The story about “Lofty” shooting an orangutan highlights the ways in which the constant violence and terror of war can lead to superstition. The novel doesn’t suggest that the men are
wrong to fear the corpse, but the entire episode does suggest that the soldiers are particularly on guard when it comes to protecting themselves. Because of the perpetual state of fear they live in, they want to insulate themselves from danger in any way possible, which ultimately means respecting superstition. In turn, superstition itself becomes a defense mechanism of sorts, though not one that actually works—an illustration of just how difficult it was to survive in the Vietnam War.