In this story Jimmy Cross returns to Vietnam with his daughter to revisit the country in which he was damaged psychologically. He also returned to the spot where his team received heavy mortar fire inside the field of mud and feces. Lieutenant Cross walked right into the area where Kiowa drowned. This story was so powerful, because Jimmy Cross returned to the area where he felt so much pain, only to see the country through his own eyes, and not through the scope of a 26 lbs. rifle. I thought it was very emotional when Jimmy Cross stripped down and entered the river. It was like he missed the feel of the country, and his only way to truly accept the peace, twenty years later, was to submerge himself within it's veins. I think O'Brien wanted the reader to see that Jimmy forgave himself for the fateful day outside of that village. Cross just wanted to feel the country outside of the shells and the war. He finally felt his pains go away when he laid inside the water, and all his troubles just flowed down stream.
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