The Mathematician

O'Brien says,

He was not a fighter. His health was poor, his body small and frail. He liked books. He wanted someday to be a teacher of mathematics. At night, lying on his mat, he could not picture himself doing the brave things his father had done, or his uncles, or the heroes of the stories. (119)

In this quote O'Brien was talking about the man he killed, he was giving him a life besides war. When people think about war they just think about two countries fighting and people dying. People don't think that someone killed them and that it haunts them. People forget that everyone fighting in the war has a life besides the war itself.