Ohio

Ohio anchors the narrator’s civilian life and his early expectations of military service. From the eastern suburbs of Cleveland, where he has lived since age ten, the state is both a familiar home and a place he imagines he might remain close to after enlisting; later reports of young Ohio soldiers killed in Iraq make that home a measure of war’s cost.

Home and Civilian Life

In 2003, the narrator remains in the eastern suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio. He attends a local Jesuit university, an institution he regards as a poor fit: he is there largely because his family can afford it and has encouraged him to go. His account of Ohio life is marked by drift rather than ambition. He sells drugs, works afternoon shifts at a shoe store for six dollars an hour despite having little interest in shoes, and continues showing up because of a developed sense of shame and obligation.

His home life also sits in contrast with Madison Kowalski’s departure. She has gone to Rutgers University in New Jersey, while he stays in the Cleveland area, unsure of the different universities and doubtful that college is the right course for him. The contrast makes Ohio feel less like a chosen destination than the place where he has remained while other possibilities unfold elsewhere.

Enlistment and the Promise of Proximity

When the narrator considers the United States Army in early 2005, Ohio shapes his practical expectations. He tells his parents that he will take physical and other tests at the recruiting center and may begin classes within two weeks. Warrant Officer Space has told him he will list preferred assignments; because most recruits receive one of their first three choices, the narrator believes he is almost certain to remain near Ohio and return home often. He also weighs the possibility of additional life insurance, valued at three hundred thousand dollars.

The recruitment process presents military service as a mixture of personal opportunity and institutional need. Recruiter Kelly gives him a practice exam and finds him in the eighty-fifth percentile, suggesting he could choose a specialty if he performs well on the actual test. Kelly’s enthusiasm is sharpened by the difficulty of recruiting amid news of young people being killed or maimed in the war. The narrator’s assumption that service could still leave him close to Ohio gives the enlistment plan a local, manageable scale—one that will not hold.

From Ohio Toward the War

During the physical examination, the narrator learns that he is color-blind. This does not prevent him from pursuing the 91W medical specialty, one of the few Army specialties open to color-blind recruits. The exception makes his chosen route into service possible, but it does not keep him near home. At Fort Hood, the 4th Infantry Division assigns him first to the medical section of a mixed battalion; dissatisfied with that placement, he asks to join a combat company and is assigned to Echo Company. His path therefore moves from an Ohio-centered expectation of frequent visits home toward infantry service and deployment to Iraq.

The distance becomes especially stark when the narrator later reads that Joe’s battalion has suffered a week in which nineteen soldiers were killed, all described as young men from Ohio. He has tried to contact Joe by email without receiving a reply, and turns instead to Roy, who tells him that his cousin is alive and uninjured. Ohio is no longer only the place the narrator hopes to return to: it is also the shared origin of young soldiers whose fate reaches him through news reports and uncertain personal updates.

Narrative Significance

Ohio links the narrator’s civilian uncertainty to the consequences of enlistment. Cleveland is where he has stayed through an unsatisfying college experience and low-paid work; it is also the place he expects the Army might leave within reach. The recruitment pitch, his color-blindness, and his eventual assignment to infantry show how quickly that expectation gives way to military demands. The reports of deaths among Ohio soldiers then reverse the direction of the connection: instead of imagining the Army in relation to home, the narrator encounters home through the casualties of the war.