1. Or, The Reason Why These Slides are Purple

2. “Stockings” delves further into the story of Henry Dobbins and his superstition of wearing his girlfriend’s stockings around his neck in battle and “sometimes while he slept”.

5.  Dobbins is convinced his stockings work -He survives several fire fights and night ambushes while wearing them -Dobbins survives tripping a landmine wire while wearing them

6.  Late in the chapter Dobbins gets a “Dear John” letter in which his girlfriend informs him that she is breaking up with him -Dobbins claims the magic is still in the pantyhose, so he continues to wear them…

7.  For a soldier in Vietnam, superstition is something they perceive as “real”, something that keeps them alive  The more times that item seems to save a soldier, the more convinced that soldier is in the capabilities of that item.  The superstition becomes a sort of Religion to the soldier… It’s something that has a say in his life or death  Evidence: Dobbins hanging on to the pantyhose even after his girlfriend breaks up with him.

8. “Church” is another shorter piece that highlights the relationship between two characters. In this case that character is Kiowa

9.  For over a week the men of Alpha company stay in a pagoda/church  Every day the monks who live at the monastery bring the men water and help them tend to their supplies

10.  Henry Dobbins remarks that he wouldn’t mind taking part in a sermon-despite that fact that he is not religious  Kiowa confesses that even though he was raised with religion and carries a bible around with him he has no intention of becoming a preacher. He does state that he enjoys being inside churches

11. After the monks clean Dobbins’ gun, he gives them his cans of peaches. He decides that the least he can do is be nice to the Vietnamese monks.

12.  The pagoda in this section has a very important symbolic meaning.  The physical presence of the American troops in the Vietnamese pagoda obviously stands for the incursion of the American army into Vietnam  You could also make a case that Dobbins attempts to thank the monks by using a washing motion with his hands (the monks call him “Good Soldier Jesus”) further symbolizes Pontius Pilate’s hand washing after Jesus receives his sentence of Crucifixion.