were loved. Fire everywhere”. The image shows all the awfulness of war.
