"I hated him for making me stop hating him," (page 190). This is my favorite quote in the novel. It's a paradox that O'Brien uses to describe his situation with Jorgenson. Tim wanted to hate him. He wanted so badly to despise the guy and get revenge for the pain that he caused him. Despite that, Jorgenson's apology and remorse caused O'Brien to, against his will, forgive him. Tim hated that. He hated that he couldn't hate Jorgenson any more. He hated that he had been forced to forgive the man that caused him pain, and, subsequently, he hated that he could no longer hate the war that had brought on that pain.
O'Brien brings a great deal of timelessness to the novel with this one sentence. Every reader has wanted to be mad at someone, but that person has forced them, through their actions, to forgive them. The reader can easily relate to the story that O'Brien is telling and the feeling that the situation elicits.
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