APO 96225

This poem also ranks as one of my favorites because it was comparable to "The Things They Carried". It considers the topic of what is appropriate to note from the war and what is not. Just like "The Things They Carried", the speaker does not focus on the day to day events of the war because that is what he lives in. By writing his parents a letter, he is able to escape this zone for atleast a short time. He also hides the violence of the war by referring to understatements or aversions--like that it rains a lot. When discerning between situational and dramatic irony, I think it is probable that both exist. For example, we as the reader know he is shielding his parents from the war. However, it is also situational in that when he actually writes his mother the truth she does not want to hear it again, even after she repeatedly asked for the truth. It basically sounds like a situation the speaker cannot win.