Morality in O'Brien's Going After CacciatoGoing After Cacciato, by Tim O'Brien, is a book that presents many problems of understanding. Simply trying to figure out what is real and what is fantasy and where they fit together can be quite exhausting for the reader. Yet even more nebulous and ambiguous are the broader moral questions raised in this book. There are many so-called "war crimes" or atrocities in this book, ranging from the killing of a water buffalo to the killing of the commanding officer. Yet they are handled in an almost casual manner. They seem to become merely the moral landscape upon which a greater drama unfolds, namely the drama of escaping war and seeking peace in Paris. This journey after Cacciato turns into a moral work, the metaphor of the road to the West. As Dennis Vannatta explains, “The desire to escape may have begun as a reaction to fear, but by the time the team reached Paris, Paul cultivated and cultivated it until it became a political, moral, and philosophical statement” (245). ). But what about the atrocities that continually occur? How could they be ignored in the face of this larger drama? As Milton J. Bates says, although Going After Cacciato "is not atrocity-based like much Vietnam War autobiography and fiction, [it records] incidents in which Vietnamese civilians were beaten or killed and their livestock and homes were destroyed." . " (270). This book has an almost cavalier way of dealing with these My Lai-like atrocities. Why? What is going on here? Well, one thing that needs to be taken into consideration is the author's objective. As quoted by Timothy J . Lomperis in a lecture, O'Brien said: "'For me, the point of writing fiction is to explore moral dilemmas. The... center of the card... you dreamed a wonderful dream, I urge you to undertake it with courage, to join your dream and live it" (O'Brien 284). Thoughts lead to actions. But dreaming is also doing. The act of imagination can sometimes have more power than any technological weapon. It is art that fulfills its role in society. It's Art That Makes Us Human. Works Cited Bates, Milton J. "The Myth of Courage by Tim O'Brien." Slippery Slope: Tensions Between Fact and Fiction." Interpretative Criticism. O'Brien, Tim. Chasing Cacciato. New York: Dell, 1978. Vannatta, Dennis. "Theme and Structure in Tim O'Brien's Going After Cacciato." Studies by modern fiction 28.2 (Summer 1982): 242-246.