The knowledge of death, of the implacable limits placed on a man’s existence, severed us from our youth as irrevocably as a surgeon’s scissors had once severed us from the womb. And yet, few of us were past twenty-five. We left Vietnam peculiar creatures, with young shoulders that bore rather old heads.

Identify the paradox in the passage.

1. severed youth who were severed from the womb

2. living men who have knowledge of death

3. young men who have old minds