Questions from Where Have You Gone Charming Billy

2) "He was pretending he was a boy again, camping with his father in the midnight summer along the Des Moines River" (828 lines 14-15)

This probably meant that he was trying to get his mind off of things making the best of being at war. He was remembering the good times he had with his father, pretending like war was just like those days having fun out in the woods.  (symbol)

3) "When they reached the sea, things would be better.  They would have their rear guarded by three thousand miles of ocean, and they would be safe."  (830 lines 45- 46)

When they reach the sea their fear will be lost. The sea would protect them from their enemies and they wouldn’t have to worry. (Symbol)

4) "Already the Southern Cross was out."  (830 line 49)

A Constellation (Symbol)

5) "He counted his steps, concentrating on the numbers, pretending that the steps were dollar bills and that each step made him richer and ricer, so that soon he would be a wealthy man, and he kept counting and considered the ways he might spend the money after the war..." (831 lines 64-66)

(Symbol/Metaphor) When your wealthy you are higher up in the world and you can take better care of yourself. You will have security that nothing with happen and you will be able to get better things.

6) "The graveyard had a perfumy smell.  A nice place to spend the night, he thought."  (831 line 96)

(Metaphor) Graveyard usually don’t have a perfummy smell and they are the most comfortable place to stay.  

7) "SORRY TO INFORM YOU THAT YOUR SON BILLY BOY WAS YESTERDAY SCARED TO DEATH IN ACTION IN THE REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM, VALIANTLY SUCCUMBING TO A HEART ATTACH..."  (834 lines 176-181)

Situational irony because you normally wouldn’t get a letter from war saying your son has had a hear attack in war.

8) Also think about Doublemint chewing gum.  Paul Berlin's imagination of having "War Buddies", the soldiers singing after Billy Watkins body falls out of the helicopter and gets lost in the rice paddy. 

Chewing gum is a symbol because they are using it to relax. “Where have you gone Billy Boy” is an allusion to a song, “War Buddies” is situational irony because he thinks when he gets home he will have all these new friends he can write letters to and that probably wont happen.