Exploration 5: Hans Hartle

   Although there are several quality stories in The Things They Carried my favorite has to be "The Dentist". The reason why I like this short story so much is because although it is almost mocking Curt Lemon and his fear of the Dentist its shows even our bravest soldiers have fears. Coincidentally, Curt Lemon's fear was of Dentist, one of which so happened to visit there camp. Although he complained and made a scene about his hatred towards dentist saying "No way. Count me out. Nobody messes with these teeth" (O’Brien, 82), he eventually gained courage and had the dentist remove one of his teeth, even though nothing was wrong. "There was some pain, no doubt, but in the morning Curt Lemon was all smiles" (O’Brien, 84).

   I find it funny to say, but I connect with Jimmy Cross the most. Although I find some of the things that he states and does, creepy and perverted, he is basically a confused and in love man who wants to be out of the war. I can relate to him because I also have had multiple sets of girl problems...haha. I've also been in the position of doing something that I don't want to be doing just because I don't want to disappoint my family and peers. Not pleasing them and making them proud would be harder than to attempt what I wanted to accomplish instead.

   The one convention of narrative that I like to see is the ellipses. I like this tool in writing narratives because many of the books I read growing up have used them. In particular, the Percy Jackson series (which I somehow manage to bring up in almost every post) uses them on roughly every third chapter to change the narrator. Throughout the book Rick Riorden cycles between 3-5 main characters to keep the perspectives on the unfolding events fresh and unique to each character. On top of this he can tell stories that are happening at two different places at the same time without confusing the reader. Instead of changing the narrator, ellipses can also dictate a change in time or place. They are used multiple times in the Sound and The Fury to dictate change in setting and narrator, but are sometimes left out in changes of time to blend the past and present.

   The passage that has struck me the most is still from chapter one, "The Things They Carried". "They carried their reputations. They carried the soldier's greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing. Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to. It was what brought them to the war in the first place, nothing positive, no dreams of glory or honor, just to avoid the blush of dishonor" (O’Brien, 20). This passage hits me hard because after watching several war movies and documentaries on how excited soldiers were to go to war or not being afraid about the events to come. This passage gives light to a different side of the story. It was often told that in the earlier wars of America, The American Revolution, Civil War, Ect. that soldiers knew they were about to die marching in the front line towards the enemy and some did blush, seeking a way out and getting shot for treason. Others stood and awaited their fate because they wanted no one else to see them blush.