How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I liked Jonesy even though I wasn't sure what he was talking about sometimes. Like when he asked me if I was a hero type.
"No," I answered.
"You tall—how tall are you?"
"Six foot two."
"A lot of tall dudes are hero types," Jonesy said. "You go crazy trying to watch their backs. You know what I mean?"
"Yeah, but I'm not the hero type," I said. (1.62-67)
Jonesy doesn't want to watch the back of someone who keeps throwing himself in harm's way. Can't really blame him. That's what he seems to mean by "hero-type"—someone who puts himself in danger.
Quote #2
"Those people, the Kurds, laying on the ground, they didn't have a chance. We got the chance. We got to do a gut check and see if we got the will to win."
I didn't know if I had the same will to win as the guy from the 3rd. What I did know was that I wanted to do my part. (2.35-36)
Birdy's a little more humble than the guy from the 3rd. We're not sure that's a bad thing. No one person can win the war—"doing your part" is more like the day-to-day of being in the army.
Quote #3
Then I realized that it was the noise, the constant booming, that just filled my guts with a trembling sensation. I knew if I heard the boom I was safe because whatever had exploded hadn't hit me. But it was the idea that at any moment it could be all over, that I could be dead or lying in the sand twisting in agony, that filled me with a terror that I hadn't known before. Terror. It wasn't just being scared. It was a feeling that was taking me over. I knew it but I hoped no one else saw it. (5.107)
Even though it's normal to be so afraid, Birdy doesn't want anyone to see that he's feeling that way. Above all things, he wants to seem brave.
Quote #4
No, Mama, I'm not the brave type. Not over here where the booming goes through you, where explosions in the distance shake your whole body. It's hard to be brave when you can stumble across a world of hurt around any corner, where dying becomes so casual you don't even notice it sitting next to you. (7.49)
When Birdy's mother called him the "brave type," she's thinking about him enlisting because he wanted to help other people. But there's a difference between the bravery it takes to join the army and actually being in the middle of war. Birdy definitely doesn't think he has the second type.
Quote #5
At first I felt a little bit ashamed at how scared seeing the bodies makes me, but I notice that everyone in First Squad stops talking when we come on that kind of scene. We do it in public, but this is a private war. (8.9)
At least Birdy's not alone. He knows the others are affected by the bodies too, even if they don't say anything. Maybe that's what he means by "private war."
Quote #6
"Birdy, you look nervous," Marla said. I was half lying, half sitting on a dark couch that looked as if it might have been a place where the patients waited to be seen.
"When the rest of the world is nervous," I said, "you can bet that I'm still cool."
"Oh, you sound so brave!" Marla said. (14.107-109)
Birdy was just thinking about the machine gun sounds outside the hospital, so you know he's lying. He's just trying to impress the ladies.
Quote #7
Then I saw it. A marine was carrying the upper part of a body—I could tell it was an American's by the uniform—to another vehicle. They were producing the body bags from somewhere and in minutes the dead marines were off the street. (8.62)
The Marines display an amazing kind of courage: braving possible sniper fire to preserve the bodies of their dead comrades. Birdy can only gape in amazement and try not to throw up.
Quote #8
After a while I saw a flicker of lights ahead in the darkness. Torches. I thought I could see figures. I felt my testicles shrivel.
"I think they know we're coming," I said. (14.351-352)
This calls back to Jonesy's earlier comment that his testicles were talking when he wanted to pray. Birdy's the opposite of courageous here. He's totally freaked out.
Quote #9
We were getting into the vehicles when we heard another sound. It was one of the children. He was crying.
"One of them is hurt!" Miller.
"Leave him!" Coles.
I could see the child. It was the blind boy, his hands up in front of him, pushing against the darkness. Then I saw a figure—it was Jonesy—running toward him. (14.432-435)
Now this is courage—rushing into danger, thinking only of someone else. Jonesy probably shouldn't have worried so much about Birdy being a hero type.
Quote #10
Mama said that I shouldn't be the hero type. I don't know. Maybe you have to be a hero type to deal with the bigger things that happen to you. At least you have to be bigger than life to fit all the things inside that you didn't know you could absorb before. (15.51)
By now (the end of the book), Birdy has a different idea of what heroism is. It's about being "bigger than life," taking things you wouldn't think you'd be able to take. Seems like he thinks he's a hero, too.