I agree with the narrator when he says "..this too is true: stories can save us." When someone experiences something as dramatic as war there are some burdens that will stay with them for life. Sometimes to escape the pain, and hurt of the nightmares remembering the good stories, or the moral of the stories will save a persons mood. And we must not forget the lessons that men learn in war. They can bring those lessons home in the form of stories and share them with the people who need them the most.
When the narrator tells us that the story truth is sometimes truer than the happening truth he is talking about the experience, the moral, the lesson. Often when something happens for real it is an experience to you, but you may not realize the meaning of the experience until you tell the story for yourself. And since in war stories one must embellish it with small details that may or may not have actually happened, you can add anything to it to get your point across. So the experience in your story is sometimes more understandable that the real experience.
The last chapter "The Lives Of The Dead" is a great way to end this novel. This story is about a young girl who has a tumor and is humored by trickery's in a war movie. Her death I think gives a whole new meaning to the novel. While not everyone understands war in its most literally defined sense because they have not experienced it first hand, everyone has a war. For this young girl her war was fighting the tumor. It makes the entire book as a whole real to the reader because comparing the stories of the soldiers to the story of this ordinary girl we are able to better understand why the soldiers acted the ways that they did.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
BLOG POST *6
In "On The Rainy River" O'Brien begins the story by saying " I have never told this story to anyone." The reason being because he was embarrassed, society would think of him a a coward for running from the war. He felt shame for running away from the draft, and coming sloe to crossing over into Canada. There had to be part of a soldier inside of him, because he didn't, he was giving the chance, and did not hide. He tells us that he could not stand the sight of blood, which is ironic being that he works in a slaughter house. And he tells us that he knows nothing about weapons and fighting, he was head of his class and student body president, but he couldn't tell a rifle from a slingshot. He was planning to continue his education even further, and he was angry that he had been drafted to fight in a war in which he hated.
In "The Ghost Soldiers" O'Brien was no longer a coward, he had become a soldier and was no longer afraid of blood, and knew more weapons than ever. He had hardened and become jealous that he was no longer in the war with his fellow soldiers. He became jealous enough to harass the medic who had "mistreated" him. But at the end he realized that the reason the medic had mistreated him was for the same reason he had run from the war in the first place. He was scared, and blinded by fear. He didn't know what to do so in a sense he ran from his duties. By this time it was too late for O'Brien to stop the prank so he angered the medic and Azar. Azar kicked him in the head and the medic gave him proper treatment this time.
The main difference between these two chapters is that "On The Rainy River" he was scared and confused the war was all new to him and he had no interest in being a part of it and most defiantly not by force. but in "The Ghost Soldiers" he was bitter, angry and jealous that his friends go to continue fighting and he was not allowed. He began to take his anger out on someone who had mistreated him before and then quickly realized that that person was scared just like he was and had now become accustomed to war.
In "The Ghost Soldiers" O'Brien was no longer a coward, he had become a soldier and was no longer afraid of blood, and knew more weapons than ever. He had hardened and become jealous that he was no longer in the war with his fellow soldiers. He became jealous enough to harass the medic who had "mistreated" him. But at the end he realized that the reason the medic had mistreated him was for the same reason he had run from the war in the first place. He was scared, and blinded by fear. He didn't know what to do so in a sense he ran from his duties. By this time it was too late for O'Brien to stop the prank so he angered the medic and Azar. Azar kicked him in the head and the medic gave him proper treatment this time.
The main difference between these two chapters is that "On The Rainy River" he was scared and confused the war was all new to him and he had no interest in being a part of it and most defiantly not by force. but in "The Ghost Soldiers" he was bitter, angry and jealous that his friends go to continue fighting and he was not allowed. He began to take his anger out on someone who had mistreated him before and then quickly realized that that person was scared just like he was and had now become accustomed to war.
Monday, March 8, 2010
BLOG POST 7
After reading this novel I do come away with a few new thoughts about "truth". truth in its most literal sense is anything that is not a lie. And I think that this story is as true as any story that we as humans are capable of telling. Like Tim O'Brien said remembering is a sort of re happening. The more times we tell stories the more different they are from the original experience. The older the story the more details that become lost. When you go through something as traumatic as war, your mind tends to focus on the most meaningful moments to you, not necessarily the details that would make the story believable, so when you go to tell the story of your experience you have to ad in details that may or may not have happened so that others will believe it. All in all the experience behind the story is true, it is just that the details may be a step or two off.
Yes I would recommend this story to a friend this is the second time I have read it and each time I have come away with something new. This story teaches many valuable lessons on "truth", "life", and "war".
Yes I would recommend this story to a friend this is the second time I have read it and each time I have come away with something new. This story teaches many valuable lessons on "truth", "life", and "war".
BLOG POST 4
I love this whole book, but if I had to choose my favorite story in the book The Things They Carried was "The Sweetheart of The Song Tra Bong". I think this story alone does a wonderful job of showing how much war can change a man, even though the story is about a woman. It shows that the things that they go through and experience and the cultures that they are around every day when they are at war becomes normal to them. And as weird as the cultural practices may look to an outsider, to someone who has been around them for a while and has nothing else to run to they tend to adapt to their surroundings.
My least favorite story would have to be "The Things They Carried" it is so much slower to read than the rest of the book, and while some of the things mentioned in this chapter you need later in the book, I think the novel as a whole is a lot deeper than the first chapter alone, though it was necessary to get to know each character.
I can sympathize with many of the men in this novel, and women. Because while each of their stories is different they all are related to the one theme of the book, and that is war. Even though maybe not every character in the book struggles with war as we define it, they all struggle with a war against something, and it is easy for me to understand each of their stories.
Azar was my least favorite character, even though his story was necessary for the novel. He shows us that war even gets to the toughest men, and that everyone has a breaking point. But I dislike him as a person(if he was real).
My least favorite story would have to be "The Things They Carried" it is so much slower to read than the rest of the book, and while some of the things mentioned in this chapter you need later in the book, I think the novel as a whole is a lot deeper than the first chapter alone, though it was necessary to get to know each character.
I can sympathize with many of the men in this novel, and women. Because while each of their stories is different they all are related to the one theme of the book, and that is war. Even though maybe not every character in the book struggles with war as we define it, they all struggle with a war against something, and it is easy for me to understand each of their stories.
Azar was my least favorite character, even though his story was necessary for the novel. He shows us that war even gets to the toughest men, and that everyone has a breaking point. But I dislike him as a person(if he was real).
BLOG POST *1
The movie Radio, released in 2003, was based on a true story of a South Carolina High School Football coach, Harold Jones, and his mentally challenged assistant James Robert "Radio". The inspiration for the movie came from a 1996 Sports illustrated article by Gary Smith entitled "Someone To Lean On". Radio had always been teased and mocked by the community that he lived in, but then the coach began to mentor him. Their friendship raised some eyebrows at first but once Radio began helping coach the football team, the community came to love him. He continued to work with the team for 38+ years.
When you watch this movie in theatres you feel like it is really happening like you were there when the kids pick on him. The movie pulls on your heart and makes you cry because you can feel what he, Radio, must be feeling. The Things They Carried does the same thing. Like in the story of the baby buffalo you feel as if you were there with Rat Kiley watching him torture the animal.
Another example would be when movies are made about murders, more than likely the people who are writing the books and making the films were not there to watch the murder. So the only thing that they can do is base their story off of someone Else's. At that point no one would know what was real and what wasn't because all of the true memories would become tangled with the details that were made up to fill the places of the ones that were lost because no one could remember.
In both movies and books, directors and writers have to add a details to the true story to make the story more real to their audience, just like Tim O'Brien tells us. "The normal details are necessary to make you believe the truly incredible craziness".
I believe that this enhances your viewing experience more than anything, anything that all owes you to truly feel what is going on with the characters does not detract from an experience at all. Whether it is truth or based on truth is not the point, the point is the experience.
When you watch this movie in theatres you feel like it is really happening like you were there when the kids pick on him. The movie pulls on your heart and makes you cry because you can feel what he, Radio, must be feeling. The Things They Carried does the same thing. Like in the story of the baby buffalo you feel as if you were there with Rat Kiley watching him torture the animal.
Another example would be when movies are made about murders, more than likely the people who are writing the books and making the films were not there to watch the murder. So the only thing that they can do is base their story off of someone Else's. At that point no one would know what was real and what wasn't because all of the true memories would become tangled with the details that were made up to fill the places of the ones that were lost because no one could remember.
In both movies and books, directors and writers have to add a details to the true story to make the story more real to their audience, just like Tim O'Brien tells us. "The normal details are necessary to make you believe the truly incredible craziness".
I believe that this enhances your viewing experience more than anything, anything that all owes you to truly feel what is going on with the characters does not detract from an experience at all. Whether it is truth or based on truth is not the point, the point is the experience.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
STORY VS. ESSAY
Just like in the things they carried in twilight they delivered a truth about love in life. Not love like we love our parents or brothers but love like everyone should love their spouse. In the story Bella swan falls in love with Edward Cullen. This is similar to lieutenant Jimmy Cross in the things they carried, the characters in twilight show us how captivating love can be. In the things they carried Jimmy Crosses mind is so encompassed by his love for Martha that he felt responsible for Ted Lavender's death. In twilight Bella becomes so attached to Edward and was so focused on her love for him and his love for her that she withdrew herself from school social activities with her friends. When Edward breaks up with her Bella spent months in depression doing nothing but crying, and sleeping when she could handle the pain for a moment. Then she became an adrenaline junkie because when she did dangerous things she could hear Edward talking to her telling her to be careful.
IRONY:
I love to read Nicholas Sparks. In his book the wedding, a sequel to "The Notebook", there is extended irony throughout the story. The notebook was writing about the love story between Ali and Noah. The wedding was written as a love story of Ali and Noah's Daughter. The title to the book foreshadows what the story is about. The majority of the story revolves around the planning of a wedding. Throughout the first few hundred pages of The Wedding i was convinced, as well as everyone else that i know who has read the book, that the wedding that was being planned was their daughters wedding; however when the bride comes out, it is Ali!. Noah and his daughter had planned Ali's dream wedding that she never had, to renew their vows. It was a shocker, no doubt, but a wonderful one.
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