Colloquialism-- kicked the bucket (Ch.22)

Colloquialisms are phrases that are used in everyday conversations but are inappropriate for formal situations, and I can't help but think that sometimes they are inappropriate in conversation as well. The last chapter is a chapter of mourning. The author is mourning his dead comrades, his dead girlfriend of age nine, and the dead citizens of Vietnam. He says that everyone has their own way of dealing and unfortunately during the war they became immune to the loss of life. I think that when he brought up Linda, the little girl, he was telling us about how mourning should be, rather than the shaking of the dead's hand in Vietnam. Mourning should be respectful, not disrespecting a life. I think that colloquialism was used to show the lack of respect, of how people describe death. "She kicked the bucket" seems so mean compared to "she passed on" or even "she died." It has become okay for someone to describe death in such a way, and since the author experienced death so closely, he found a way to slap the hands of the people without class.