Today we will discuss the readings from The Things They Carried.
Please post your thoughts and comment on the following:
What story so far in The Things They Carried has affected you most? O'Brien has stated that his stories are meant to convey "a noble lie." What do you feel is his noble lie? In what way is "story truth" more real than "happening truth?"
I was affected most by the baby buffalo! This heartless behavior might just come with the war...but it was very tramatic for the reader. A noble lie is probably a lie that conveys a good message. His book is about the true life of a soldier. Though it is still a "story"...it still is quite factual.
ReplyDeleteThe story in this book that effected me the most was probably "Speaking of Courage" because it takes you out of the war and pretty much destroyed everything the author created in the book up to that point. There isn't much else to say since we just discussed that particular section in detail in class.
ReplyDeleteI think that "How to Tell a True War Story" has had the most dramatic effect on me. The postmodern element of this "story" pick up what O'Brien has already created and carries is throughout the rest of the book. "True War Story" was so insightful, and even as I used it to find a deeper, truer meaning of the book, I used the story for myself; I connected the bluntness of the story itself to my own life, even if there wasn't so much of a story in this piece.
ReplyDeleteSo far i think Kiowas death effected me most, it was partly because i very much liked and felt like i understood Kiowa as a character, but also because the way O'Brien describes the emotion of the rest of the characters as well as the scene of them trying to find his body afterward. something about it stuck out and seemed so real, like such a very clear memory, that it bothered me to imagine.
ReplyDeleteThe story thus far that has affected me the most was from the chapter Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong. For me this chapter was shocking because this young girl is so close to my age, but her actions, the enviroment, and the people she surrounded her self from seem almost unimaginable and so unrealistic from the life we all know in Rochester.
ReplyDeleteThe story How to Tell a True War Story stuck to me the most . Tim O'Briens writing was very confusing and hard to gasp at times throughout the reading . It became hard to remember that his stories were lies and not true . His descriptions were very realistic .
ReplyDeleteTo me the most interesting subject and part of the book was life after the war and how all of these stories affected the soldiers, when Norman killed himself it made me analyze all of what he had said before. To me the truths are not as powerful as the stories even though they can both be indestingusihable
ReplyDeleteSo fat the story that has affected me the most would be about Kiowa. I think that the main reason that it affects me so much is because it's hard for me to really understand what happened. Even without the understanding, the way that Kiowa died stirred up emotions in me.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that he died in the shit-field with the horrible smells and tastes just turns my stomach. It's almost unfair that such a noble character died in that way. If someone threw shit in your face you would be insulted and disgusted, to die and be buried in shit seem to me to be even more of an insult.
The moments that catch me the most are when O'Brien interrupts the stories of the novel to frame his confusion Like in Notes and Good Form. This makes me think that the characters O'Brien "made up" are real people. A lot of times in life events are unexplainable and often leave an individual wondering why. I believe O'Brien used The Things They Carried as a way to explain everything he experienced, he used the novel to make a logical "this plus this, led to this" answer to his questions that in the real world went unanswered
ReplyDeleteKiowa's death has affected me the most so far in this book. I think he was portrayed as a soft hearted human being, in "The man I killed" he was very considerate of O'Briens feelings. For someone to die in a shit-field is very hard to imagine, it would be had to be the characters who were actually "there." Tim O'Brien can be very confusing at times. He put a chapter in the middle of the book to tell his readers that everything we just read wasn't true. I think he is telling his own war stories through these short storys.
ReplyDeleteThe story that affected me the most, was the chapter The Sweetheart of SongTraBong. It is amazing how much war can change someone, from a cheerleader to a green beret, Mary Anne became part of Vietnam. O'Brien's "noble lie" is that there is no true war story. Many could argue that this story never happened, unless told otherwise by Mary Anne herself. If the story teller keeps on retelling the story, everyone will soon believe it.
ReplyDelete