"The Man He Killed" Poem #5

My first thoughts on this poem before reading the explanation of it was that it was two men fighting over work, the one was no longer able to work so he sold his traps "Was out of work-had sold his traps" (Line 15) ; maybe he was no longer getting very much money and the price of furs were down. So in this struggle to hold on to jobs the one man killed the other because he threatened his job and also his ability to work. After reading the explanation under the poem I found that it had nothing to do with that except it was about a man at war, or explaining to someone about a man he shot, which was all his duty at the price of war. It must have been very emotionally traumatizing to him to have to go to war, and than come back home after surviving and explaining to someone how he had killed a man or many "I shot at him as he at me/and killed him in his place" (7-8). In wars there is no negotiating, it is just fighting to survive as neither side can have sympathies or feelings towards another man otherwise you will be killed. You must be tough and show no emotions if you are to survive an ordeal such as this. In the ending he capped it off with "You shoot a fellow down/You'd treat if met where any bar is" (18-19). In those last few lines he is saying that war is strange, because if you were to meet this man in a normal situation you would talk freely and treat him with a beer or possibly some food.