I guess I will start us off with something. I am just going to discuss something that I found interesting, feel free to change the topic.
In almost all these stories in this book there always seems to be something about how the war changed the person so much. Each chapter is a different story and each chapter describes a life changing event. The two chapters that really stuck out to me were Notes and Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong. In Notes when Norman Bowker said “It’s almost like I got killed over in Nam…” he is explaining how ever since the war he has never been the same because part of him died (178). When one of his troop members died, Kiowa, it hit him really hard, and when he died part of himself died too. This man ended up killing himself a few years after the war. I feel as though when I read these stories I can understand how these men feel when they say part of them died. However in reality I have no clue because I have no idea what it feels like to be out there. In Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong, Mary Anne just came to visit her boyfriend but when she went home she was different and ended up coming back. It had changed her so much. Even though she did not even experience the full combat that these men did she still experienced some of it. Therefore when I read things such as “[y]ou don’t know Nam”, I really believe it (108).
While reading The Things They Carried, something that stood out to me was how different veterans cope with post-traumatic stress in different ways. Although they all went through similar situations and experienced a lot of horror, I found it interesting that some are able to deal with this trauma, while others are completely thrown. For example, the author often speaks about why he writes his stories, and what purpose they serve for him. He admits that he writes in order to cope with the events of the past. O’Brien tells the horrific story of Norman Bowker, describing how hard his life was after the war. It is stated that Norman eventually commits suicide because of how lost he feels. O’Brien states that he “felt a certain smugness about how easily [he] had made the shift from war to peace” (157). He realizes that he was able to move on without any extreme emotional issues, unlike Norman Bowker. It is interesting to see how the same traumatizing situations can always affect people in different ways, and how reactions seem to vary widely.
I think the thing that stuck out most to me from this book so far is talking about how the things carried relate to everyone a bit differently. Each person carries something different for luck, hope, safety, or just in case they decide they might need something. One man carries a rabbit’s foot for luck and another has an actual human finger. Where he finds luck in that is hard to see, but these men had faced trauma we can not relate to. The part that struck me most about The Things They Carried was at the beginning when they talk about the man who was shot. He did not roll around on the ground like in the movies when someone was shot. He just fell. He was like dead weight just dropping to the ground. It was because of the heavy burdens he carries that he fell like that. They things carried served so many physical and emotional purposes that the list could continue forever. Most of the soldiers in the Vietnam war just waited daily. They were bored because their lives were routine. However, at any sudden noise, that boredom switched into an all too familiar state of alertness. --Hannah
For me, what I noticed right away was how the author, Tim O'Brien, made some characters that died seem so insignificant. To me it felt like he was lightening the seriousness of the deaths in Vietnam. Which seemed to be the case during Vietnam. The United States would lie about the death toll and far too many lives were lost. From the beginning, O'Brien writes, "but Ted Lavender, who was scared, carried 34 rounds when he was shot and killed outside Than Khe, and he went down under an exceptional burden, more than 20 pounds of ammunition, plus the flak jacket and the helmet and rations and water and toilet paper paper and tranquilizers and all the rest, plus the unweighed fear" (7). This quotation explains to me that the man burden or hinderance wasn't that he was shot and killed but instead because he was carrying so much weight. When a man is dead, I am fairly certain that tangile items, heavy or light, will not make any difference. So, my idea is that Tim O'Brien is trying to communicate that the lives of men in the Vietnam War were thrown away and disposed of uncaringly.
I definitely agree with Britt that one of the posts which stood out for me was Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong. The effects that Mary Anne experienced after not even being exposed to the full combat shocked me in a little way. As many of the soldiers, she also experienced some post-traumatic stress after not even being in the rain of fire. Another “story” that stood out to me was How to Tell a True War Story; more specifically, the beginning. Rat Kiley had lost a friend in Vietnam and decided to write a letter to his friend's sister back at home. He wrote a very “personal and touching” letter, writing about how his friend always “made the war seem almost fun” (67, 68). He “poured his heart” out into the letter and told the friend's sister that the two guys “were like soul mates...like twins or something...he loved the guy” (68). After waiting for two months, the sister never even wrote back to Rat's letter. I think that it is so heart breaking that this story is actually true. And I think an even sadder thing is that I guarantee this thing happens all the time during other wars.
I also agree that the “true war story” concept was very interesting. It seems like without the blunt truth, there was no point telling it: “In a true war story, if there’s a moral at all, it’s like the thread that makes the cloth… and in the end, really, there’s nothing much to say about a true war story, except maybe ‘oh’” (77). With each story that Time O’Brien tells, he seems to make some more important and fulfilling than others. For example, when Kiowa was sucked down by the muck in the field, the author describes the guilt that Jimmy felt for letting this happen, and how Kiowa’s death affected the other soldiers. It is the voice and feeling in those stories that give it a true meaning and make it significant. Also, when the men were talking about Mary Anne, her story brought entertainment into their lives, and a story to keep them occupied from the horror that was occurring around them. Whether the story is full of a deep sense of mourning or an interesting love scandal, the moral is what brings it to life. Everyone has a personal story, but the way it's told can really emphasize how important it really is, including the truth.
It really made me stop and think when I read in the chapter: How to Tell a True War Story O'Brien says “In many cases a true war story cannot be believed. If you believe it, be skeptical. Often the crazy stuff is true and the normal stuff isn’t, because the normal stuff is necessary to make you believe the incredible craziness.” (71) This made a particular impact on me, and made me think back to the other horrific stories I have read about war and genocide this year. For instance in A Sunday by the Pool in Kigali, the author acknowledges that the story is a novel but then goes on to say that the tragedies depicted are very real. I thought O’Brien made a really good point here, since in a time of war people remember the awful things such as the man he killed with a grenade, but the small instances of dialogue needed to make a story flow are probably less clear in his mind. It is a bit scary to realize that the situations we read about, even in fictionalized accounts, are most likely true and only offer a small insight into the actual devastation caused by war.
I was born and raised in Saint Louis, Missouri and first moved to Massachusetts to attend Amherst College, where I majored in both English and Russian literature. After graduation, I accepted a Fulbright Scholarship to the University of Tartu in Estonia, where I studied children's literature and semiotics ("the study of signs and symbols"). I returned to the United States to spend a few years exploring the wide world of business, but the classroom kept calling. It was high time to earn my Masters in Education from Tufts University and join the staff at Arlington High School.
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I guess I will start us off with something. I am just going to discuss something that I found interesting, feel free to change the topic.
ReplyDeleteIn almost all these stories in this book there always seems to be something about how the war changed the person so much. Each chapter is a different story and each chapter describes a life changing event. The two chapters that really stuck out to me were Notes and Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong. In Notes when Norman Bowker said “It’s almost like I got killed over in Nam…” he is explaining how ever since the war he has never been the same because part of him died (178). When one of his troop members died, Kiowa, it hit him really hard, and when he died part of himself died too. This man ended up killing himself a few years after the war. I feel as though when I read these stories I can understand how these men feel when they say part of them died. However in reality I have no clue because I have no idea what it feels like to be out there. In Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong, Mary Anne just came to visit her boyfriend but when she went home she was different and ended up coming back. It had changed her so much. Even though she did not even experience the full combat that these men did she still experienced some of it. Therefore when I read things such as “[y]ou don’t know Nam”, I really believe it (108).
-Britt
While reading The Things They Carried, something that stood out to me was how different veterans cope with post-traumatic stress in different ways. Although they all went through similar situations and experienced a lot of horror, I found it interesting that some are able to deal with this trauma, while others are completely thrown. For example, the author often speaks about why he writes his stories, and what purpose they serve for him. He admits that he writes in order to cope with the events of the past. O’Brien tells the horrific story of Norman Bowker, describing how hard his life was after the war. It is stated that Norman eventually commits suicide because of how lost he feels. O’Brien states that he “felt a certain smugness about how easily [he] had made the shift from war to peace” (157). He realizes that he was able to move on without any extreme emotional issues, unlike Norman Bowker. It is interesting to see how the same traumatizing situations can always affect people in different ways, and how reactions seem to vary widely.
ReplyDelete-Leah
I think the thing that stuck out most to me from this book so far is talking about how the things carried relate to everyone a bit differently. Each person carries something different for luck, hope, safety, or just in case they decide they might need something. One man carries a rabbit’s foot for luck and another has an actual human finger. Where he finds luck in that is hard to see, but these men had faced trauma we can not relate to.
ReplyDeleteThe part that struck me most about The Things They Carried was at the beginning when they talk about the man who was shot. He did not roll around on the ground like in the movies when someone was shot. He just fell. He was like dead weight just dropping to the ground. It was because of the heavy burdens he carries that he fell like that. They things carried served so many physical and emotional purposes that the list could continue forever. Most of the soldiers in the Vietnam war just waited daily. They were bored because their lives were routine. However, at any sudden noise, that boredom switched into an all too familiar state of alertness.
--Hannah
For me, what I noticed right away was how the author, Tim O'Brien, made some characters that died seem so insignificant. To me it felt like he was lightening the seriousness of the deaths in Vietnam. Which seemed to be the case during Vietnam. The United States would lie about the death toll and far too many lives were lost. From the beginning, O'Brien writes, "but Ted Lavender, who was scared, carried 34 rounds when he was shot and killed outside Than Khe, and he went down under an exceptional burden, more than 20 pounds of ammunition, plus the flak jacket and the helmet and rations and water and toilet paper paper and tranquilizers and all the rest, plus the unweighed fear" (7). This quotation explains to me that the man burden or hinderance wasn't that he was shot and killed but instead because he was carrying so much weight. When a man is dead, I am fairly certain that tangile items, heavy or light, will not make any difference. So, my idea is that Tim O'Brien is trying to communicate that the lives of men in the Vietnam War were thrown away and disposed of uncaringly.
ReplyDelete---Matt sorry
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with Britt that one of the posts which stood out for me was Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong. The effects that Mary Anne experienced after not even being exposed to the full combat shocked me in a little way. As many of the soldiers, she also experienced some post-traumatic stress after not even being in the rain of fire.
ReplyDeleteAnother “story” that stood out to me was How to Tell a True War Story; more specifically, the beginning. Rat Kiley had lost a friend in Vietnam and decided to write a letter to his friend's sister back at home. He wrote a very “personal and touching” letter, writing about how his friend always “made the war seem almost fun” (67, 68). He “poured his heart” out into the letter and told the friend's sister that the two guys “were like soul mates...like twins or something...he loved the guy” (68). After waiting for two months, the sister never even wrote back to Rat's letter. I think that it is so heart breaking that this story is actually true. And I think an even sadder thing is that I guarantee this thing happens all the time during other wars.
Nell
I also agree that the “true war story” concept was very interesting. It seems like without the blunt truth, there was no point telling it: “In a true war story, if there’s a moral at all, it’s like the thread that makes the cloth… and in the end, really, there’s nothing much to say about a true war story, except maybe ‘oh’” (77). With each story that Time O’Brien tells, he seems to make some more important and fulfilling than others. For example, when Kiowa was sucked down by the muck in the field, the author describes the guilt that Jimmy felt for letting this happen, and how Kiowa’s death affected the other soldiers. It is the voice and feeling in those stories that give it a true meaning and make it significant. Also, when the men were talking about Mary Anne, her story brought entertainment into their lives, and a story to keep them occupied from the horror that was occurring around them. Whether the story is full of a deep sense of mourning or an interesting love scandal, the moral is what brings it to life. Everyone has a personal story, but the way it's told can really emphasize how important it really is, including the truth.
ReplyDelete- Christina
It really made me stop and think when I read in the chapter: How to Tell a True War Story O'Brien says “In many cases a true war story cannot be believed. If you believe it, be skeptical. Often the crazy stuff is true and the normal stuff isn’t, because the normal stuff is necessary to make you believe the incredible craziness.” (71) This made a particular impact on me, and made me think back to the other horrific stories I have read about war and genocide this year. For instance in A Sunday by the Pool in Kigali, the author acknowledges that the story is a novel but then goes on to say that the tragedies depicted are very real. I thought O’Brien made a really good point here, since in a time of war people remember the awful things such as the man he killed with a grenade, but the small instances of dialogue needed to make a story flow are probably less clear in his mind. It is a bit scary to realize that the situations we read about, even in fictionalized accounts, are most likely true and only offer a small insight into the actual devastation caused by war.
ReplyDelete