Field Trip

A few month after completing in the field,  I returned with my daughter to Vietnam, where we visited the sit of Kiowa,s  death , and where i  looked for signs of forgiveness or personal grace or whatever else the  land might  offer. the field was still there, though not  as i remember  it. Much smaller,i thought, and not nearly so menacing, and  in the bright sunlight it  was hard   to picture what had happened on this ground some twenty years age. Except for a few marshy spots along the river. everything was bone dry.No  ghosts just a flat, grassy field. The place was at peace. There were yellow butterflies. There was breeze and a wide blue sky. Along the river two old frames stood in ankle deep water, repairing the same narrow dike where we had laid out Kiowa.s  body after pulling  him from the muck. Things were quiet, At one point. I remember, one of the farmers looked up and shaded his eyes,  staring  a crossing the field at us, then  after  a time he wiped his forehead and went back to work. 

Field Trip

     "A few months after completing "In the Field," I returned with my daughter to Vietnam, where we visited the site of Kiowa's death, and where I looked for signs of forgiveness or personal grace or whatever else the land might offer".
       It's a good experience for O'Brien's daughter. because she gets to understand what her father went through. She got to see where her father's best friend died. The relationship between O'Brien and his daughter is very strong, because he takes his daughter to see all the horrors he experienced in his life.


Interpretive Questions:
   
Why did O'Brien choose to share his personal stories with everybody? Why did Booker hang himself? What was the main reason O'Brien take his daughter to Vietnam?

The Ghost Soldiers

" I couldn't  help it when bobby Jorgenson got to me, I was almost gone with shock. all i could do was scream. I tightened up and squeezed, trying to stop the leak, but the only made it worse, and Jorgenson  punched me and told me to knock it off. Shock, i thought. I tried to tell him that. i tried to say, "Shock," but it  wouldn't come out right. Jorgenson flipped me over and pressed a knee against my back, pinning me there and i kept trying to say ''Shock,, man, treat for shock," I was lucid_thing were clear_but my tongue wouldn't fit around the word. the I slipped under for a while. when I come back, Jorgenson was using a knife to cut off my pants. He shot in the morphine, which scared me , and I shouted something and tried to wiggle away, but he kept pushing down hard on my back. Except it wasn't  Jorgenson now it was that genie he was smiling down at me, and winking, and I couldn't buck him off. Later on, thing clicked in to slow motion.
  what i learned about this story Jorgenson did not help him the way he want to.
My interpretive question
Why Jorgenson get scared him and can even do nothing about.
why he always smile while he get scared.

The Ghost Soldiers "It was borderline gangrene.I Spent a month flat on my stomach: I could;t sit I could,t sleep. I kept seeing Bobby Jorgenson,s Scared-white face. Those buggy eyes and the way his lips twitched and that silly excuse he had for a mustache. After the rot cleared up,once i could think straight,I devoted a lot of time to figuring ways to get back at him getting shot be an experience from which you can draw some small pride" He was on fight on borderline gangrene and he could walk and site, interpretive questions Why did Tim O'Brien wrote this book? who is Jorgenson scared ?

TTTC, In the Field

All they wanted now was to get it finished. Kiowa was gone. He was under the mud and water, flooded in with the war, and their only thought was to find him and dig him out and then move on to someplace dry and warm. It had been a hard night (pg 155). The reason I chose this passage or what I felt about it. Story after incidentally on their way in the field sewage they saw Kiowa’s body in the mud. I felt well bad situation about what happen to him.  And he also Jimmy was thinking about Kiowa's death, and it was such surprise them how Kiowa was, a brave and kindly guy, and he didn’t  well deserve it the way he died. What I have learned about book, it is a lot of things. In fact, I liked very much the abut Tim O’Brien the way he wrote the book, and how he represents reality through fiction. And also, he well impressed me because the writer was telling the truth among fiction and imagination

Three interpretive questions

1-      Why Bowker wants Azar to shut up?

2-      Why O’ Brien wants to tell that story the third person?

                                                Ghost Soldiers

   “He patted my cheek “purely pitiful” he said. We waited another ten minutes. It was cold now, and damp. Squatting down, I felt brittleness come over me a hollow sensation as if someone could reach out and crush me like a Christmas tree ornament. It was the same feeling I’d had out along the song Tra Bong. Like I was losing myself everything spilling out. I remember how the bullet had made a soft puffing noise inside me. I remember lying there for a long while listening to the river the gunfire and came and how I finally reached back and touched the hole. Filling up with it. All this blood, I thought I’ll be hollow then the brittle sensation hit me. I passed out of for a while, and when I woke up the battle had moved farther down the river.” He was remembering what happen him a long time when he lied about there for a long while listening to the river.

My two interpretive questions is why did Rat kelly shoot?  Will he ever speak to his father they way he used to?

In the Field

One of the story that had me touched was "In the Field", and my favorite passage from the story is "The rain was the war and you had to fight it (pg 156)".

What I felt in this story is what the soldiers were going thru after losing thier good friend Kiowa. Kiowa died by drowning in a field full of craps. In this story it tells how the soldiers was looking for the body of  their friend Kiowa and that they did not sleep or rest until they recovered his body.

What can be learned from relationships or human nature is you can make a bond with someone who never meet until you spend some time with them then you start connecting with that somebody.

 Interpretive Questions:
Why did Sanders compare the rain to war?
How did the soldiers felt after the Kiowa died? 

TTTC "Good Form"

Good Form would be my favorite passage. In this very short story, Tim O’Brien is telling us how he felt like if we see him. He still blame himself even though he was in the present. In this short story I felt like I was in his position, the way he telling us and how powerful stories could be. In this short story I felt like I was in O’Brien’s  position, the way he telling us and how he tell us how powerful stories could sometimes be.  

 And something that could be learned from this story is responsibility, how it plays a major roll, how it feels to be somewhere you never been before, WAR and all the flash back you will have after you made it alive. O’Brien writes “And now, twenty years later, I’m left with faceless responsibility and faceless grief” (O’Brien 180). Even after a long period O’Brien still thinks about the war as if he was in there.

Interpretive Questions

1)      Why was Tim O’Brien feeling guilty about him being responsible or being the command?

2)      Why did Tim O’Brien wrote this book? Was it about love or the war?

"The Ghost Soldiers. My favorite passage in this story that I marked to day is , when he  said I remember lying there for a long while, listening to the river, the gunfire and voice, how I kept calling out for a medic but hoe nobody came and how I finally reached back and touched the hole." I feel like he still afraid the man he killed and the way he  got shoot before. 

The two Interpretive questions.

Why did  he  got shoot?
Why is he scare Jorgenson?
 The third Interpertive qouestion
Why Tim O'Brien wrote this book?

                                                                     Good Form

                          "What stories can do, I guess, is make things present. I can look at things I never looked at. I can attach faces to grief and love and pity and God. I can be brave. I can make myself feel again."
                          In this story I felt how a simple story, fiction or real, can tell you more about a war/battle or someone in the war than any History class can. In addition to that, it shows how a fiction story can better interpret something than a real story. Mainly because, with all the added ingredients in a fiction story, you can feel more and understand more.
                          I'd say that what can be learned about relationships or human nature is that human beings can sometimes have the need to tell a lie, or in other words tell a fiction story, in order to get their word across.
                         
                                                                   Interpretive Questions

1) Why did Tim O'Brien have the need to write a fiction story to talk about a war?
2)What did really happen when was Tim O'Brien was on tour in Vietnam?
3)What happened to Mary Anne Bell?

The things they carried

The Ghost Soldier

“Pride isn’t the right word. I don’t know the right word. All I know is, you shouldn’t feel embarrassed. Humiliation shouldn’t be part of it.” I choose this passage in the story because a lot of people let go of a lot of things in their life because of their pride or they might feel humiliated or uncomfortable in the situation so they leave it there, I learned from this in human being life you always have someone somehow that will disagree of what you believe in so therefore don’t let that bring you down.

Two interpretive question 1. Will Rat Kiley be the same or how he use to before the war and forget about his past? 2. Will Rat kiley forgive who shot him and move on with his life?                                                                                                                                                               

3.why Tim O'brien wrote this book and is this book fiction  ?

In the Field

     "Looking out toward the river, he knew for a fact that he had made a mistake setting up here. The order had come from higher, true, but still he should've exercised some field discretion. He should've moved to higher ground for the night, should've radioed in false coordinates. There was nothing he could do now, but still it was a mistake and a hideous waste. He felt sick about it. Standing in the deep waters of the field, First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross began composing a letter in his head to the kid's father, not mentioning the shit field, just saying what a fine soldier Kiowa had been, what a fine human being, and how he was the kind of son that any father could be proud of forever."
     I liked this passage because it really shows the guilt that is weighing down on Cross. Throughout the chapter it can be seen that other characters are also placing the blame on themselves. Bowker feels responsible because he feels that he could have saved Kiowa, but he didn't. The soldier, whose name escaped Cross, believed that it was his fault because he thought that turning on the flashlight might have alerted the enemy of their presence. He might have caused the mortar fire. Even Azar feels bad about making jokes about Kiowa's death. He somehow feels that the jokes could have contributed to Kiowa's death. Sanders seems to be the only one who focuses blame outward. He believes that it was Cross' incompetence as a leader that caused Kiowa's death. Bowker, felling the weight of his own guilt, defends Cross' actions. This chapter shows how people tend to place blame on themselves, even when the blame should be shared.

1. When first thinking about what he is going to put in the letter to Kiowa's father, Cross wants to take full responsibility for what happened to Kiowa. Why does Cross later decide not to apologies in the letter?

2. Why does Azar help Tim even though he thinks that his motivations are pathetic?

3. Why does Tim decide to visit Vietnam after the war?

Good Form

My favorite passage in the book is story Good Form. It says “it’s time to be blunt. I’m forty-three years old, true, and I’m a writer now, and long time ago I walked through Quaug Ngai Province as a foot soldier. Almost everything else is invented. But it’s not a game. it’s a form. Right here, now as I invent myself, I’m thinking of all I want to tell you about why this book is written as it are. “(O’Brien 179). We can see how O’Brien didn’t want to lie, and if he did it was just a way to make us feel and understand how he felt.

            In this story I felt very different than before in term of reading the true and the untrue stories. I can see why O’Brien had to do such thing. I can see what he really felt and what he want us to understand from his writing. I can feel how he felt about the soldiers, how he can’t forget even after war.

            One of my interpretive questions is why the rest of the soldiers that left blamed themselves for Kiowa death? Also, one question about the book is why the writer wrote the untrue stories even though the true stories where more unbelievable?

HELLO EVERYBODY!

My favorite passage from the story In The Field " When a man died, there had to be blame. Jimmy Cross understood this. You could blame  the war. You could blame idiots who made th3e war. You could blame Kiowa for going to it. You could blame the rain. You could blame the river. You could blame the field, the mud, the climate. You could blame the enemy. You could blame the mortar rounds. You could blame people who were too lazy to read a newspaper, who were bored by the daily body counts, who switched channels at the mention of politcis. You could blame whole nations. You could blame  God. You could blame the munitions makers or Karl  Marx or trick of fate or an old man in Omaha who forgot to vote".

I feel sad in this story because it talked about how some good soldiers were dead for nothing. How some soldiers lost their great friends in the war like Kiowa who has been blown up by thrown bomb. there are a lot of different things that can be learned from this story such as we should not go war or even thing of it. It also can be learned  that the war doesn't have any beneficial, but so much wast of every thing such as people dying, losing land, lost hope of future, and so much more. All human beings need peaceful place to live in, but wars or conflicts that will harsh their life.

                                           interpretive questions

1. Why Tim O'brien  saying that when a man died there has be blame on something?

2. Why Jimmy Cross Said he did not want to take responsibility of leading the military through the war?

3. Why did Tim O'brien go back to the field, where Kiowa was dead?

In the Field

"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." In the Field was a hard story to read with the vivid imagery created seeing those eighteen men going through the field searching for a corpse. The bonds these men built with each other were almost impossible to understand, they were friends but yet they would make jokes when someone died, like Azar did about the irony of the shit field.

The relationship between the Lt. and his soldiers he was suppose to see them as not humans beings but soldiers, however he refuses to let another soldier go and won't stop searching for Kiowa. Then you have the young unidentifiable boy standing in the muck not searching for Kiowa but looking for the picture he had of his girlfriend when the mortar rounds hit. It made me feel that during war there isn't a right way to feel about death, it's whatever gets you through it. Human nature is all about survival whether its emotional survival or physical survival these soldiers found their own ways to survive. Lt. was imagining being home in Jersey on the golf course, the young boy was thinking about finding his picture instead of Kiowa, Azar was trying to find the irony in it, and Norman Bowker couldn't handle the guilt he felt. After reading this I feel like I understand how relationships in the war work, you have friends but you keep a certain type of distant whether through imagination or humor in order to remain sane when death occurs. 

Who is responsible for Kiowa's death or can we blame one person?
Why didn't Lt. Cross use his better judgement and camp somewhere else?
How do some veterans transition so easily while others struggle?

Homework or in-class Exercise: Thesis Statements

Thesis statements and MLA style exercises

Go to http://www.dianahacker.com/student.html

Under A Pocket Style Manual, go to Research Exercises 28-1 and 28-2.  These are exercises in recognizing effective thesis statements, and they will help you in your thinking about your own thesis.

NOTE: You may have to sign up for a student account.  My email is lohre.1@osu.edu if you need it.

Complete these exercises either alone or with a partner.  It isn't that important that you get them all right.  What is important is that you understand if you are incorrect.