Exploration 5 - Katie Wells

In the book The Things They Carried, the story that has meant the most to me so far would be "On the Rainy River". This story has meant the most to me so far because of how personal he gets with the readers, sharing a story of his life that he never has told anyone before. In this story you really get to know the younger Tim O'Brien and how he feels about being drafted into the war. Tim O'Brien explains how for more than 20 years he has had to live with a story where he almost ran away from home to go to Canada, so he wouldn't be taken to war. He introduces us to the man who helps him with his decision, Elroy Berdahl. Overall, this chapter shows the emotions of a young, scared Tim O'Brien.
The character that I feel I connect with the best so far in this book would be Jimmy Cross. I feel like I connect the best with him so far is because in the first story, it goes into detail of how he keeps to himself much of the time and that he carries the responsibility for his men. I can relate to that because I am someone that keeps to myself, but listens and loves to help others with their problems.
A specific convention of narrative that I want to point out is how Tim O'Brien not only points out what each character in the book are carrying and how much the things weigh, but he also goes on to tell the details of emotional baggage. O'Brien goes on to explain that Jimmy Cross as a first lieutenant and platoon leader carried, "A map, compass, code books, binoculars, and a .45-caliber pistol that weighed 2.9 pounds." He goes on to describe the letters that Cross carried from a girl named Martha that gave him emotional baggage as well. It goes to show that even if the things the men at war are carrying may be heavy, their emotional baggage inside may be even heavier.
"A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie." This impacted me to realize that war stories aren't all about the happy endings, that war stories are told from people who are fighting for our freedom, and that the book Tim O'Brien wrote is as good as the truth can get about what war is truly like.

Exploration 5 - Preston Bryan

1. The story that has been told in The Things They carry would have to be "how to tell a true war story". The way Tim O'Brien writes this chapter to me seams to discredit him but at the same time it give him the most credit. By saying that war stories are just the truth stretched out it helps to give him the credibility that he need to be able to effectively tell a true war story. Such as when he said that "when someone die you turn away then turn back again". This line tell you that what is being told is not the most accurate thing and from a humans point of view.

2. The character who I connect with the best so far in the story would have to be Rat Kiley. This is because he the type of guy who is will do what needs done . Rat Kiley's qualities include being a liar who the other men only will believe less then half of what he says.

3. In how the tell a true war story one of the parts I marked as a convention of narrative is where Rat Kiley is shooting the water buffalo because he is sad over the death of Curt Lemon. This shows how O'Brien is showing us the sense and emotion that the other character are going through as they experience the war.

4. A passage that I marked in the text is"The parts were just hanging there, so Dave Jensen and I were ordered to shinny up and peel him off. I remember the white bone of an arm. I remember pieces of skin and something wet and yellow that must've been the intestines. The gore was horrible, and stays with me. But what wakes me up twenty years later is Dave Jensen singing "Lemon Tree" as we threw down the parts." This impacted me because the thought of having to clean up someones body from a tree and then having someone sing while doing it would be really creepy and be something you could never forget.

Exploration 5: Brandon Kilgore

The story that has meant the most to me is “On the Rainy River”. I like this story because he has never told it before and we can believe that it is completely true. There’s something about him fighting himself internally over war that just makes it exciting and makes you drawn in and curious what choice he will make. I also really find it intriguing how Elroy just knows what he’s going through without asking, and essentially helps him make up his mind by giving him the opportunity to go to Canada, and without ever directly talking to him about the subject, and when he makes his decision Elroy disappears the next day.

I connect with Tim O’Brien the most, because I’m very much like him. When it comes to tough decisions for me, I take forever to weigh my options and I always think about the negatives of each which always makes the decision that much harder. Often I deal with guilt, because after I make some decision it turns out to not be the best one and I never let myself forget it, even though these decisions and problems are a grain of sand compared to O’Brien’s.

I like how he characterizes the men. He tells what they carried physically and emotionally and tells all the ins and outs of what they do and what have to deal with. But. He also, reminds everyone that most of them are only 19 or 20 year old young adults which he uses to explain some of the erratic behaviors of the men like Rat and the water buffalo. Most of them were nowhere near ready for what they were going to experience in Vietnam, because they were so young and many had other dreams that didn’t include the military. All of these things go into the characterization of them as young adults who aren’t expected to have the maturity to deal with war, which he uses indirectly to explain their actions.

“If you weren’t humping, you were waiting. I remember the monotony…..Even in the deep bush, where you could die any number of ways, the war was nakedly and aggressively boring” (pg. 32-33). There is more to this on page 33 put I don’t want to cite it all. This passage struck me because it uses such deep language to describe some basic feelings, and in one paragraph Tim pretty much explains the whole mood of the war. The way he writes it adds excitement to it, it doesn’t feel like another old boring war description, besides it’s Vietnam a war completely different from any other war.

Exploration 5

     The story that I have enjoyed the most, I would have to say is the one about the dentist.
This story has a number of funny parts, namely when Curt convinced the army dentist to pull out his perfectly good tooth for no good reason. I supose that he was trying to save face because he resisted the exam earlier, it just struck me as odd why he would do that.
    
     The charactor that i like the best so far was Elroy Berdahl. He was a very helpful charactor in the rainy river story because he seemed to know what Tim was doing, he was the wise old man figure that apears often in stories. But he went even further then just giving Tim a place to stay and a part time job, he actually took him out on the rainy river before he decided that what he was doign was "cowerdly".

     During my active reading I kept comming across all of the odd things that the soldiers were carying.  Tim O'Brien does a unique job of charactorizing the soldiers by the things they carried. This convention is at its best when you see how it makes the soldiers human. when you read about how they caried sunglasses, goodluck charms and even slippers its hard not to be able to identify with the charaters, and i like that in a book.

     "Lee Strunk and Dave Jenson got intoa fistfight. It was over something stupid- a missing knife- but even so the fight was viscious." This caught me because it shocked me. These people are supposed to be freinds and they get into a fistfight over something stupid, something meaningless. I like the way that Dave stole a pistol and broke his own nose with it as a sign of good faith. that was a good end to the story i think and it shows that they stayed freinds.

Grant Trainer - Exploration 5

The story that has meant the most to me so far would be the story about when Curt Lemons dies and then Rat shoots the Water Buffalo. This is because the brutality of it stuck with me. The whole concept of the chapter: how to tell a true war story. That if it made sense or was beliebable then it wasn't true. If it contained a lesson and everyone acting of courage then it wasn't true. This really stuck with me because that is what most people tend to think. It was gruesome what Rat did to the Buffalo but also sad for Rat himself. The stress of the war and the things that happened got to people. Not everyone handles it with amazing skill like it is portrayed in movies and stories. People crack, it happens. Although he shouldn't have shot the water buffalo and it was wrong no matter what, nobody can understand why except him and maybe the people that were in his platoon. The character that I connect with the best so far is Jimmy Cross. This is because many times in a situation i am the leader and i understand that it is a lot of pressure. And sometimes that pressure can end up causing you to mess up and blame yourself for whatver happens. Sometimes, like in jimmy cross's case, it sticks with you forever. In this book, something that stood out to me is the use of sensory details by Tim O'brien. Anytime he describes something, it is so detailed and descriptive that you can picture it almost perfectly. Almost feel exactly as they feel. "They would sit down or kneel, not facing the hole, listening to the ground beneath them, imagining cobwebs and ghosts, whatever was down there-the tunnel walls squeezing in-how the flashlight seemed impossibly heavy in hand and how it was tunnel vision in thevery strictest sense, compression in all ways, even time, and how you had to wiggle in-ass and elbows- a swallowed-up feeling-and how you found yourself worrying about odd things: will your flashlight go dead? Do rats carry rabies? If you screamed, how far would that sound carry? Would your buddies hear it? Would they have the courage to drag you out? In some respects, though not many, the waiting was worse than the tunnel itself, imagination was a killer." This impacted me because of the sensory details. They were so vivid and detailed that i felt like i was crawling through that tunnel. It really sticks with you.

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.

Vietnam-era research topics. From Mike Lohre.

Understanding People, Events and Pictures related to the Vietnam Era

Students, you will research one of these topics or photos/topics for this exercise.  Pick one and work to research the topic. 

  

--What do we need to know that will help us understand the Vietnam era and the novel we are now reading?     

--Seek to answer these basic questions: Who or what is this, what happened, and why is this subject important?

Post your ideas and reflections about this idea on our blog in the Comments section below this post.

William Westmoreland

Battle of Khe Sahn

The Tet Offensive

The Ho Chi Minh Trail HANS

The Tonklin Gulf incident and the domino theory CODY

The DMZ de-militarized zone LUKE

Jane Fonda and ‘Hanoi Jane’ controversy-- HAILEY JACKSON

Abbie Hoffman and antiwar protests SHELBY

Thomas W. Bennett and one other Medal of Honor winner of your choice from Vietnam era LORENZO

Ho Chi Minh JORDEN

Song “Four Dead in Ohio” released and impact KATIE WELLS

Song “Fortunate Son” released and impact ANDREW

Song “All Along the Watchtower” released and impact GRANT

Lyndon Johnson

Martin Luther King gives “Beyond Vietnam” speech HALEY BULL CLEVELAND

Muhammed Ali JACOB

Richard Nixon and Watergate

The My Lai Massacre SHRAVAN

Agent Orange  use and effects PRESTON

The draft for the Armed Services: how likely it was and who got drafted the most, plus ‘draft dodgers’ or those who fled or avoided service

Geography and climate of Vietnam SANDEEP

Economy and Lifestyle of Vietnam HALEY

DILLON

LILYAN