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Going After Cacciato
Going After Cacciato is an anti-war novel written by Tim O'Brien and first published by Delacorte Press in 1978. The novel is set during the Vietnam War. It is told from the third person limited point of view of an American soldier, Paul Berlin. Cacciato, one of Berlin's squadmates, goes absent without leave (AWOL) to walk from Vietnam to Paris. The nonlinear narrative follows Berlin's imagined chase of Cacciato across Eurasia; it is interspersed with Berlin's memories of the Vietnam War prior to Cacciato's departure.
Going After Cacciato won the 1979 U.S. National Book Award for Fiction.
The main conceit of Going After Cacciato is that American soldiers in Vietnam were required to walk nearly constantly; by Tim O'Brien's estimation, the total distance walked in a standard tour of duty was as far as walking in a straight line from Vietnam to Paris.
Cacciato, an American soldier who is unintelligent but self-sufficient, happy, and untroubled by the larger questions of the war, goes AWOL. He intends to walk from Vietnam to Paris. Cacciato is pursued by Paul Berlin and the rest of the squad.
The protagonist, Paul Berlin, is a frustrated American soldier. While on watch duty one night, Berlin thinks about the past and daydreams about going to Paris. He remembers Cacciato's desertion and imagines a journey in which Cacciato made it successfully to Paris, pursued by Berlin and the squad the entire way. The courage it takes to chase one's dreams is a recurring theme which is often expressed through Paul Berlin's reveries.
Typical of many stories that deal with themes of psychological trauma, Going After Cacciato is ambiguous about the nature, order, and reality of events that occur. The chronology is nonlinear for most of the book. Surreal events occur, such as Cacciato flying off a mountain, or the squad falling into an endless tunnel complex and, finding no exit, simply deciding to fall out of the tunnels to escape.
The Famous Authors website writes, "His incorporation of metaphysical approach attributed a rich quality to his writing style. ... According to him, sometimes the fictional truth is more realistic than [the] factual one. It is because of the fact that fictional truth appeals to the emotion and feelings which makes the literature more meaningful."
As a Study Guide notes, the story is told in the third person from Paul Berlin's point of view. Paul Berlin's narrative jumps from his current situation to a (possibly) imaginary observation post where he is on guard duty, to another imaginary trip from Vietnam to Paris, chasing a deserter named Cacciato. Berlin's last name suggests the divisions in his thinking, moods, and desires; Berlin, Germany was divided by the victorious powers following World War II, and remained so at the time of the novel's writing.
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Going After Cacciato
Going After Cacciato is an anti-war novel written by Tim O'Brien and first published by Delacorte Press in 1978. The novel is set during the Vietnam War. It is told from the third person limited point of view of an American soldier, Paul Berlin. Cacciato, one of Berlin's squadmates, goes absent without leave (AWOL) to walk from Vietnam to Paris. The nonlinear narrative follows Berlin's imagined chase of Cacciato across Eurasia; it is interspersed with Berlin's memories of the Vietnam War prior to Cacciato's departure.
Going After Cacciato won the 1979 U.S. National Book Award for Fiction.
The main conceit of Going After Cacciato is that American soldiers in Vietnam were required to walk nearly constantly; by Tim O'Brien's estimation, the total distance walked in a standard tour of duty was as far as walking in a straight line from Vietnam to Paris.
Cacciato, an American soldier who is unintelligent but self-sufficient, happy, and untroubled by the larger questions of the war, goes AWOL. He intends to walk from Vietnam to Paris. Cacciato is pursued by Paul Berlin and the rest of the squad.
The protagonist, Paul Berlin, is a frustrated American soldier. While on watch duty one night, Berlin thinks about the past and daydreams about going to Paris. He remembers Cacciato's desertion and imagines a journey in which Cacciato made it successfully to Paris, pursued by Berlin and the squad the entire way. The courage it takes to chase one's dreams is a recurring theme which is often expressed through Paul Berlin's reveries.
Typical of many stories that deal with themes of psychological trauma, Going After Cacciato is ambiguous about the nature, order, and reality of events that occur. The chronology is nonlinear for most of the book. Surreal events occur, such as Cacciato flying off a mountain, or the squad falling into an endless tunnel complex and, finding no exit, simply deciding to fall out of the tunnels to escape.
The Famous Authors website writes, "His incorporation of metaphysical approach attributed a rich quality to his writing style. ... According to him, sometimes the fictional truth is more realistic than [the] factual one. It is because of the fact that fictional truth appeals to the emotion and feelings which makes the literature more meaningful."
As a Study Guide notes, the story is told in the third person from Paul Berlin's point of view. Paul Berlin's narrative jumps from his current situation to a (possibly) imaginary observation post where he is on guard duty, to another imaginary trip from Vietnam to Paris, chasing a deserter named Cacciato. Berlin's last name suggests the divisions in his thinking, moods, and desires; Berlin, Germany was divided by the victorious powers following World War II, and remained so at the time of the novel's writing.