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Kevin Andoaga English 12 Per1 11/15/13 If Something Could Go Wrong, It Will Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong that is a basic summary of Murphys Law which is pretty self-explanatory to say the least but even if it is simple it is practically universal as it could be used in many situations. An example would be the book The Tattooed Soldier by Hector Tobar in which in actuality many things that had possibility of happening did happen such as the death of an ex-lover , the death of a mother and child and the revenge for all of that. Yet even if all those things had the possibility of happen without interference people in the book still blame themselves and shoulder both guilt and innocence. By looking at reactions of Elena, Antonio to the respective deaths around them we can see that they reacted in a way in which they push the blame upon themselves which is important because it shows how Tobar deliberately made guilt a central part of the book even if the guilty is not directly guilty. The first case in which guilt is shown is with Elena at the news of Theodoras death and how she felt that if she had only stayed with him he would still have been alive and not died . As it is shown when Elena says If I had been with him it would have been different she blames herself for his death night of the death she wouldnt have been able to do much

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without either risking or getting both killed. Given the fact that Teodoro was also a student was something that sparked this since all students were in danger since the government wanted to silence them so it was definitely a possibility that he would get killed and so it happened. It wasnt going to change no matter what Elena did yet she still blames herself. Just like she did when they killed her baby, she was held at gun point and interrogated to see where her husband was which are a lot of things to juggle at the moment so its only logical to forget of something she forgot about before. Yet when they actually killed the baby she didnt think they killed my baby she instead thought I didnt protect my baby automatically assuming the loss of her baby was her fault even though there is little she could do which led her to die too. Antonio has a similar case to Elena or rather directly connected in which he blames Elenas death on him or at least the fact that he leaves it unavenged. When he sees his wifes killer just sitting and eating ice cream he is dragged away and as soon as he gets on the bus he begins questioning his self with things like why didnt he avenge his family. Yet in all actuality what could he have possibly accomplished against a seasoned soldier. He just believes that he is guilty for not doing something that wasnt possible. In conclusion both Elena and Antonio have experienced guilt where it wasnt necessary since it was nearly impossible to change the outcome of the situation. So by seeing their reactions we could tell that they pushed the blame on themselves for death they could do nothing about which shows how Tobar deliberately made guilt a central part of the book even if the guilty is not directly guilty.

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