Going After Cacciato

On April 1st, they take a four-hour train ride from Luxembourg to Paris. Paul cleans his window to see better; the countryside is poor, but this doesn’t diminish his excitement. He opens the window and sticks his head out in the rain, and he sees a gargoyle fly off the roof of Notre Dame. As they disembark, the lieutenant urges them to collect themselves and finish the journey correctly, “to look like soldiers” (292). They march into Paris single file.

They continue to look for Cacciato. Paul is more interested in seeing Paris, but Oscar tells him they have to find Cacciato so they have proof of the authenticity of their mission. But Paul spends more time observing the sights and people of the city and walking around slowly with Sarkin. He tells Sarkin that he loves her, and she responds that he’s lucky to be in love in Paris. In the evenings, they all have wine-soaked dinners in Montparnasse cafes, and Oscar is the only one who talks about Cacciato.

One night, Sarkin wakes him up by tickling his feet with a feather. She convinces him that they should get an apartment together, telling him that they have come to Paris for more than Cacciato, that they can really be happy. They take the fourth apartment they see, a little slope-ceilinged nook on the sixth floor that looks out onto a belfry.

When they return to the hotel, the other men tell Paul that Eisenhower has died. Paul is largely unaffected; he reads the paper thinking about how little things change. When Sarkin asks who Eisenhower is, he says, “Nobody…a hero” (303). Early the next morning, Paul goes to tell the lieutenant that he’s leaving to move in with Sarkin. The lieutenant is fine with it but tells him to look out for Oscar, who’s really in charge now.

Sarkin and Paul leave to furnish their apartment; when they get back to the hotel, the men are waiting in the lobby. Oscar tells him to pack up, that the good times are over and they’re moving out.

As they run, Doc tells Paul that the hotel clerk called the police, who once again wanted passports and confirmation of their mission. Oscar has them make camp in the bushes with just their ponchos on a foggy night. The next morning they move to Paul and Sarkin’s apartment.

Oscar tells the men that they are going to find Cacciato; “his voice remind[s] Paul Berlin of Lake Country” (310). Paul suggests going to the embassy instead, but Oscar says they need proof. The men start searching, but Sarkin and the lieutenant stay in the apartment.

The search goes on for days. Paul scours the first arrondissement, paying close attention to detail. Paul feels guilty about Sarkin; he tells her they can still fulfill their dreams after they’ve found Cacciato, but she doesn’t believe him. He’s unable to imagine a different outcome for them.

The next day, Paul spots Cacciato in the food hall, Les Halles, and follows him back to an old hotel. He finds the right door by listening to Cacciato’s whistling. When he opens the door, Cacciato is sitting in his underwear peeling carrots. Cacciato says, “Hi” (315). Paul takes the address back to Oscar and tells them Cacciato didn’t say anything, that he was a “big dumb baby” (316).

An imaginary scene begins: a conference room with a circular table in the Majestic Hotel. Paul and Sarkin enter from opposite sides of the room and take a seat at the two microphones on the table. Sarkin begins to read from a piece of paper, but the voice is that of a male translator. She asks Paul to stop pursuing Cacciato and to realize his happy, simple dreams for normality instead. She argues that he is afraid of happiness and that his true obligation is to himself.

Paul replies that he feels a personal sense of obligation and that his actions have created a promise to fulfill his responsibilities. But he admits that his primary motivation is fear: “’I fear being thought of as a coward. I fear that even more than cowardice itself’” (320). He believes that obligations are between people and that one has to find happiness within the fulfillment of obligations.

The lieutenant enters the room and speaks quietly to Paul before escorting Sarkin out. Paul exits separately. The spotlight dims and turns off: “Imagine it” (321).

It’s morning, and everyone will be awake soon. The day will be quiet and hot. Paul is a soldier, and he hasn’t run. “The issue was courage, and courage was will power, and this was his failing” (322).

He faces the facts like Doc wants them to and remembers all the deaths. He still has difficulty understanding them. Like the casualties, it’s a fact that Cacciato ran away, that they pursued him and surrounded him on a hill. Paul shouting go is the last fact he knows for sure; possibilities are the only thing left. 

Doc tells Paul that the lieutenant and Sarkin have left together. They find a note that says they’re heading east—back to where they started. Doc doesn’t think they’ll make it.

Oscar is in charge, and he orders a stakeout of Cacciato’s hotel. When they get there, he goes to scout and puts the rest of them on watch. He sneaks up behind Cacciato twenty minutes later and puts his rifle to Paul’s ear, ridiculing their abilities as lookouts. Oscar assigns Doc and Eddie to man the two fire escapes and says that he’ll go inside to “do the messy shit” (328).

Oscar tells Paul to go home, but Paul insists that he’s going with Oscar. Paul feels fear building up within him, but he focuses his thoughts into a revolving silver star and keeps his attention on it. When they get to the door, Oscar gives Paul the rifle and tells him to go in first. Then the fear hits him accompanied by a loud sound. He’s kneeling; he hears shouts and whimpers and smells burning. He’s shaking; he tries to get rid of the rifle but fires a dozen times. He drops the gun, feels a fire, and he soils himself.

Doc comforts him. Paul is sitting on the grass trying to hide that he’s soiled himself. Oscar and Stink laugh at him. The lieutenant encourages him. Harold Murphy is angry. Doc offers him a choice of wine, which is actually Kool-Aid. The breakfast fire burns, and the lieutenant and Eddie look through the binoculars to the west.

Paul picks up the rifle and reloads the empty magazine. He finds his rucksack down the hill and changes pants. He tries to remember what happened. The lieutenant says it’s over; they gather Cacciato’s things and start marching back to camp. The lieutenant calls in Cacciato as missing in action.

At night they talk of war stories and rumors, such as an observation post by the ocean. The lieutenant is sitting near Paul when he wakes up. He tells Paul that, despite the odds, Cacciato “might make it…Maybe so” (336).