The Sun Also Rises: Page 27-Vernacular

So far for me, this book has been really confusing. I feel like Hemingway's style of writing and structure throw me off. I think he jumps from one scene to another without transitions, introduces characters that are difficult to remember, and incorporates confusing settings and plots. Even with all of these factors that make the book challenging for me, the vernacular of the characters still stood out to me. With all of the chaos from the numerous characters and the plot that shifts quickly, the vernacular is one thing that helps me comprehend the story a little bit better. As the story takes place in Paris during this particular part of the book, Hemingway incorporates French vocabulary and diction into his writing. When I saw the words such as bal musette, fiacre, and poules in the text, I was able to better understand the plot as well as the culture and language of where the story took place. I think this allowed me to connect to the book in an easier way. Hemingway's placement of French words in the book made the story seem less distant and more relatable to me.

"The dancing-club was a bal musette in the Rue de la Montagne Sainte Genevieve."

The Things They Carried: Conclusion

Even though the ending of the book was really sad, I really did like the book. I liked the fact that I could see what was happening when he retold war stories. I enjoyed never knowing what was coming next and how he kept me guessing. I liked the way that O'Brien incorporated the entire spectrum of war in his book, both good times and bad times. Also, I thought that O'Brien's honesty made the book seem so lifelike and real. I feel like I was able to learn a decent amount from this book. After reading it, I know not only more about the way war really is but also how to write with passion, emotion, and inspiration. O'Brien's style and method of writing really appeals to me. I love the fact that he was motivated by a tragedy, but he kept moving forward to make something positive out of the experience. Overall, O'Brien's storytelling was very interesting and inspiring to me.

"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."

The Things They Carried: Motivation-Linda

Even though the character Linda only appears in the book for a short amount of time, I think that she is a very important part of the book as well as an important part of O'Brien's life. Although their time together was short, Linda had a lasting impact on O'Brien's life. Linda allowed O'Brien to experience and learn about true love, and she also inspired him to keep the dead alive with stories. She was O'Brien's motivation to dream and write. Maybe if O'Brien never had Linda in his life then he wouldn't be the author that he is today. I think that it's amazing that O'Brien felt like he really loved someone at such a young age. I'm almost double O'Brien's age at that time, and I still struggle with the concept of being in love. After realizing that he was in love, it must have been devastating for a nine year old boy to have to cope with the death of the girl that he was in love with. In my opinion, O'Brien turned a terrible situation into something amazing, and his life has changed because of it.

"I just loved her."
"Even then, at nine years old, I wanted to live inside her body. I wanted to melt into her bones--that kind of love."

The Things They Carried: Ghost Soldier

Even though Bobby Jorgenson messed up when O'Brien was shot the second time in the butt, I felt sorry for him. I understand where O'Brien was coming from when he was extremely upset with the medic for taking so long to treat him, but he didn't handle his emotions very well. After all, Jorgenson was inexperienced or "green". He was scared and had no idea how to handle himself. He even admitted that he made mistakes that day that O'Brien was shot. He apologized and tried to ask for forgiveness from O'Brien. I think that guilt alone was enough of a punishment for Jorgenson, but O'Brien hated him so much for what happened that he felt like he had to get his own revenge. In my opinion, scaring a fellow soldier was completely uncalled for. Even Mitchell Sanders told him it was the wrong thing to do, but O'Brien had so much anger towards Jorgenson that no one's opinion really mattered to him. At Least after the prank was finished, I thought it was good that the two men called it even.

The Things They Carried: The Ghost Soldiers-Azar

Ever since the character Azar was introduced in the book, I had a bad feeling about him. In all of the stories that he was in, I never once got a good vibe from him. Azar never proved himself as a good friend to anyone during the span of the war. From the beginning, Azar had the biggest mouth. He was always making completely unnecessary comments in terrible situations. Azar especially made me angry when he made jokes about Kiowa's death. I don't understand how a fellow soldier could be so heartless and disrespectful during such a terrible crisis. What really made me hate Azar was when he and O'Brien were trying to mess with Bobby Jorgenson. When O'Brien wanted to stop, Azar wouldn't listen to him. Though the men had already made their point, Azar just kept pushing and making the situation worse. While he did that, Azar also managed to treat O'Brien like he was garbage. He even kicked O'Brien in the head after the prank. I wonder if Azar knew that people didn't care for him, because I can't find any other explanation for why he was the way he was.

"Nobody cared for him, including myself." -O'Brien about Azar

The Things They Carried: Field Trip

I think that it's very interesting that O'Brien took his daughter Kathleen that was ten years old to Vietnam. I was amazed at how well his daughter was behaving at such a young age. I think that trip was a good chance for Kathleen to learn about a war that her father fought in that was so distant to her. Also, I think the trip was a great opportunity for O'Brien to have closure from the war. I felt that O'Brien seeing Vietnam at peace really allowed him to be at peace as well. Even though the trip was a pretty positive experience in my opinion, there were parts of the trip that were extremely difficult for O'Brien. Visiting the places where combat and fighting took place must have been unpleasant and hard to endure. Having to remember all of his times in Vietnam, both good and bad, must have been an indescribable experience. Even twenty years after the war ended, I was amazed at the fact that O'Brien still was able to recall the memories like they happened yesterday.

The Things They Carried: In the Field

I think that it was very noble and honorable for Lieutenant Jimmy Cross to make sure that Kiowa's body was found and sent home after he died.It was so respectable for Kiowa's fellow soldiers to put so much effort into searching for him and recovering his body. He and the rest of his platoon could have simply forgotten about Kiowa. They could have moved forward and gone on with the war. Taking that path would have been so much easier, but the soldiers knew that Kiowa deserved better. I think that everyone there was so passionate about finding Kiowa's body and sending it home because he was such a good person. Like I mentioned in one of my previous blogs, Kiowa was a smart, kind, and decent soldier and friend throughout the course of the entire war. It was sad to see him go, but it was comforting to know that his body was safe now and that his family would have closure. Kiowa was always doing the right thing, and I think the soldiers who recovered his body that day were repaying him by doing the right thing as well.

"...but he was now determined to find his man, no matter what, even it it meant flying in slabs of concrete and damming up the river and draining the entire field. He would not lose a member of his command like this. It wasn't right."

The Things They Carried: Speaking of Courage

Even though it was hard for him, Tim O'Brien put a great deal of effort into writing a piece that would truthfully tell Norman Bowker's story. This task would not have been easy for anyone to take on. Having to think back and remember the death of his other friend Kiowa must have been such a hard thing for O'Brien to do. I think that it was a very honorable thing for Tim O'Brien to put the time into editing and rewriting the story after hearing Bowker's reaction to the initial piece. After Bowker passed away, O'Brien could've taken the easy way out and left the story as it was. He could have forgotten about what Bowker had said and moved on to other things. Maybe no one would have known the difference. But because he valued the opinion of Norman Bowker so much and had respect for the man in general, O'Brien worked to make the story better. I think O'Brien shows how good of a friend he is by making sure that his comrade and friend Bowker had a voice even after he was gone.

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

The Things They Carried: Kiowa

I know this is a book about war, but I hate how the characters that I like all end up dying. When O'Brien went back to the time when Kiowa died, it was so depressing not only because I like Kiowa, but I also like Norman Bowker too. I was so sad to hear about Kiowa passing away in the book because I thought he was a genuine person and a very good friend. In my opinion, he was a kind and decent person throughout the whole war. When O'Brien killed the man from My Khe, Kiowa was there for him and supported him. Kiowa talked him through it and never left his side. While Azar was making rude and uncalled for comment about the body, Kiowa helped O'Brien understand that he made the right decision and reminded O'Brien that they were in a war. Kiowa was sympathetic and considerate of how O'Brien was feeling after the shocking situation. He was a true friend to O'Brien, even during the hardest times in O'Brien's life when he needed Kiowa the most.

The Things They Carried: Norman Bowker

It made me so sad when I read that Norman Bowker hanged himself in 1978 at a YMCA. I wonder if his family even knew he felt so helpless and alone. It's so depressing to me that war can impact a person in such a negative way. I can't understand how soldiers come home from war and feel like they don't have a purpose in life or feel lost. How can going home make a person feel lost? I also don't understand how some soldiers make the transition from fighting war to coming home so easily while others struggle daily with the issue. I'm pretty sure that Norman Bowker struggled with the fact that he couldn't save his friend Kioawa, but at least he tried to help him. I understand that watching your friend die after doing everything you could to save them is a very traumatic experience, but I just wish that Bowker didn't feel like suicide was his only way out. Grief and depression are two very strong emotions, and it's awful to hear about times when they take over a person like Bowker and ultimately end their life.

The Things They Carried: The Dentist--Curt Lemon

"The dentist couldn't find any problem, but Lemon kept insisting, so the man finally shrugged and shot in the Novocain and yanked out a perfectly good tooth."

The things that people will do for pride. How far will a person go to boost their ego or salvage their dignity when it wasn't in danger in the first place? It's amazing to me sometimes to see how uncomfortable people are with their flaws or shortcomings. Apparently, some people are willing to go through the pain and suffering to do so. In Curt's circumstances, it's almost funny that he went to such extremes when everyone else let the situation go. He was too focused on being a macho man and covering up a small weakness. I don't understand why he beat himself up about something so insignificant. I guess he was just too proud. But, I think that the people with the most strength and courage don't try to cover up their weaknesses. I have the most respect for the people who know themselves and accept themselves for who they are. If you use your strengths to the best of your ability and work to improve your weaknesses, I think you're the best person you can be.

The Things They Carried: Juxtaposition-Page 151

"...from Vietnam to graduate school, from Quang Ngai to Harvard, from one world to another."

Compared to many soldiers who come back from war and aren't sure what exactly to do with their lives, Tim O'Brien had it pretty easy. His switch from "war to peace" was a fairly simple one. I think it's amazing that he was capable of coming home and just moving on with his life. I give him a lot of credit for such a hard thing to do. But as he describes his goodbye from war to his return to normalcy, O'Brien uses juxtaposition. The purpose of this is to show how truly different these two parts of his life were from one another. His comparisons prove how much change he went through in such little time. O'Brien describes Vietnam and the United States as two different worlds. He makes me appreciate the fact that I haven't had to go through such a tough experience with such huge adjustments. Through O'Brien's one statement above, I understand that any person who hasn't experienced war for themselves cannot possibly fathom how different the two lifestyles can be.

The Things They Carried: Dialect-Page 139 &159

"I mean, we were camped in a goddamn shit field."
"Some lieutenant," "Camps us in a toilet. Man don't know shit."

With any book, there are many different types of characters and people. There are many ways in which a reader can distinguish characters in a story, but one way that stands out to me is dialect. When I am reading a book, dialect helps me learn more about the characters and their backgrounds. In Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, there are numerous types of dialects incorporated. Although this is true, the dialect of the soldiers who have fought in the Vietnam War stuck out to me and caught my interest the most. Just from reading some of the conversations of the soldiers who were with O'Brien, I feel like I have a better understanding of what life at war was like. I could sense the anger, frustration, and fear from the way they spoke. I could mentally picture how terrible and hostile the war could be at times, and I grasped how men who fight change because of it. Just through dialogue, I learned how influential and powerful war is and how it can affect every aspect of life. Looking at how these men talked to one another, I understand how war leaves its mark on people, even after it's over and done with.

The Things They Carried: Tone (Anxiety and Remorse)Page 118-124

During a chapter of the book, O'Brien opens up about the man he killed while he was in Vietnam. He first gives a very gruesome and detailed description of the man. O'Brien repeats this description with little or no changes over and over again throughout this chapter. After thinking about it and wondering why he chose to do this, I came up with my own explanation. I think O'Brien's style in this chapter contributes to the tone in this portion of the book. The tone during this chapter is a combination of guilt, remorse, regret, and sadness. From looking at my own personal experiences, I realized that when I feel guilt, regret, or remorse I replay the situation in my head over and over again. I analyze what occured and think about what I did wrong. In my opinion, O'Brien goes through the same mental process that I, along with many other people, go through when he reflects on what he has done. Because O'Brien can capture a process that occurs in someone's mind and recreate it on paper, he is able to express his feelings very well to readers. The tone of this section of the book is so powerful and relatable for readers because all of the emotions that O'Brien is feeling are universal and have been felt by all people at some point in their lives before.

The Things They Carried: Tragedy-Page 102-110

During the chapter Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong, Rat Kiley's story about Mark Fossie and his girlfriend Mary Anne Bell is retold. In my opinion, this story could be classified as a tragedy. Mary Anne came to Vietnam as an "attractive", "young", and "innocent" girl. Her boyfriend, Fossie, was the one who arranged for her to come to Vietnam in the middle of the war, and she went through a huge change because of it. As she spent more time in Vietnam, Mary Anne slowly began to become a completely different person. She went from being an inexperienced seventeen-year-old highschool girl to being a fighter who had a craving for Vietnam and the war. I would call this story a tragedy because Mark Fossie and Mary Anne Bell could have had a happily ever after ending if she was never sucked into the war. Their whole life together had already been planned, but Fossie's small decision to bring Mary Anne closer to him during the war actually in the end caused them to split apart. For me, it was tragic to see two people in love torn apart with such horrible circumstances. If I were Fossie, living with that level of grief and regret alone would be catastrophc for me. Overall, love being defeated by war in this story is a tragedy.

The Things They Carried: Internal Conflict-Page 54-58

As Tim O'Brien begins to open up about his time on the Rainy River, he discusses how this experience in his life affected his future. Even though O'Brien has not yet gone to war and experienced the external conflict for himself, he is now experiencing internal conflict. O'Brien has to decide whether he will go back home and accept the fact that he will have to go fight or stay where he is with Elroy and run away from his problems. Just like O'Brien struggles with his personal problem and difficult decision, every person has to work to overcome an internal conflict at one point or another in his or her life. In my opinion, when authors incorporate internal conflict for a character within their writing, readers can better relate to the character because of their similar personal experiences. If I am reading a book where a character is in a difficult situation that I have previously been in, I begin to feel empathy and can identify with them on a higher level. Then, I become more connected and involved in the plot of the story. For me, O'Brien's internal conflict in his story is very effective because it provokes thought. It allowed me as the reader to mentally place myself in the same situation as O'Brien and see which decision I would make if I were him. Overall, internal conflict in literature can become a learning experience in the reader.

The Things They Carried: Anaphora-Page 24 and First Chapter

During the first chapter, Tim O'Brien uses anaphoras as rhetorical devices in his writing. Throughout the entire chapter, he consciously repeats the phrase "they carried" and "the things they carried". In addition, the phrase "he would" is used multiple times on page 24 at the end of the first chapter. O'Brien repeats these three phrases to emphasize his point. I think the phrases "they carried" and "the things they carried" are stressed continously in order to really assert the fact that war can be burdensome and grueling. These words are thrown at the reader over and over again because they denote weight. To really show that war is weighty and influential, O'Brien purposely stresses phrases repetitively that are associated with weight when he discusses war.When O'Brien uses the phrase "he would" on page 24, he is emphasizing the future for Lieutenant Cross. O'Brien is making a deliberate point that Lietenant Cross is going to change his ways as a leader from now on. The author's technique is effective because the points that he wants the reader to focus on clearly stand out.

The Things They Carried: Paradox-Page 78

Fully capturing and describing war and war stories would be a difficult task for anyone, but Tim O'Brien attempts to tackle the challenge and share his knowledge from experiences. While explaining the subject to the best of his ability, O'Brien states a paradox. The paradox is "though it's odd, you're never more alive than when you're almost dead". A paradox is an effective literary tool because it evokes a thought process for the reader. The reader has to process what is being said to find the author's intended meaning. A paradox causes readers to think outside the box and challenge themselves to uncover a deeper meaning from the text. This literary tool serves a worthy purpose, because it compels readers to really become involved in their reading. O'Brien's paradoxical statement in the text is productive because it links and compares two things that are completely opposite. In order for readers to grasp the true meaning of the statement, they have to look beyond surface and the literal meaning to find something deeper.

The Things They Carried: Flashback-Page 39

"It was a humid afternoon, I remember, cloudy and very quiet,..."

While O'Brien remembers the day that the draft notice arrived at his home, he tells the story by using a flashback. This literary tool is very productive and effective because it paints a clear picture of the setting and the plot of the story. Because flashbacks are so vivid and descriptive, they have the ability to both express and evoke emotions, attitudes, and feelings. In addition, flashbacks can help the reader learn more about the background of a character or further describe the situation that a character is in. They can key in on specific and important events that occur throughout a character's life. I think that O'Brien's flashback does all of these things and serves its purpose. The flashback brings the reader back to the day that O'Brien received the draft notice. It show his anxiety at the time, presents his attitude towards the war, and conveys what he thinks about himself. Finally, the flashback replays a significant day in his life that will have a drastic and permanent impact on his future.

The Things They Carried: Quatrain-Page 32

Step out of line,
hit a mine;
follow the dink,
you're in the pink.

As O'Brien reminisces about one of his experiences on the Batangan Peninsula, he incorporates a quatrain into his story. Being one of the most popular and well known forms of poetry, quatrains are powerful in literature. For me, quatrains are easy to relate to and comprehend because their structure is simple. Because this form of poetry can be rather simple, a quatrain has the ability to grab the attention of a reader or a listener. The structure of these poems reminds me of song lyrics. In my opinion, both song lyrics and quatrains are extremely effective because they imprint themselves in a person's head with time. In addition, they can be universal and relate to many different aspects of life. The rhythm and rhyme of a quatrain cause readers or listeners to catch on quickly and therefore remember the message that is being conveyed without much effort. Just as I can understand and remember the lines of a quatrain with ease, the soldiers in O'Brien's platoon are easily united by the simple quatrain above.

The Things They Carried: Allusion-Page 4

During the first chapter of The Things They Carried, O'Brien uses an allusion as a literary tool. He references the movie Bonnie and Clyde, a famous movie that came out in 1967, while looking back on Lieutenant Cross's experience with his unrequited love named Martha. By working this allusion into his writing in this story, O'Brien allows his readers to better understand the time period in which the story is set. Then, the reader is able to relate to the setting and picture the scene in a new and improved way. As a result, the allusion can evoke a mood, tone, feeling, or attitude in the reader. For me, understanding and relating to different time periods in literature can be challenging and a confusing task. But when authors use allusions like O'Brien did, I am able to focus on a particular generation by recognizing well known people, places, or things from various branches of culture. Recognizing Bonnie and Clyde in one of O'Brien's frame stories allowed me as a reader to mentally jump from one setting to another. Allusions in literature paint me a clear picture of what is happening in the story with much less struggle and confusion involved.