A Brief Encounter With The Enemy Analysis

In “A Brief Encounter with the Enemy” by Said Sayrafiezadeh, Luke, a pessimistic soldier, walks down memory lane as he travels the path to get to the hill during his last recon. He remembers appreciating nature, encountering and writing to Becky, the first time he’d shot a gun, and Christmas leave. Luke identifies the moment when he realizes that he had joined the army for the wrong reason, after crossing the bridge his team built in order to cross the valley, and at the same time dreading the return to his former office job. Boredom and nothingness destroy him mentally as he waits for enemies to appear. When the enemies finally appear, he shoots them down and goes home the next day. Sayrafiezadeh proposes that expectations don’t always equate

to reality, and those expectations don’t always fulfill the desire self-image and adventure that are advertise if people don’t make the most of their opportunities.
People have the tendency to romanticize any potentially dangerous event, such as a behavior, relationship, or in Luke’s case, an occupation. People also choose occupations that would emphasize characteristics they want to make of themselves. For example, someone who yearns for the self-image of smart, rich and successful would be a doctor or a lawyer; someone strong and heroic would be a soldier or volunteer. Society creates the standards that in order to be successful, one must have an education and subsequently work in a prestigious field. In an American society, people strive to be an individual, Luke is no exception. Luke realizes how immature he was when he joined the military out of “vanity and pride” to make himself attractive to girls (8). For Luke, he dreamed of “being possessed with exceptional courage and heroism” but in the end “was going to get out of the Army and be exactly the same person before [he] joined,” effectively demonstrating how correlation doesn’t imply causation (9). In addition to, when Luke killed a man and a child in cold blood, the author portrays the reality of the military and war, linking to Luke’s epiphany that war isn’t the adrenaline pumping adventure he thought he was involving himself with. He joined the military expecting to change himself and his dull life for vanity, subsequently joining for the wrong reasons because he didn’t factor in the reality of his fantasy. While most individuals who participate in prestigious fields exhibit a charismatic demeanor, simply engaging in an ideal activity doesn’t make the person the ideal they wish to be.
The author uses first person narrative in order to illustrate Luke’s retrospection, which in turn makes him an unreliable narrator because he is the only narrator whose perspective and emotions the reader can interpret.

Luke has flaws that make his views subjective instead of objective. Furthermore, Luke has a firm position that something miraculously exhilarating will give him a “‘life-altering experience’,” but when it doesn’t occurs, he becomes despondent (9). This shows one of his major flaws of assuming and expecting, but not acting upon the event for the dreams he wishes to be. Consequently, the resulting disappointment from expectations makes him feel “less like a soldier and more like [he] was going trick-or-treating dressed as a soldier” (4). He becomes overly critical of others as well as himself for joining for “all the wrong reasons,” yet never explains what the right reasons are (3). The closest actions the reader will receive depends on Luke’s desire to do anything. The author utilizes Luke as the narrator to effectively parallel Luke’s ordinary life to the expected dramatic life Luke wishes for. The similarity of the two situations is Luke’s lack of effort to better himself. In Luke’s recent years, he earned an associate degree, landing him an office job; however his pessimism and laziness to put in effort to better himself, such as going back to school for a bachelor’s degree in order to acquire a more entertaining job restrains him. His attitude towards his

office job is negative, therefore he feels it’s a boring job. And so, Luke picks up another occupation and joins the military. As previously mentioned, Luke’s greatest flaw is assuming and expecting. Luke assumes the military will give him the desired dramatic exhilarating life, thus expects a self-image change in return. The reality Luke encounter is the same as his office job; both occupations are agonizingly boring. The military didn’t change Luke’s attitude about his occupation; his negativity alter his views when reality didn’t equate with his fantasy, and it can be interpreted that Luke did the minimum effort to sustain his lifestyle when h chose to get fat instead of staying in shape (9). Luke’s point of view demonstrates that expecting change while not generating the effort to improve will not transform anything. The right attitude and motivation reflect on a person’s character to transform their life. Luke joined the military for the wrong reason because he had the wrong attitude. Expectations could equate to reality if the motivation and effort exists.