How we cite our quotes: (Poem.Paragraph)
Quote #4
But the old man would not have believed white warfare—killing across great distances without knowing who or how many had died. It was all too alien to comprehend, the mortars and big guns; [ . . . ] the old man would not have believed anything so monstrous. (V.123)
This is one of Tayo's biggest critiques of white culture: in inventing nuclear warfare, white people have developed a completely "monstrous" and inhuman way of killing.
Quote #5
Ku'oosh would have looked at the dismembered corpses and the atomic heat-flash outlines, where human bodies had evaporated, and the old man would have said something close and terrible had killed these people. Not even oldtime witches killed like that. (V.123)
Tayo thinks old Ku'oosh would describe atomic warfare as "something close and terrible," though it's actually a way of "killing across great distances." Is the medicine man just confused, or is there something "close" about this remote way of killing?
Quote #6
"We were the best. U.S. Army. We butchered every Jap we found. No Jap bastard was fit to take prisoner. We had all kinds of ways to get information out of them before they died. Cut off this, cut off these." (IX.16)
Emo really seems to relish warfare because it gives him a legal and socially acceptable outlet for his violent tendencies. We get the feeling he'd enjoy killing and torturing people outside of wartime too.