57 pages • 1 hour read
Tim O'BrienGoing After Cacciato
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1978A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 23-26Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 23 Summary: "Asylum on the Road to Paris"
They arrive in Delhi at noon, and Paul is excited to see the India of his imagination. They check into the Hotel Phoenix, and Lieutenant Corson falls in love with the woman riding an exercise bike behind the reception desk, who reminds Paul of his mother. Her name is Hamijolli Chand—Americans call her Jolly. She’s thrilled to see them; she tells them over drinks that night that she spent a happy two years at Johns Hopkins. She believes that TV unites Americans.
Jolly’s husband serves them beef and wine for dinner, but he disappears after setting it out. Beef has to be smuggled into the country, and her husband disapproves. Lieutenant Corson calls her “a brave, remarkable woman” (149). She takes an interest in all the men, complimenting them, but she takes a particular interest in the lieutenant.
Lieutenant Corson tells her that Korea was a regular war with respect from the enemy. But in Vietnam, there’s no respect. The real problem, he says, is that there’s “[n]o heart” (150). Jolly and the lieutenant stay up late talking, until he’s in tears, and they don’t come down for breakfast.
Paul sends postcards home telling his family that the war’s over and that he’s met a girl. He walks through the city taking photos and finds a neighborhood that reminds him of summer Sundays at home. There’s a note from Sarkin when he gets back to the hotel, telling him that she went shopping, and he lies on the bed thinking about home and his youth, wondering if his family would understand the trip to Paris.
Chapter 24 Summary: "Calling Home"
In August, the platoon goes back to Chu Lai to rest for a week. There’s constant entertainment, but the war still surrounds them. On the last day, Oscar, Eddie, Doc, and Paul go to call home using a new radio-telephone hookup called MARS.
They have to wait an hour for the signal to be fixed, and then Eddie makes the first call. His face is red when he comes out of the booth; his mom couldn’t believe he was calling. Doc and then Oscar go next; when they come out of the booth, they’re “not quite choked up but trying hard not to be” (156).
Paul is excited when it’s his turn. He tries to figure out what day it is and what his family might be doing. As he waits to connect, he thinks about what he’ll say—how he’ll follow Doc’s advice and keep it pleasant. He remembers how their kitchen window looks out on Mrs. Stone’s backyard, and he plans to ask about her, whether she’s still outside sweeping her lawn in all weather. He’ll ask his mother whether she’s quit smoking, and he’ll tell them he loves them at the end of the call. But they don’t pick up, and the others console him as they leave.
Chapter 25 Summary: "The Way It Mostly Was"
A chopper drops them off at the base of the mountains, and they set out to march on a red road that goes straight up the mountain. Lieutenant Sidney Martin tells them they will march hard, and anyone who falls out will be left behind. Thirty-eight soldiers and a scout march up the mountain, mostly shirtless, carrying their gear, and wearing bush hats instead of helmets because the battle is far off in the mountains.
Paul is the very last soldier in line; he tries not to think as he climbs. Lieutenant Martin stands alone and looks down on the soldiers. He considers the mission and how it matters more than the individual men. He hopes the men come to understand his actions, but he doesn’t care that they may not. He decides to stay on the road until he hears the battle. Paul keeps marching, thinking only of the way his muscles move. The lieutenant watches Paul, not knowing his name, and thinks about his “strange mechanical walk, the lazy obscurity of each step, the ploddingness” (165), and feels proud of him.
Lieutenant Martin knows that this war doesn’t have the same sense of purpose as other wars, but he doesn’t find that particularly important. He believes that through war, men may learn to do better and that they reach their full potential through repeated battle. Paul continues to climb and thinks of how the lieutenant told them fewer men would die if they fought well. Paul knows this is true, but he knows he won’t fight well.
Paul decides to stop moving, to just fall down, but his legs keep climbing. Lieutenant Martin raises his hand to Paul, admiring his “fortitude, discipline, loyalty, self-control, courage, toughness” (168). But Paul has his head down and doesn’t see it. He feels “dull of mind, blunt of spirit, numb of history, and struck with wonder that he would not stop climbing the red road toward the mountains” (168).
Chapter 26 Summary: "Repose on the Road to Paris"
In Delhi, the men entertain themselves without giving much thought to Cacciato beyond a daily check-in at the police station. Paul spends his time with Sarkin, watching the rain in the morning and walking around in the afternoon. They talk about their pasts, but Paul doesn’t think about Paris or the war; he stays in the present. In the evenings, after Jolly’s elaborate dinners, they play cards and kiss in his room—Paul pretends they make love.
The lieutenant spends almost all of his time with Jolly. He looks healthier and is taking care with his appearance. Doc thinks this is a problem and that the lieutenant is neglecting his obligations. Paul appreciates the peace but feels like he should get back on the road. He imagines a future in which they are judged for how they spent their time.
One morning, Doc brings Paul the newspaper; in it is a picture of Cacciato standing in front of a train bound for Kabul. The men pack up and fetch the lieutenant, but he tells Doc that he’s retired. Doc insists that they need him, but the lieutenant says no. They resign themselves to leaving without him, but Oscar says that he’s wounded. You don’t leave wounded men behind, so they sneak back into the garden at night, pick up the passed-out lieutenant, and take him with them.
Chapters 23-26 Analysis
The squad’s time in Delhi, in chapters 23 and 26, represents a kind of idealized homecoming for them. Jolly reminds Paul of his mother—or perhaps a more stable version of her, since his mother is an alcoholic. Jolly also steps into the role of wife for the lieutenant, who is widowed. She serves them American food and speaks to them about American culture. This air of familiarity allows them to relax.
This idea of coming home is echoed in the title to Chapter 24, “Calling Home”. Here, though, Paul’s dreams of comfort are thwarted; he is the only one unable to reach his family. This suggests that, despite the amount of time Paul spends thinking about his parents, and particularly his father, their relationship may not be as close as Paul would like. That makes the security of Jolly’s house even more comforting. Paul isn’t able to stay long, though, before his sense of guilt overwhelms him, and he feels compelled to resume the search for Cacciato.
This inability to rest and the guilt that drives him forward is what propels him up the mountain in Chapter 25. As much as he wants to give up and sit down—and has even decided that that’s what he’s going to do—his legs just keep going, as if they were separate from his mind. His thought process as he climbs highlights how differently he views himself from how others see him; Lieutenant Martin sees a dedicated soldier of whom he is proud.
These chapters also showcase the difference between Lieutenants Martin and Corson. Martin is willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish the mission; he cares about achieving his aims more than he does the welfare of any individual soldier. He believes in the value of war. Corson is long past that; he’s old and tired and just wants to rest. He’s perfectly willing to abandon the search for Cacciato to stay with Jolly.
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