Redeployment

In “Bodies,” the narrator returns from Iraq with a piece of gravel that he still has in his pocket when he is telling his story at a bar. He had been tasked with processing the body of a badly burned Marine who had died of his wounds. Part of his job was to separate any personal items from the corpse in case they could be returned to the family. But he finds himself fixating on the man’s closed hands. There is something in each hand, and he wonders if it is something important. With considerable effort, he opens the hands and finds a single piece of gravel in each one. It is possible that the man grabbed them while his body made fists as it constricted in agony, but the narrator cannot know for sure. He is also not certain why he brings one of the pieces of gravel home with him and carries it in his pocket. Iraq is a place he claims he wants to forget, but he carries a literal piece of it with him everywhere he goes. The gravel is symbolic of how many of the characters find themselves acting in ways that are unfamiliar to themselves. They cannot always explain their motivations for their actions, feelings, and thoughts, which further distances them from the people around them who want to understand them better.