Literature helps us gain a deeper understanding of the world around us and exposes us to other people, customs, and ideas. TTTC integrated gender/societal norms, war, truth, burdens, and identity into a series of vignettes that conveyed the complexities of war.

2. How are we affected by literary texts in various ways? How are we impacted by TTTC?
Literary texts make us more open to the possibilities as well as the realities of life and give insight into overarching themes that can be useful for the long term. TTTC provides a different viewpoint on life and individuals and shows how war has severe impacts. It also makes us question our own identity and how our burdens and decisions play a role in its composition

3. In what ways is meaning constructed, negotiated, expressed and interpreted in TTTC?
In TTTC, O’Brien makes up stories, blurring the distinction between reality and fiction, in order to convey his emotions and recreate his experiences as best he can. He lets readers know about how some stories aren’t completely true, making them question his credibility and ultimately contemplate the true meaning of the book.

4. How does the structure of style of TTTC affect its meaning?
TTTC is a series of short vignettes that each tell different stories, including stories from different perspectives and different people. O’Brien uses a narrative style that’s also contemplative and reminiscent in order to mirror that same energy onto his readers. In some areas, the syntax is short and to the point and in other places, it’s overly descriptive.

I could've done it. I could've jumped and                     

started swimming for my life. Inside me, in my chest, I felt 

a terrible squeezing pressure. Even now, as I write this, I 

can still feel that tightness. And I want you to feel it—the wind 

coming off the river, the waves, the silence, the wooded frontier.             5

You're at the bow of a boat on the Rainy River. You're 

twenty-one years old, you're scared, and there's a hard 

squeezing pressure in your chest. 

What would you do? 

Would you jump? Would you feel pity for yourself?                 10

Would you think about your family and your childhood and 

your dreams and all you're leaving behind? Would it hurt? 

Would it feel like dying? Would you cry, as I did? 

I tried to swallow it back. I tried to smile, except I was 

crying.                                     15

Now, perhaps, you can understand why I've never told 

this story before. It's not just the embarrassment of tears. 

That's part of it, no doubt, but what embarrasses me much 

more, and always will, is the paralysis that took my heart.

A moral freeze: I couldn't decide, I couldn't act, I couldn't                 20

comport myself with even a pretense of modest human dig-

nity. 

All I could do was cry. Quietly, not bawling, just the 

chestchokes. 

At the rear of the boat Elroy Berdahl pretended not to             25

notice. He held a fishing rod in his hands, his head bowed 

to hide his eyes. He kept humming a soft, monotonous lit-

tle tune. Everywhere, it seemed, in the trees and water and 

sky, a great worldwide sadness came pressing down on me, 

a crushing sorrow, sorrow like I had never known it before.                 30

And what was so sad, I realized, was that Canada had be-

come a pitiful fantasy. Silly and hopeless. It was no lon-

ger a possibility. Right then, with the shore so close, I un-

derstood that I would not do what I should do. I would not 

swim away from my hometown and my country and my life.            35

I would not be brave. That old image of myself as a hero, as 

a man of conscience and courage, all that was just a thread-

bare pipe dream. Bobbing there on the Rainy River, looking 

back at the Minnesota shore, I felt a sudden swell of help-

lessness come over me, a drowning sensation, as if I had...             

        If the house is not yet finished,

        Don’t be discouraged, builder 

        If the fight is not yet won, 

5      Don't be weary, soldier! 

        The plan and the pattern is here, 

        Woven from the beginning 

        Into the warp and woof of America: 

        ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL.

10    NO MAN IS GOOD ENOUGH 

        TO GOVERN ANOTHER MAN WITHOUT 

        THAT OTHER'S CONSENT. 

        BETTER DIE FREE, 

        THAN LIVE SLAVES. 

15    Who said those things? Americans!

        Who owns those words? America! 

        Who is America? You, me! 

        We are America! 

        To the enemy who would conquer us from without, 

20    We say, NO! 

        To the enemy who would divide 

        and conquer us from within, 

        We say, NO! 

        FREEDOM! 

25    BROTHERHOOD! 

        DEMOCRACY! 

        To all the enemies of these great words: 

        We say, NO! 

        A long time ago, 

30    An enslaved people heading toward freedom 

        Made up a song: 

        Keep Your Hand On The Plow! Hold On! 

        That plow plowed a new furrow 

        Across the field of history. 

35    Into that furrow the freedom seed was dropped. 

        From that seed a tree grew, is growing, will ever grow. 

        That tree is for everybody, 

        For all America, for all the world. 

        May its branches spread and its shelter grow 

 40   Until all races and all peoples know its shade.



The Bitter River 

There is a bitter river

Flowing through the South.

Too long has the taste of its water

Been in my mouth.

5    There is a bitter river

Dark with filth and mud.

Too long has its evil poison

Poisoned my blood.

I've drunk of the bitter river

10    And its gall coats the red of my tongue,

Mixed with the blood of the lynched boys

From its iron bridge hung,

Mixed with the hopes that are drowned there

In the snake-like hiss of its stream

15    Where I drank of the bitter river

That strangled my dream:

The book studied-but useless,

Tool handled-but unused,

Knowledge acquired but thrown away,

20    Ambition battered and bruised.

Oh, water of the bitter river

With your taste of blood and clay,

You reflect no stars by night,

No sun by day.

25    The bitter river reflects no stars-

It gives back only the glint of steel bars

And dark bitter faces behind steel bars:

The Scottsboro Boys behind steel bars,

Lewis Jones behind steel bars,

30    The voteless share-cropper behind steel bars,

The labor leader behind steel bars,

The soldier thrown from a Jim Crow bus behind steel bars,

The 150 mugger behind steel bars,

The girl who sells her body behind steel bars,

35    And my grandfather's back with its ladder of scars

Long ago, long ago - the whip and steel bars-

The bitter river reflects no stars.

"Wait, be patient," you say.

"Your folks will have a better day."

- I agree with this but it depends on the situation. Sometimes bystanders cant do anything because there could be serious consequences. But if there is nothing stopping them from doing something about the situation, then they’re essentially allowing it to happen
Authority figures are reliable and trustworthy individuals dedicated to making the world a better place.

- No they can be corrupt and be only thinking about their own personal gain - dictators and a lot of politicians 

Time and Space