The Life We Bury

Chapter 23 breaks from the rest of the narrative, no longer telling the story from Joe’s point of view. It’s simply his assignment for his English class. Written in a different font, it’s a third-person account of a pivotal incident Carl experienced in Vietnam. It’s entitled “turning point assignment.” Carl and Virgil meet in Vietnam on September 23, 1967. They are in a squad under the leadership of Sergeant Gibbs, a man who “hid some serious psychological scars behind a mask of cruelty” (135). One day, Virgil and Carl find the racist and brutal Gibbs raping a young Vietnamese girl, but Gibbs says he is “interrogating a VC sympathizer” (144). He finishes and then orders Carl to likewise “interrogate” her, holding a revolver to his head. Carl refuses. Gibbs slits the girl’s throat and sets fire to the hut. Carl sees the girl’s fingers still moving as the burning hut crashes down.  

Lila is in shock when she reads Joe’s assignment. Virgil confirmed the story and “said Carl was never the same after that day” (147). The fact that Carl wouldn’t rape under those circumstances—when ordered to by his army superior and with a revolver held to this head—suggests he would not rape Crystal either.