The Things They Carried #3

1. Wes Hamilton not knowing the real names of the men that he served with is representive of the alter personality that is created during war because he only knows their nicknames. When they were all over seas they bonded, my grandpa said that these men become your family. Wes said in the Marines you were not accepted until you were given a nickname. I think that this is because you don't know if you can rely on someone until they have done something in combat that has made them earn a nickname. I think that it might be the soldier's way of making their situation less serious, this way they do not have to reveal much about themselves. I think that the characters in The Things They Carried know each other on a more personal level. They actually know each others real names. Norman and Tim actually stayed in contact after the war. Norman wrote Tim the letter that inspired "Speaking of Courage". I do not think that this is a rare occurrence, I think how well you get to know someone is based on how much they are willing to share with you, therefore it varies based on the person or people.


2. I think that Tim O'Brien is conveying that it is not a bad thing for women to serve. However, I think that he was trying to make a point of saying that women might be more prone to the "great change" that a soldier undergoes. When Mary Anne showed up she was described as being " an attractive girl. Too wide in the shoulders , maybe, but she had terrific legs, a bubbly personality, and a happy smile" (95). O'Brien described her as basically the typical All American girl, but after being there for a short amount of time she started changing. All of a sudden she was disappearing in the middle of the night to go on missions with the Greenies "and then one morning, all alone, Mary Anne walked off into the mountains and did not come back" (115). Women are strong beings but I think O'Brien was saying that they would've been more affected by the war than the men would.


3. I think that Tim O'Brien is being honest to a degree about what happened in his time in Vietnam. I think that he is telling the readers what it was like but at the same time he is kind of shielding us against all the horrors of war. He says in the book that when his daughter asked him if he had killed anyone he told her of course not. In the book he only tells us about one man that he actually killed. I am sure that as a soldier he had killed more than just the one man, but he doesn't go that far into detail. He wants us to believe him, but at the same time he is sensoring his experience.
I think that the advantage to having a memoir that falls in between true and false is that it leaves a little more to the imagination. O'Brien says many times that a lot of war stories are lies. They have been edited to make them more believable. Not everyone wants to read about guts and gore, and O'Brien's novel isn't to gory...but that makes you wonder if that is what really happens or not. I think that it is more pleasing to the reader to be able to say either "no that didn't happen" or totally believe what the author has written. You don't have to know whether or not something is totally true to appreciate the message behind it.

• Do you think that Mary Anne is symbolic of the extreme change that some soldiers go through?
• How would you have reacted if you had been in Bowker's situation the night that Kiowa died?
• Would you have volunteered for the war or would you have taken your chances with the draft? Why?
• Do you think that the novel is believable?
• Did you expect Norman's suicide?
  

The Things They Carried #2

Apart from the literal things that the soldiers carry they also carry emotions and the weight of the people that depend on them. They carry the expectations of people. They are supposed to be brave, they are supposed to willingly throw themselves into the line of fire. The things that they carry are the will to go home, and to survive so that they get there, and to fulfill the expectations of the US citizens that are supporting them at home.
So far O'Brien has talked a lot about Lt. Jimmy Cross. He is the leader of the platoon. Unfortunately until Lavender dies he is not a very good leader. He was totally into his fantasies about Martha and how much he wanted her to love him. He was very concerned about whether or not she is a virgin. After Lavender gets shot he decides that he needs to leave his fantasies behind and enter reality. He is at war, he is not home. I think that he might save someone later in the novel.
All the things that we have been talking about in class and watching movies about have been connected to the Vietnam war.We would not be able to relate or fully understand the novel if we had not talked about the history of the war first. It is also nice to know what was happening at home in contrast to what was happening over seas. Technically we were having a ton of problems in both places. Whatever happened here directly affected what happened to the soldiers in Vietnam. But also back home we were not given totally accurate accounts of what was happening to our soldiers. The government was lying to us. Everything is connected to the next thing, the history is connected to the movie and then the novel gives us the flip side of what happened in the war as apposed to what we were being told was happening.

Things They Carried Response #1

I think that war should be a last resort. I'm not for it and I'm not against it. I always know what is happening in war and how we got there, I just never have an opinion. I don't think that the U.S should be involved in war unless it is completely necessary. It is a huge cost both socially and financially. We don't need that right now or ever. We are always paying off our past wars, so why enter the ones we don't really need to. I know that the Vietnam War was not intended for us to enter, but we did anyways. Also, we didn't really do anything to help out.

The most amazing place

If I could snap my fingers and make the school into any place in the world it would be similar to Disney Land. As cheesy as it sounds I have only been there once and I think that if I were to go again I would have a better experience than the awkward one I had with my mom and her now ex boyfriend. That was where everything went wrong.
I love the rides and all the themed places that Disney Land has....I do not however like all the long lines. My "Disney Land" would have very short lines, and better food. It would also be cleaner and sunny all the time. In all honesty I would only be able to stay for a little while (about the length of a regular school day) before I would get tired of it and want to change it into something else. I wouldn't be able to have it be the same thing everyday, but it would be hard to come up with a new destination every single day.

The Great Gatsby: What Does it All Mean?

Do you ever feel like you are out of time? Like it is to late to do something that you really wanted to do? In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald there is a constant allusion to clocks, the passing of time, and feeling that it is to late.
The relevance of time is especially apparent when Gatsby and or Daisy is present in a scene. For example, on the day that Daisy is supposed to come to tea at Nick's house Gatsby is concerned about the time. He tells Nick "Nobody's coming to tea. It's too late"(85)! Gatsby's concern about the time is more than what it appears to be. He is only concerned about the time of day and Daisy appearing to be running late but he is also concerned about it being to late for he and Daisy to reunite. Also, Gatsby is metaphorically trying to stop time. After Daisy arrives for tea Gatsby's "head leaned so far back that it rested against the face of a defunct mantelpiece clock...luckily the clock took this moment to tilt dangerously at the pressure of his head, whereupon he turned and caught it with trembling fingers and set it back in place"(86). Even though it is not totally obvious this scene is symbolic of Gatsby wishing time to stop. He knocks over the clock because he is so nervous and stressed out about the time that has passed. Lastly, it becomes evident to Gatsby that you can't undo time no matter how much you try to ignore it. When Nick and Gatsby come to Daisy's house that heated day he meets Daisy's daughter Pammy and Nick says "I don't think he had ever really believed in its existence before"(117). Gatsby can no longer deny that time has passed, Daisy has a child. You can't ignore a human being, and Gatsby can't undo the last five years of his life without Daisy.
I am able to relate to this because it has been approximately 10 years since I have talked to my biologic father. I was concerned that because it had been so long since I had talked to him that he would have no interest in meeting me. I had friended my older brother on facebook and we have started talking. He has decided that he wants me to spend next summer up in Maine with him and my dad. I decided to write them a letter and send them a picture of me so that they could see how I looked and what has happened since the last time I talked to them. Now my dad has friended me on facebook and has really seen how much time has passed and everything that he has missed.
The passing of time and the appearance of clocks is something that no one thinks to much about. But when you have gone 10 years without talking to your dad in my case or 5 years without seeing the love of your life in The Great Gatsby time becomes a more important aspect in your life.

Symbolism in Chapters 1-4

Thus far the most interesting thing that I have found is the mystery that surrounds Jay Gatsby. It is said at the beginning of the book that he "represented everything for which I [Nick] have an unaffected scorn for. If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him"(2) but based on what is currently happening Nick doesn't really trust Gatsby. He doesn't know whether he can be trusted or not and the fact that Gatsby just so happens to have all this proof to back up his story is rather suspicious. The fact that Nick doesn't know whether or not he can trust Gatsby makes the story more interesting in mind. I feel like I have to keep reading to know whether I should trust Gatsby even though he is already my favorite character. To be honest, Nick's opinion of Gatsby doesn't affect how much I like him, its just something that I feel the need to find out.
Gatsby's house is associated with the color blue, mostly the garden. And blue is associated with sadness. I find this kind of ironic because there are such wild and crazy parties there that you would think that Gatsby would be associated with a more happy color. But now that I have read Chapter 4 I can see that the garden being associated with the color blue because he is sad. He purchased his house so that he could be near his lost love, Daisy, and he keeps hoping that he will see her and hopefully end up with her in the end.

The Great Gatsby

Daisy is described as being beautiful. She is also rich and is the type of person who pretends to be fine no matter what is going on in her life, for example, Tom (her husband) is cheating on her and she knows about it because she goes inside to listen to his phone call and then they fight but she acts like everything is fine. She is also described as one of the rich people who has everything but thinks they have nothing. She tells Nick that she wants her daughter to be a fool because " 'that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool'"(17) because she knows that it is better to be ignorant (and not know that her husband is cheating) than be smart and be unliked by men. Tom is Daisy's husband and he is portrayed as a racist. He is also described as "a brute of a man, a great, big, hulking specimen"(12). Tom and Nick went to Yale together. Nick describes Jordan by saying " Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes and a bright passionate mouth, but there was an excitement in her voice that men who had cared for her found difficult to forget"(9). He thinks that she is very beautiful and learns that she is a female golfer and that she is basically being set up with him by Daisy and Tom. Nick is not rich but his parents are. He also says "I'm inclined to reserve all judgments , a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores" (1). He does not judge people and is rather sarcastic.
So far I find the book rather boring but that's not to say that it won't pick up. The writing style is not something that I am used to so thus far I am not totally able to understand it, but I think I will be able to catch on. The color white has been introduced and is used to describe Jordan and Daisy as both light and beauty.

Anticipating the Great Gatsby

Based on the research that we have had to do I think that The Great Gatsby will be set in the 1920's during Prohibition. I have a feeling that there will be an emphasis on rum running and other organized crime. I think that this will be an interesting read. I personally love the fashion that came out of the 20's. There will probably be dances and "loose women" somewhere in the story line. It could possibly have a depressing tone or mood because there was the laws banning alcohol and it was around the same time as the great depression.
I really like learning about the flappers. It was a time of great development and breaking of stereotypes. But most of all I enjoyed learning about the organized crime. Frankly I've spent a lot of time watching The Sopranos with my Dad so it has perked my interest in some of the classic gangsters. Of course I've heard of Al Capone but I was unsure of what it was that he was actually famous for, other than being in Alcatraz. It should be an interesting read.