Question

Read these excerpts, paying special attention to the underlined text. What common theme is developed in both excerpts?

Answer 1

I think its number 1.

Answer 2

In these two excerpts the common idea resides in the fact that these men, who have experienced war and its aftereffects, are unable to verbalize the fact that they had to kill another human being. This, more than anything else about war, traumatizes the characters in both excerpts. This can be seen when in Ambush, the speaker reacts to his daughter´s comment on killing someone and he, overcome by the shame of having to face again the memories of something that happened during the war, lies to his child and reacts to her comment by embracing her instead of talking anymore. In the second excerpt of Symptoms, the soldiers are described as men who can talk willingly about all aspects of war except when they had to face the traumatizing event of killing people. Other than that, they would verbalize their thoughts openly; but not the thoughts of having killed, or witnessed the killing, of other people. This is why the correct answer is 1.