United States Bicentennial celebration

The United States Bicentennial celebration is a public display of national renewal that, in the unnamed narrator’s account, becomes inseparable from the planned killing of the crapulent major. Fireworks and television specials frame two radically different versions of the occasion: the triumphant story of a nation back on its feet, and the narrator’s awareness that violence, memory, and guilt have not ended.

Fireworks as Cover

On the evening of the killing, the unnamed narrator and Bon wait near a gas station in UCLA sweatshirts and caps, hoping to look like students. The car bears stolen license plates, while its legitimate plates remain in the glove compartment. Their preparations are practical, but the surrounding celebration supplies distractions they cannot control: distant fireworks from the city’s show, occasional small-arms fire from people celebrating independently, and illegal neighborhood fireworks, including cherry bombs and Chinese firecrackers.

For Bon, the noise does not remain festive background. Tense and refusing to let the radio play, he recalls a Bouncing Betty mine detonating outside Sa Dec. The small pop as it bounced was followed by an explosion that blew off a soldier’s testicles; the man survived. The contrast makes the holiday sounds carry the weight of combat. The celebration continues around the two men, but Bon hears it through memories of bodily injury and survival.

Violence Beneath the National Birthday

The fireworks accompany the men’s wait for the crapulent major. The unnamed narrator says that the only favor he can perform for the major is to ensure he feels nothing. The subsequent account confirms that the major is killed, placing the violence of the operation inside the soundscape of the national celebration rather than apart from it. The public occasion does not stop the private act; its explosions and commotion become part of the setting in which the men carry it out.

The juxtaposition also complicates the language of independence. The sounds of celebration evoke Bon’s wartime memories, while the men’s own violence follows them into the supposed safety of their home. The anniversary’s public meaning is national pride; for the unnamed narrator and Bon, its immediate circumstances include concealment, fear, and the irreversible consequence of their action.

A Private Toast and a Public Spectacle

After they leave the scene, the unnamed narrator notices that numbness has descended through his body. He and Bon say little. At home, they replace the license plates, and the unnamed narrator wipes blood from the white toes of his sneakers. He phones the General to report that the deed is done. Bon then empties the crapulent major’s wallet onto the coffee table: among its contents are identification, receipts, a small amount of cash, and photographs of the major with his wife on their wedding day and of his infant twins. The unnamed narrator orders the photographs burned and plans to dispose of the wallet and other evidence.

The bicentennial continues on television as the two men drink rye. They raise a toast to the major, then watch specials celebrating the two-hundred-year-old nation. The broadcasts present a muscular country recovering from recent foreign ventures and ready to resume its strength. That confident public narrative sits uneasily beside the domestic details on the table: the major’s family photographs, the evidence awaiting disposal, and the red scar on Bon’s hand. The men eat three oranges and go to bed, carrying the celebration’s contrast with them rather than resolving it.

The Celebration’s Afterimage

The unnamed narrator cannot leave the killing behind when he closes his eyes. He sees the crapulent major’s third eye, weeping at what it can see about him, and finds that opening his eyes does not banish the vision. The bicentennial’s bright public image thus ends in a private scene of involuntary return: the televised promise of national recovery is followed by an image that makes the narrator’s own moral condition impossible to ignore.

The event’s significance lies in this collision of scales. The country marks its founding with fireworks and stories of renewed power; the unnamed narrator and Bon experience the same night through combat memories, a killing, and its aftermath. The celebration provides cover and spectacle, but it offers no release from the violence beneath them.