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Ch. 1 Journal - What is some background information on the author?

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Ch. 1 Journal - What is some background information on the author?

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Tim O'Brien, author of The Things They Carried, is an American novelist born in 1946. O'Brien studied political science at Malcaster College in Minnesota before serving in the Vietnam War from 1968 to 1970 in the U.S. Army. It is his experience in the army, both physically and mentally, that he writes about in many of his novels. After serving, he studied at Harvard and got a job with the Washington Post. At the Washington Post, O'Brien worked first as an intern then as a reporter. He published several novels prior to The Things They Carried, which was published in 1990. In this novel, he uses a fictional version of himself to articulate the complex feelings and trauma left behind by the Vietnam War; both in himself and fictional men he served with.

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Ch. 2 Journal - What is some background information for the setting of the text?

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Ch. 2 Journal - What is some background information for the setting of the text?

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The novel is set in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. A lot of their time was spent in hot, humid jungle areas. They also get rainy monsoons, which was mentioned in chapter 1. The Vietnam War polarized the United States. It was a war that was blurry; with many people unsure as to the reason for the war in the first place. These men were pretty much all between the ages of 18-21, so most of them were uneducated on the terrain of the rice paddies and jungle climates. It is clear in his writing that there was underlying awe for the foreign land that the soldiers carried.

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"They were signed Love, Martha, but Lieutenant Cross understood that Love was only a way of signing and did not mean what he sometimes pretended it meant."

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Everyone: P-38 can openers, pocket knives, heat tabs, wristwatches, dog tags, mosquito repellent, chewing gum, candy, cigarettes, salt tablets, packets of Kool-Aid, lighters, matches, sewing kits, Military Payment Certificates, C rations, two or three canteens of water, steel helmet, fatigue jackets and trousers, flak jacket, compress bandage, green plastic poncho, M-16 assault rifle (and maintenance gear), 12-20 magazines, some carried M-79 hand grenade launcher, M-60, other assorted weapons depending on what they had at the time, (mountain missions: mosquito netting, machetes, canvas tarps, bug juice, ghosts of the lives they took,

Henry Dobbins: extra rations, M-60, extra ammo, his girlfriend's pantyhose wrapped around his neck as a comforter

Dave Jensen: into field hygiene; toothbrush, dental floss, hotel bars of soap, three pairs of socks, Dr. Scholl's foot powder, night-sight vitamins high in carotene, earplugs

Ted Lavender: tranquilizers, dope, 34 rounds of ammo, starlight scope

Mitchell Sanders: condoms, PRC-25 radio and its battery, brass knuckles

Norman Bowker: diary

Rat Kiley: comic books, canvas satchel with morphine, plasma, malaria tablets, surgical tape, M&Ms (candy) for bad wounds, brandy

Kiowa: illustrated New Testament from his father, his grandmother's distrust of white men, grandfather's old hunting hatchet, moccasins

Lieutenant Jimmy Cross: two photographs of Martha, compass, maps, code books, binoculars, .45-caliber pistol strobe light, the responsibility of the lives of his men, shame of letting Lavender die, good luck pebble from Martha

Lee Strunk: slingshot

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"It [Lavender's death] was something that would never go away, he said quietly, and I nodded and told him I felt the same about certain things."

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Ch. 3 Journal - How might the text be read and interpreted by two different readers from two completely different cultures? 

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Ch. 3 Journal - How might the text be read and interpreted by two different readers from two completely different cultures? 

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This novel was written through the lens of a white man from America fighting the Vietnamese soldiers on their own land. O'Brien writes a lot about the change of scenery that is so different from the United States. It is clear that the Americans are baffled by the monsoons, the jungle terrain, and squelching heat. It was mentioned that they often felt very lost, which was big reason why having maps of the terrain was so important. Many Americans also consider themselves the heroes of their story. Fighting for their country and defending their way of governing the general public was an honor, not just a duty. However, O'Brien does make it clear that he did not feel that way about serving and was against the war completely.

Natives of Vietnam would be used to their home country's climate and land. Rice patties and tropical weather was nothing new to them. This was quite the home field advantage. In addition to the familiar settings, they would also be their own protagonists and they would find the Americans as invaders or the antagonists. Their story of the war would be told totally differently in comparison to the story told in America.

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Ch. 3 Journal - To what purpose do authors sometimes choose not to follow a chronological sequence of events in their literary works?

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Ch. 3 Journal - To what purpose do authors sometimes choose not to follow a chronological sequence of events in their literary works?

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Storytelling is a dynamic craft. O'Brien often does not follow the chronological order of events in his writing. There are a few reasons for doing so. The first reason is to give the reader more context to the scene or conversation. In the first chapter, we hear about the complex feelings Lieutenant Cross carried for a woman named Martha. Chapter 2 jumps forward several years after the war and it is there that we find out more about Martha and how their relationship, or lack-there-of, continued after the war. We also hear about how they met through daydreams belonging to Cross. The second reason is to break up the story. In stories that involve heavy topics, breaking up the order of things with flashbacks of better days not only improves the readability of the story but also improves the characters. We as readers tend to care more about the characters when we can fully understand their motives.

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"... The war was nakedly and aggressively boring. But it was a strange kind of boredom with a twist, the kind of boredom that caused stomach disorders."

"You take your material where you find it, which is in your life, at the intersection of past and present."

"The average age in our platoon, I'd guess, was nineteen or twenty, and as a consequence things often took on a curiously playful atmosphere,"

"Stories are for joining the past to the future."

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Ch. 4 Journal - Some literary texts, although set in a particular place or time, convey ideas that are universal. In what ways is this true of your chosen text?

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Ch. 4 Journal - Some literary texts, although set in a particular place or time, convey ideas that are universal. In what ways is this true of your chosen text?

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It takes a very skilled author to write a book that can be applicable over 30 years after its original release date. O'Brien is able to achieve this sense of universal truth through his honesty about his feelings. Mental health is something that has only recently become a big focus in media. Prior to the 2010s, there was a lot of silence about struggling mentally and it carried a heavier stigma than it does today. This book is set approximately in the late '60s to early '70s as they fight and the '80s as he wrote the book that was then published in 1990. O'Brien being vulnerable about the fears he had about going off to war is a huge connecting point for a lot of people. At the age of 21, there was so much he wanted to do with his life. He had plans to attend Harvard to continue his studies and he wanted to build a life. Having his name picked in the draft was jarring. At that moment, he saw the possible end of his life and it was way sooner than he ever envisioned it being. The desire to run away and never look back is so honest and raw. Although many people who read the book will never find themselves fighting in a confusing war that they don't agree with in the first place, the feelings O'Brien communicates through the text can be applied to all sorts of big life events and decisions.

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Ch. 4 Journal - What writing techniques does the author use to evoke an emotional response in the reader?

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Ch. 4 Journal - What writing techniques does the author use to evoke an emotional response in the reader?

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Chapter 4 uses very unique writing techniques. To start the chapter, we are introduced to O'Brien in the present day. He as the speaker in this chapter recalled the embarrassment he attaches to the story following. He uses the repetition of the "too" several times. He stated that he is "too good for this war." He further explains this idea by adding, "Too smart, too compassionate, too everything. It couldn't happen. I was above it." Using the word "too" alerts the reader to O'Brien's shock and panic. Often times when we are upset by something, we tend to over-dramatize. It is entirely possible that O'Brien was just average in the intelligence and compassion departments but he was a young twenty-something-year-old man who opened an average piece of mail one day and had to look at a draft notice that might as well have been his death warrant. Panic rang through O'Brien's writing as he explained how we eventually ran away.

Later in the story, we see O'Brien made it all the way to a small little lodge that was a short boat ride from Canada. This boat ride was a symbol of freedom for a while. To O'Brien, it meant safety from Vietnam and freedom to live his life according to his own terms. Canada was a safe haven and it was just a boat ride away. However, it was also a symbol of loneliness and shame. Were O'Brien to really leave America, he couldn't return. He could never see his parents again or attend his pal's wedding or eat at his favorite childhood restaurant. The shame of running from the draft notice would be too great for his shoulders to bear. After nearly a week at the lodge, O'Brien made the decision to fulfill his duty and serve.

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"In June of 1968, a month after graduating from Macalester College, I was drafted to fight a war I hated."

"It was my view then, and it still is, that you don't make war without knowing why."

"Once people are dead, you can't make them undead."

"I was too good for this war. Too smart, too compassionate, too everything. It couldn't happen. I was above it."

"I felt paralyzed."

"Both my conscience and my instincts were telling me to make a break for it, just take off and run like hell and never stop."

"I feared the war, yes, but I also feared exile."

"I remember packing a suitcase and carrying it out to the kitchen, standing very still for a few minutes, looking carefully at the familiar objects all around me."

"Simple politeness was part of it. But even more than that, I think, the man understood that words were insufficient."

"Inside were the four fifties and a two-word note that said EMERGENCY FUND."

"It struck me that he must have planned it. I'll never be certain of it, of course, but I think he meant to bring me up against the realities, to guide me across the river and to stand a kind of vigil as I chose a life for myself."

"I would go to the war -- I would kill and maybe die -- because I was embarrassed not to."

"I survived, but it's not a happy ending. I was a coward. I went to the war."

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Ch. 5 and 6 Journal - Symbols and motifs are objects, actions, or events that represent something or that creates a range of associations beyond itself.  What symbols or motifs appear within the text and how do they function in relation to the characters or themes?

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Ch. 5 and 6 Journal - Symbols and motifs are objects, actions, or events that represent something or that creates a range of associations beyond itself.  What symbols or motifs appear within the text and how do they function in relation to the characters or themes?

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These two chapters go hand-in-hand as they depict the unspoken fragility of the men on the front lines. The tension and stress they face daily effects how the compose themselves. Massive events like carrying you deceased comrade to get taken away could have no effect on someone but having a personal item go missing or stolen could set someone loose. In this chapter, Lee Strunk and Dave Jensen get into a fight over a missing jack knife. However, the knife represents more than a useful tool for a soldier. It is a symbol of their privacy. When Strunk stole Jensen's knife, he robbed a soldier of the sliver of personal privacy and belongings. It was a breech in friendship because of the stress both men were already under while being on the front lines in a foreign land fighting a war they didn't understand with men who should be attending college and beginning the wild ride of their twenties, not dying before they ever truly lived. That privacy and personal belonging was a connection to the way real life was like.

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Ch. 5 and 6 Journal - What “golden line(s)” have caught your attention while reading? Record the line and explain why it is “golden” for you. Ensure that you mark the page numbers for these (important for the IA).

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Ch. 5 and 6 Journal - What “golden line(s)” have caught your attention while reading? Record the line and explain why it is “golden” for you. Ensure that you mark the page numbers for these (important for the IA).

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A golden line that really stood out to me in chapter six came at the very end of the chapter when O'Brien wrote, "Later we heard that Strunk died somewhere over Chu Lai, which seemed to relieve Dave Jensen of an enormous weight." This line stuck out to me because Jensen was clearly a man who placed value in being honorable. By not fulfilling the pact of promising to kill Strunk when he lost his leg, he technically broke that promise. However, in this chapter we see that the men's friendship becomes more complex. By the end, Jensen didn't want to kill his pal. It is also important to note that it is not said that Jensen was glad Strunk was dead. The wording of the sentence was another reason why it stuck out to me. Jensen was "relieved of an enormous weight" because he was no longer obligated to hurt Strunk. His injury or nature or something else had taken care of the duty for him and he no longer had to bear that duty.

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"There were no threats, no vows of revenge, just a silent tension between them that made Jensen take special precautions."

"Because late that same night he borrowed a pistol, gripped it by the barrel, and used it like a hammer to break his own nose."

"Later we heard that Strunk had died somewhere over Chu Lai, which seemed to relieve Dave Jensen of an enormous weight."

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Ch. 7 Journal - What “golden line(s)” have caught your attention while reading? Record the line and explain why it is “golden” for you. Ensure that you mark the page numbers for these (important for the IA).

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Ch. 7 Journal - What “golden line(s)” have caught your attention while reading? Record the line and explain why it is “golden” for you. Ensure that you mark the page numbers for these (important for the IA).

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A golden line that stood out to me in this chapter was, "Though it's odd, you're never more alien than when you're almost dead. You recognize what's valuable." These lines stuck out to me because I thought the word "alien" was a interesting choice. When I think of the word "alien," I usually picture little green people that were depicted in movies from decades ago. However, when I looked up the definition on Merriam Webster, it said "belonging or relating to another person, place, or thing." I think he chose this word because it would stand out to the reader and demand attention. He wanted the reader reread that sentence like I did. I think what he really meant was that it is not until you face death that you realize who runs your life and what is important in that life.

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Ch. 7 Journal - How valid is the assertion that literature is a voice for the oppressed?

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Ch. 7 Journal - How valid is the assertion that literature is a voice for the oppressed?

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I think that this validity of the statement comes from the text being analysed. This novel would not be considered "a voice for the oppressed." It is a book written by a straight, white, American man and his comrades in Vietnam. This book was written truly by the voice of a common oppressor. Were this book to be used as a voice for the oppressed, perhaps it should've shown more respect to Kiowa, the only man of color fighting with O'Brien, the innocent Vietnamese villagers, and women like the fallen soldier's sister who never responded to Rat Kiley's letter.

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"And then the letter gets very sad and serious. Rat pours his heart out. He says he loved the guy. He says the guy was his best friend in the world. They were like soulmates or something, they had a whole lot in common."

"A true war story is never moral."

"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. There is not rectitude whatsoever. There is no virtue."

"'This next part,' Sanders said quietly, 'you won't believe.'
'Probably not,' I said.
'You won't. And you know why?' He gave a long, tired smile. 'Because it happened. Because every word is absolutely dead-on true."

"It wasn't to kill, it was to hurt."

"War is hell, but that's not the half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love. War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery. War makes you a man; war makes you dead."

"At its core, perhaps, war is just another name for death, and yet any soldier will tell you, if he tells the truth, that proximity to death brings with it a corresponding proximity to life. After a fire-fight, the is always the immense please of aliveness."

"Though it's odd, you're never more alien than when you're almost dead. You recognize what's valuable."

"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."

"I won't say it but I'll think it. I'll picture Rat Kiley's face, his grief, and I'll think, You dumb cooze. Because she wasn't listening. It wasn't a war story. It was a love story."

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Ch. 8 Journal - Often the appeal for the reader of a literary work is the atmosphere a writer creates (for example, peaceful, menacing or ironic). Discuss some of the ways atmosphere is conveyed and to what effect.

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Ch. 8 Journal - Often the appeal for the reader of a literary work is the atmosphere a writer creates (for example, peaceful, menacing or ironic). Discuss some of the ways atmosphere is conveyed and to what effect.

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This novel depicts a new atmosphere with each chapter. Every chapter is almost like a fresh start. We are reintroduced to our characters and then follow them as they live as soldiers, doing and seeing things I could never imagine. In this chapter, there is more of a youthful, silly atmosphere. It is about the time Curt Lemon freaked out about seeing a dentist while their troop was relaxing on a two-week "vacation" in Chu Lai. The writing became more playful and it seemed that the men were enjoying a little rest and relaxation. Lemon passed out when it was his turn to visit the dentist. The men in his troop laughed it off as the day progressed but he couldn't shake the embarrassment. That night he did something totally crazy and demanded the dentist to remove a perfectly good tooth that he claimed was aching. The energy in the writing isn't nearly as painful and sad to read. Often times war books are a constant drudge of sadness so changing up the pace of the book was easier to engage with as a reader.

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"When Curt Lemon was killed, I found it hard to mourn."

"The embarrassment must've turned a screw in his head."

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Ch. 9 Journal - Which social groups are omitted from a text, and what might this reflect about its production (the time/place/ideology in which it was produced)? 

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Ch. 9 Journal - Which social groups are omitted from a text, and what might this reflect about its production (the time/place/ideology in which it was produced)? 

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This book excludes most social groups, but the ones I think are most affected by this exclusion in this context are Vietnamese soldiers. I think excluding Vietnamese soldiers and their voices/opinions from this book mainly have to do with when the time it was written in. Inclusive writing was not nearly as popular in the 90s as it is today. It would've been an eye-opening read to hear about the thoughts and feelings the Vietnamese soldiers were having: why were they fighting the war? What were their thoughts on the war in the first place? Did they believe it was a fight that needed to involve the United States? Plus, the Vietnam War was already so polarizing that including the thoughts and opinions of Vietnamese soldiers probably wouldn't have been a respected or favored decision by the general American public.

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Ch. 9 Journal - To what purpose do authors sometimes choose not to follow a chronological sequence of events in their literary works?

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Ch. 9 Journal - To what purpose do authors sometimes choose not to follow a chronological sequence of events in their literary works?

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In this chapter, we are sent to a flashback of a story told by Rat Kiley. The purpose of the change in chronological order is to explain the importance of war stories to the soldiers. Every day these men are stuck together. They start out as strangers and become the most unlikely of friends. They don't do this by asking about the weather or what their favorite color is. They would share these stories to boost morale and pass time. O'Brien notes that depending on the man, the story would be told differently. When it can to Rat Kiley, he was a chronic embellish-er of the truth. His story about Mary Anne and his time before their troop painted his backstory and gave the reader a better insight into the type of soldier and friend he was.

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"Vietnam was full of strange stories, some improbable, some well beyond that, but the stories that will last forever are those that swirl back and forth across the boarder between trivia and bedlam, the mad and the mundane."

"'Mary Anne would just smile and stick out her tongue. 'I'm here,' she'd say, 'I might as well learn something.'"

"This seventeen-year-old doll in her goddamn culottes, perky and fresh-faced, like a cheerleader visiting the opposing team's locker room."

"He was proud, yes, but also amazed. A different person, it seemed, and he wasn't sure what to make of it."

"Rat smiled. 'Ambush. All night long, man, Mary Anne's out on fuckin' ambush."

"A haunted look, Rat said -- partly terror, partly rapture. It was as if she had come up on the edge of something, as if she were caught in that no-man's-land between Cleveland Heights and deep jungle. Seventeen years old. Just a child, blond and innocent, but then weren't we all?"

"...'You got these blinders on about women. How gentle and peaceful they are. All that crap about how if we had a pussy for president there wouldn't be no more wars. Pure garbage. You got to get rid of that sexist attitude.'"

"'Man you must be deaf. She's already gone.'"

"She was wearing her culottes, her pink sweater, and a necklace of human tongues. She was dangerous. She was ready for the kill."

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Ch. 10 Journal - Symbols and motifs are objects, actions, or events that represent something or that creates a range of associations beyond itself.  What symbols or motifs appear within the text and how do they function in relation to the characters or themes?

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Ch. 10 Journal - Symbols and motifs are objects, actions, or events that represent something or that creates a range of associations beyond itself.  What symbols or motifs appear within the text and how do they function in relation to the characters or themes?

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This chapter is all about Henry Dobbins and his magical stockings. His girlfriend sent them to him and since then, he would wear them around his neck for safety. Eventually his girlfriend broke up with him, but he continued to wear them. The stockings represented home to him. They reminded Dobbins of the safety and security that came with being home with his girl. It also gave him something to look forward to when the going go tough out in the jungle.

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"In many ways he was like America itself, big and strong, full of good intentions, a roll of fat jiggling at his belly, slow of foot but always plodding along, always there when you needed him, a believer in the virtues of simplicity and directness and hard labor. Like his country, too, Dobbins was drawn toward sentimentality."

"But then, near the end of October, his girlfriend dumped him."

"'No sweat,' head said. 'The magic doesn't go away.'"

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Ch. 11 Journal - How and why is a social group represented in a particular way?

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Ch. 11 Journal - How and why is a social group represented in a particular way?

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In this chapter, we are introduced to some monks where the troop set up camp. The monks are portrayed as calm, silent, and helpful. Te monks let the men take up camp in the church for as long as they needed. They helped the men clean their weapons and cook. They were represented this way to show that not all the Vietnamese people O'Brien came in contact with were bad or even soldiers. They met several kind and helpful people along their journey. They also met several village people in other chapters that gave them no hassle. I think this was important because it showed that the hatred this war caused didn't reach every American or every Vietnamese person.

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Ch. 11 Journal - What writing techniques does the author use to evoke an emotional response in the reader? 

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Ch. 11 Journal - What writing techniques does the author use to evoke an emotional response in the reader? 

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This chapter was relied heavily on setting and tone. This chapter evokes serenity. There are peaceful monks and the men are comfortable around them. Lieutenant Cross was gifted a fancy thrown-like chair. There isn't any imminent danger. It seems that they finally got some peace for a whole week, which was rare and never taken for granted. The author paints that picture by talking about the calmness of the monks. Their charity to the soldiers showed that at least for a chapter, there would be peace.

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"'It's bad news,' Kiowa said. 'You don't mess with churches.'"

"'You know,' Dobbins said to Kiowa one morning. 'after the war maybe I'll join up with these guys.'"

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Ch. 12 Journal - How might the text be read and interpreted by two different readers from two completely different cultures?

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Ch. 12 Journal - How might the text be read and interpreted by two different readers from two completely different cultures?

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A Vietnamese person may interpret this as a worthless crime against a person of their nationality. A death that was unnecessary in a ridiculous war that didn't need to be fought in the first place. Or perhaps they would see it as an honorable death for the dainty young man. Although he was dead, his life was in service to his country. His family could be proud of him in knowing that he was not a coward.

An American might see the death as means to an end. Death happens, especially in wars. Maybe their are Americans who don't understand why O'Brien felt guilty about the kill. It is also possible that an American, especially one who fought in Vietnam, could sympathize with O'Brien and his inability to just "get over" his kill.

Both Vietnamese and Americans could see it as simply a loss of life. A matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and not being able to take cover quick enough. I think that in this case, interpretation based on culture is too broad. Death means different things to different people, sure, but I think the response O'Brien had to it could be interpreted different by any individual.

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Ch. 12 Journal - What writing techniques does the author use to evoke an emotional response in the reader?

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Ch. 12 Journal - What writing techniques does the author use to evoke an emotional response in the reader?

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This chapter relied heavily on repetition. O'Brien repeated several times that the man was dead and described him as "He was a slim, dead, almost dainty young man of about twenty. He lay with one leg bent beneath him, his jaw in his throat, his face neither expressive nor inexpressive. One eye was shut. The other was a star-shaped hole," or different variations of this description. I believe this was done to evoke shock in the reader in the same way that O'Brien felt it. Repeating that the man was dead was almost a way to try to make it real, even though it didn't quite seem like it. Reading through the lens of O'Brien in the chapter made the man's death feel hazy, almost like a bad dream. At the same time, O'Brien tried to give this man a whole life in his own mind because he would no longer be able to live one out. O'Brien gave the man an interest in mathematics and a love of learning. He gave the man love and respect and family. O'Brien tried to give back what he had stolen even though it was too little too late.

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"Then later he said, 'Tim, it's a war. The guy wasn't Heidi -- he had a weapon, right? It's a tough thing, for sure, but you got to cut out that staring.'"

"He was a slim, dead, almost dainty young man of about twenty. He lay with one leg bent beneath him, his jaw in his throat, his face neither expressive nor inexpressive. One eye was shut. The other was a star-shaped hole."

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Ch. 13 Journal - What “golden line(s)” have caught your attention while reading? Record the line and explain why it is “golden” for you. Ensure that you mark the page numbers for these (important for the IA).

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Ch. 13 Journal - What “golden line(s)” have caught your attention while reading? Record the line and explain why it is “golden” for you. Ensure that you mark the page numbers for these (important for the IA).

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A line in this chapter that stuck out to me was "Even now I haven't finished sorting it out. Sometimes I forgive myself, other times I don't." I liked it because of how applicable to so many parts of our lives this is. Forgiveness is never easy but something the person you struggle to forgive the most is yourself. I think that admitting that there are days where taking a life, even in war, still haunts O'Brien is truly a huge mountain to climb. I think it is nice to hear that no matter how far away you are from the trauma, in this case the war, some days it will feel like a lifetime ago and sometimes it will feel like yesterday. Not being "healed" is not just normal, but it is totally okay to struggle with such things.

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"I did not hate the young man; I did not see him as the enemy; I did not ponder issues of morality or politics or military duty. I crouched and kept my head low."

"Even now I haven't finished sorting it out. Sometimes I forgive myself, other times I don't."

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Ch. 14 Journal - Some literary texts, although set in a particular place or time, convey ideas that are universal. In what ways is this true of your chosen text?

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Ch. 14 Journal - Some literary texts, although set in a particular place or time, convey ideas that are universal. In what ways is this true of your chosen text?

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In this text, I believe a way that an idea is conveyed as universal is because it is based on fact. In this chapter, an idea that I believe is universal is that idea that children are symbols of innocence. They seem untouched and unfazed the world. In this particular chapter, O'Brien coveys this idea through the image of a girl dancing through a burned down village. Among all the damage and dead, this girl seemed at peace about the whole ordeal. She seemed so peaceful, in fact, that the soldiers who saw her were confused by her. Because they were old enough and seen enough in their lives, they didn't understand how she wasn't shaken to the core but seeing everything she once knew turned to rubble and ashes.

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"The girl went up on her toes and made a slow turn and danced through the smoke. Her face had a dreamy look, quit and composed."

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Ch. 15 Journal - How valid is the assertion that literature is a voice for the oppressed?

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Ch. 15 Journal - How valid is the assertion that literature is a voice for the oppressed?

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In this chapter, I would argue that this is a good representation for the oppressed, but specifically those who struggle with mental illness and PTSD. Norman Bowker returned home from the war a changed man. He couldn't switch from life on the front lines to life at the front desk so easily. It was clear through the writing that he felt isolated, even when surrounded by people because he didn't know how to communicate with them any more. It must be noted that in the era this story was set in, mental illness and PTSD were not taken seriously. People were either drugged up or told to get over it. It wasn't 1980 that it was truly discovered and it would be years until PTSD was even remotely understood. Eventually, Bowker couldn't live with those thoughts any longer and he took his own life. If mental health was taken as seriously as it is today and Bowker could've received treatment and therapy, it is possible that he could have lived to see a longer life.

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Ch. 15 Journal - What “golden line(s)” have caught your attention while reading? Record the line and explain why it is “golden” for you. Ensure that you mark the page numbers for these (important for the IA).

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Ch. 15 Journal - What “golden line(s)” have caught your attention while reading? Record the line and explain why it is “golden” for you. Ensure that you mark the page numbers for these (important for the IA).

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In this chapter, a line that really stood out to me was, "He was folded with the war; he was part of the waste." This line stood out to me because although it was in reference to the way Kiowa died, I think it is also representative of the PTSD that Norman Bowker was suffering from. He too became a part of the war. He lived through it but when the time came to go back home, the war never left him. In a way, he became "part of the waste" or the wreckage caused by war. Although he didn't die overseas, it was the war and the trauma that eventually led to him taking his life.

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"The war was over and there was no place in particular to go."

"The road was a sort of boundary between the affluent and the almost affluent, and to live on the lake side of the road was one of the few natural privileges in a town of the prairie -- the difference between watching the sun set over cornfields or over water."

"He would've explained to his father that none of these decorations was for uncommon valor. They were for common valor."

"... 'Finally somebody figured it out. What this was, it was a shit field. The village toilet. No indoor plumbing, right? So they used the field. I mean, we were camped in a god damn shit field.'"

"A pity that Max was gone. And a pity about his father, who had his own war and who now preferred silence."

"'You blind?' she asked.
She pulled out her hand and tapped an intercom attached ti a steel post.
'Punch the button and place your order. All I do is carry the dumb trays.'"

"He was folded with the war; he was part of the waste."

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Ch. 16 Journal - How might the text be read and interpreted by two different readers from two completely different cultures?

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Ch. 16 Journal - How might the text be read and interpreted by two different readers from two completely different cultures?

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Some cultures may see this explanation of "Speaking of Courage" as a sign of respect. It could be a way to process the grief that comes with losing a friend to suicide or simply a way to honor his name and the courage he shared with the world.

Other cultures may see this as offensive or as profiting off of someone else's struggles. Although it was written with permission, the revised and republished version was never approved by Bowker and that could rub some people the wrong way. Perhaps it could be seen as an invasion of privacy.

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Ch. 16 Journal - Often the appeal for the reader of a literary work is the atmosphere a writer creates (for example, peaceful, menacing or ironic). Discuss some of the ways atmosphere is conveyed and to what effect.

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Ch. 16 Journal - Often the appeal for the reader of a literary work is the atmosphere a writer creates (for example, peaceful, menacing or ironic). Discuss some of the ways atmosphere is conveyed and to what effect.

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The atmosphere of this chapter is reflective almost remorseful. I think that there are a few components as to way. The first reason is because O'Brien may feel some part responsible for the loss of Bowker. Another reason could be because the first draft of "Speaking of Courage" didn't honor either Bowker or Kiowa the right way. A third reason is probably simply because O'Brien felt that he somehow let Bowker and Kiowa down by trying to hide what really happened in the fields. Most of this is shown by O'Brien's shocked reaction to how Bowker felt about the first draft of "Speaking of Courage" and his need to fix it in his honor.

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"... how I'd allowed myself to get dragged into a wrong war, all the mistakes I'd made, all the terrible thing I had done and seen."

"To provide a dramatic frame, I collapsed events into a single time and place, a car circling a lake on a quiet afternoon in midsummer, using the lake as a nucleus around which the story would orbit."

"Now, a decade after his death, I'm hoping that "Speaking of Courage" makes good on Norman Bowker's silence."

"That part of the story was my own."

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Ch. 17 Journal - Some literary texts, although set in a particular place or time, convey ideas that are universal. In what ways is this true of your chosen text?

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Ch. 17 Journal - Some literary texts, although set in a particular place or time, convey ideas that are universal. In what ways is this true of your chosen text?

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I believe that this chapter covers the universal idea of death and loss really well. We will all come across the loss of a loved one at some point or another and this chapter truly highlights how everyone must grieve differently. The chapter switches points of view a few times, so we see how several different characters grieve the loss of their friend. Jimmy Cross is ashamed that he lost a man. His way of grieving was writing different types of letters to Kiowa's father informing him of the loss. Azar wanted to make jokes to lighten the mood. Bowker took the loss very seriously and was desperate to find the body.

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Ch. 17 Journal -  What writing techniques does the author use to evoke an emotional response in the reader?

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Ch. 17 Journal -  What writing techniques does the author use to evoke an emotional response in the reader?

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This chapter used a writing technique called rotating points of view. Essentially, the reader gets to set the plot from different characters' perspectives. This was really well done in this chapter because we saw how the same event of Kiowa's death effected different people. Personally, I liked Lieutenant Cross's point of view the best because he didn't even know that the others had found the body. His way of dealing with the grief was to think up different ways of telling Kiowa's father that his beloved son was no longer alive.

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"The rain was the war and you had to fight it."

"The filth seemed to erase identities, transforming the men into identical copies of a single soldier, which was exactly how Jimmy Cross had been trained to treat them, as interchangeable units of command."

"He remembered wondering if he could lose himself."

"'Nobody's fault,' he said. 'Everybody's.'"

"When a man died, there had to be blame."

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Ch. 18 Journal - What “golden line(s)” have caught your attention while reading? Record the line and explain why it is “golden” for you. Ensure that you mark the page numbers for these (important for the IA).

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Ch. 18 Journal - What “golden line(s)” have caught your attention while reading? Record the line and explain why it is “golden” for you. Ensure that you mark the page numbers for these (important for the IA).

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In this chapter, a line that stood out to me was, "I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why sometimes story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth." This line stood out to me because it didn't make sense at first. How could something that didn't happen be truer than something that did? It took me a while before I coming to an understanding. Sometimes stories create truths that are more applicable than things that have actually happened. For example, it would could be a fact that I was bitten by a shark while swimming in Hawaii (although this has never happened in real life). However, a more widely applicable statement would be that "I injured myself swimming in Hawaii because I wasn't paying attention to the "Off Limits Area" sign. As O'Brien previously explained, it can be easier to believe a mundane lie than an extraordinary truth.

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"Almost everything else is invented."

"I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth."

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Ch. 19 Journal - How might the text be read and interpreted by two different readers from two completely different cultures? 

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Ch. 19 Journal - How might the text be read and interpreted by two different readers from two completely different cultures? 

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Family-oriented cultures would see the trip O'Brien took his daughter on as a bonding experience for them. His wanting to show her a piece of his former self is a way of trying to build a connection with her beyond father and daughter. He wants to open the idea of being friends with his daughter as well.

More self-focused cultures might interpret this trip as a final goodbye to O'Brien's best friend. In a selfish way, he wanted his daughter to be with him and a connection from his past in the military to his future as a father.

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Ch. 19 Journal - To what purpose do authors sometimes choose not to follow a chronological sequence of events in their literary works?

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Ch. 19 Journal - To what purpose do authors sometimes choose not to follow a chronological sequence of events in their literary works?

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In this chapter, we are thrown several years into the future. O'Brien is with his daughter on a birthday trip to Vietnam. On that trip, O'Brien takes his daughter to the place where his best friend died. He mentions that he was looking for any type of closure or healing. The purpose of this was to connect that last two chapters that had to do with Kiowa's death to O'Brien's final goodbye. It was a metaphorical end of that chapter in his life. This chapter was a loving farewell to the man he couldn't quite save. After this final goodbye, I doubt Kiowa's will be mentioned much.

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"This little field, I thought, had swallowed so much. My best friend. My pride. My belief in myself as a man of some small dignity and courage."

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Ch. 20 Journal - How and why is a social group represented in a particular way?

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Ch. 20 Journal - How and why is a social group represented in a particular way?

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In this chapter, we see that because of bad wound mistreatment by the new field medic, O'Brien was relocated to a new, safer place. Later in the chapter, his old troop came to his new base. We see those old friends as aliens now. So much time had passed, so many memories and stories that didn't involve their old pal O'Brien that he no longer fit in. They were represented this way because O'Brien wanted to convey the idea of misplacement. He was with people he would've once laid down his life for but that was before his injury. After some time apart, they became strangers once again. To add insult to injury, his old pals totally accepted the man responsible for the wound mistreatment, Jorgenson into their group. They weren't angry with him and didn't seem to care about how O'Brien felt about him. This shift of comrades to former friends was a big theme in this chapter. It took a toll on O'Brien and as readers, we see how that loss of community effected him mentally.

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Ch. 20 Journal - What writing techniques does the author use to evoke an emotional response in the reader?

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Ch. 20 Journal - What writing techniques does the author use to evoke an emotional response in the reader?

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This chapter uses repetition to convey the hardness that O'Brien had acquired from serving on the front line. Although it is dramatic and seems over-the-top, it serves as a guide for the readers to see how O'Brien viewed himself at that time. For most of the book, we don't consider O'Brien to be a very angry or dramatic person. This chapter helps us feel the pent-up anger he had against his ex-pals, the war, and all the loss he was witness to. This was sort of a breaking point; he couldn't stand how calm everyone was about Jorgenson's mistake that cost O'Brien so much. He eventually took all that negative energy out on Jorgenson and pranked him. During his inner monologue, O'Brien also personifies the war. It is messy and angry and dangerous. Instead of making the war like a person, though, he becomes the war. As he describes the war, he uses descriptions of himself to do so. It was a really interesting take on making the war seem more dynamic for the reader.

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"I felt something shift inside me. It was anger, partly, but it was also a sense of pure and total loss: I didn't fit anymore."

"I hated him for making me stop hating him."

"I was part of the night. I was the land itself -- everything, everywhere, the fireflies and paddies, the midnight rustlings, the cool phosphorescent shimmer of evil -- I was atrocity -- I was jungle fire, jungle drums -- I was the blind stare in the eyes of those poor, dead, dumbfuck ex-pals of mine -- all the pale young corpses, Lee Strunk and Kiowa and Curt Lemon -- I was the beast on their lips -- I was Nam -- the horror, the war."

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Ch. 21 Journal - Some literary texts, although set in a particular place or time, convey ideas that are universal. In what ways is this true of your chosen text?

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Ch. 21 Journal - Some literary texts, although set in a particular place or time, convey ideas that are universal. In what ways is this true of your chosen text?

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Rat Kiley was a great example of the idea the people have breaking points. I think it is pretty common in our youth to think that we are young, healthy, and invincible. Kiley seemed like the type of guy who was so reliable that he couldn't be shaken. I thought that using the change of times from day shifts to night shifts, or living the night life, was a really interesting way to explain what happened to their field medic. So many things had gone wrong to get to this point: they lost several friends, they received warnings so they could only move at night, their circadian rhythm was thrown off, he couldn't sleep during the day, he had creepy visions of human bodies to the point of seeing dissected versions of himself. All of that change left Kiley's mind overworked and stressed with none of the relief and healing that comes from a good night's sleep. In the end, he shot himself in the foot and was taken away to Japan. The war became too much to bear.

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Ch. 21 Journal - What “golden line(s)” have caught your attention while reading? Record the line and explain why it is “golden” for you. Ensure that you mark the page numbers for these (important for the IA).

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Ch. 21 Journal - What “golden line(s)” have caught your attention while reading? Record the line and explain why it is “golden” for you. Ensure that you mark the page numbers for these (important for the IA).

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A line that stood out to me in the chapter was, "...how crazy it was that people who were so incredibly alive could get so incredibly dead." All of the men that we hear about from O'Brien seem like larger-than-life characters. They had spirit and energy. They were young and had full lives to live after the war. For them to die felt almost impossible from the reader's perspective. Lemon was just goofing around. Bowker just couldn't heal. Kiowa just couldn't get down fast enough and was almost lost to fields of crap. Rat Kiley, a man that seemed to fill a room with his personality, eventually couldn't take the demanding life of the front lines any more. Even is some of these character's didn't die like Kiley, a part of them did. As for those who really were lost to the war, the word "incredibly" indicates that it felt unbelievable, which is exactly how it felt to read.

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"That was the phrase everyone used: the night life. A language trick. It made things seem tolerable. How's Nam treating you? one guy would ask, and some other guy would say, Hey, one big party, just living the night life."

"...how crazy it was that people who were so incredibly alive could get so incredibly dead."

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Ch. 22 Journal - How might the text be read and interpreted by two different readers from two completely different cultures?

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Ch. 22 Journal - How might the text be read and interpreted by two different readers from two completely different cultures?

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In this chapter, there is a lot of self-reflecting. O'Brien shares a few final stories and explains how these moments, however brief, shaped a piece of who he became.

I believe that some cultures would see this chapter as a chapter of regret. Perhaps they could view it as O'Brien voicing the story to share what he wished he would've done. For example, the final story takes us back to when he was in the forth grade and he was in love with a girl named Linda. He mentioned that he regretted not defending her from her bully and wishing he had kissed her or spent more time with her when she was alive. It seemed like even in the forth grade, little Timmy understood and felt the loss of his first love very deeply.

Another culture may see this as a celebration of life. First, they celebrated the deceased man's life by shaking his hand in the beginning of the chapter. O'Brien called it a "funeral without the sadness." There was respect and honor, but they didn't weep or wallow in the loss. With Linda, the purpose of the story was to keep her memory alive. It wouldn't be about being sad because she was gone but grateful for the time they did have together.

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Ch. 22 Journal - What “golden line(s)” have caught your attention while reading? Record the line and explain why it is “golden” for you. Ensure that you mark the page numbers for these (important for the IA).

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Ch. 22 Journal - What “golden line(s)” have caught your attention while reading? Record the line and explain why it is “golden” for you. Ensure that you mark the page numbers for these (important for the IA).

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There is line in particular that stood out to me in this final chapter. The line read, "But this too is true: stories can save us." I liked it a lot because it has a very personal meaning to me. Reading and writing have always been hobbies of mine. However, I gave up reading in my free time when I got to middle school because I simply didn't have the time. It wasn't until the pandemic hit that I actually gave myself time to read. It became an outlet for me that I will always be grateful for. Reading and writing saved me during the pandemic not just from boredom, but also improved my mental health significantly. I felt happier than I had in a long time and I reignited a passion in myself that I had sort of forgotten about.

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"But this too is true: stories can save us."

"There was a formality to it, like a funeral without the sadness."

"But in a story I can steal her soul. I can revive, at least briefly, that which is absolute and unchanging."

"I'm skimming across the surface of my own history, moving fast, riding the melt beneath the blades, doing loops and spins, and when I take a high leap into the dark and come down thirty years later, I realize it is as Tim trying to save Timmy's life with a story."

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The novel The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien explores the impact the Vietnam War had on the soldiers’ racial prejudice. Tim O'Brien writes his experience as a white American man. Most of his fellow comrades were also white American men except for Kiowa, who was Native American.  To these men, the race or ethnicity was the very first thing they saw. They knew that their enemies didn’t look like them. It must be noted that several times throughout the novel, O’Brien makes it clear that he never saw the Vietnamese soldiers as enemies but as men fulfilling orders just like him. They used slurs to describe the Vietnamese soldiers to one another or just to make fun of them. I believe it was their way of asserting dominance without having any repercussions. Today, the language they used would be considered highly inappropriate. This kind of racism was deep-rooted in this war though. America wanted to paint itself as a hero and as the country that “fixed” Vietnam when in reality we killed and damaged the people and land of another country in an attempt to prove ourselves as the superior country. When describing scenes that involved Kiowa, it was always noted that he was somehow different from everyone else. His own comrades played into stereotypes about Native Americans when they made comments about wearing animal skin or feathers. The problem was that they didn’t see him as an equal. In the way O’Brien wrote the novel, it seemed that it was the soldiers and Kiowa; like somehow his race separated him from the rest of their group.

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In Tim O'Brien's novel, The Things They Carried, it is made clear several times that O'Brien and his comrades never saw the Vietnamese soldiers as their enemies. Over several months, they met several kind Vietnamese townspeople and even spent a week with some Vietnamese monks in a run-down church. The monks helped them clean their weapons and gifted them fruit. Henry Dobbins even mentioned wanting to come back to be a monk with them after the war. A group of Vietnamese women tried to warn the soldiers away from their lavatory field where Kiowa eventually died. Even when faced with killing one of the soldiers, O'Brien felt guilt, not pride.  He was ashamed to take the man's life because he seemed so average. There was nothing menacing or intimidating about the soldier he killed. In that chapter, he described the life that O’Brien believed he would’ve had and explained that it was impossible to look away from the poor man. The Vietnam War was a war of governments fought by the people. O’Brien was angry when his draft notice came because he disagreed with the war in the first place. He, along with plenty of other Americans, believed that it was a fruitless and pointless war for the United States to get involved in. But at the end of the day, he was too afraid of exile and embarrassment to not serve. The power the United States had to select random men to serve left many soldiers with conflicting about the Vietnam War.