1. According to O'Brien, does suffering violence (psychological or physical) somehow unleash the capacity to inflict violence? Which character(s) exemplify this transformation? Or is the capacity to inflict violence a preexisting condition? Which character(s) exemplify this condition?
2. What does violence violate? Our physical person? Our psychological wholeness? Our sense of trust in the world? Is the experience of violence (and of war more generally) similar to the violation of trust that Sissela Bok identifies as the consequence of lying? Is there any relation between Rat Kiley's sense of betrayal by Curt Lemon's sister and the slaughter of the water buffalo?
3. What are the consequences of committing violent acts against innocents for the following characters: Stink Harris (Going After Cacciato), Rat Kiley ("How to Tell a True War Story" in TTTC), Tim O'Brien ("The Ghost Soldiers" in TTTC), John Wade (In the Lake of the Woods)?
4. How do cowards in O'Brien's works behave in the wake of their cowardice? Is the loss of innocence related to cowardice? Which characters in O'Brien's writings exemplify cowards who retaliate against others in order to compensate for their own failures? Are there any characters who behave otherwise?
5. How is it that violence against individuals escalates to violence against groups?