Laugh Out Loud!

Yes!! We have officially finished the book, and it feels good to have gotten through the Vietnam war within a 3 week period!  The last three chapeters I found to be very thrilling, and yet more stories about O’Brien’s war experiences.  He starts the first chapter explaing a time where he got shot in the leg and one of the doctors was unable to cure him of his shock, thus sending him on a very painful experience.  However, It was visible that O’Brien wanted revenge on this doctor for not fully curing his wound.  I find it weird that even at war, these soldiers can act normal and funny when in such a hostile situation.  I guess it reminds them of home, and if there going to die, why not die doing something they love to do.  But O’Brien takes revenge on the doctor by scaring him and they call it an even trade. 

The last chapter in the book, which I’ve found to be the most important, describes the death of the Authors friend, Linda.  Tim claims to have fallen in love with Linda in the fouth grade, but she had cancer, and died from a brain tumor at a very young age.  The death of Linda signifies O’Brien’s thoughts toward life and the envolvement of death.  In the last passage of the story… he quotes

“Her name doesn’t matter.  She was nine years old.  I loved her and then she died.  And yet right here, in the spell of memory and imagination, I can see her as if through ice, as if I’m gazing into some other world, a place where there are no brain tumors and no funeral homes, where there are no bodies at all.”

Deep.  I’ll let the quote speak for itself.

In these chapters, O’Brien tells us more about his experiences at war.  Most importantly, he tells us about the death of Kiowa, who died in a mud stream because Bowker could not pull him out, and let go of Kiowa to save his own life.  I find this extraordinary, that Bowker has to live with the fact that he stopped in saving his friends life to save his own.  The author describes Bowker after the fact, and also tells the audience that Bowker kills himself facing the regret of this incident.

Another chapter described O’Brien going back to the war site with his 10 year old daughter after the war ended (hopefully,lol) and his feelings toward the scene in which Kiowa died.  It must be hard to go back to where so many harsh memories have consumed you your whole life.  I find it distrubing that O’Brien could bring himself back to this area, and expose himself to his horrible war experiences again.  Not much other stuff has happending within the story so far, i’m excited to see what turn the story takes next.

This section of the book was by far my favorite.  It consisted of about five chapters, two of which really got me thinking about war, and the feelings that the soldiers expressed.  One of these feelings, O’Brien experienced himself, is that of actually killing somebody in the other army.  O’Brien describes in two chapters (They man I killed and Ambush), or course out of order, the way that he kills a man with a grenade.  O’Brien is on duty, when he see’s a man wearing enemy colors walking towards him below.  Without thinking, O’Brien pulled the pin of a grenade and threw it below…before it exploded, O’Brien knew that the soldier was dead.  I just can’t imagine that feeling, seeing someone who you regard as an ‘ememy’, but without knowing them, without knowing who they really are, you kill them, just like that.  They didn’t do anything to you, but you still are supposed to kill them, I think its an awful feeling.  Anyway, O’Brien also describes looking into the dead, grotesque face of that soldier he killed.  He wondered if he had a family, and gave him traits such as being a good math student, to try to know this person after his death.  I thought this passage was one of the best i’ve ever read, in any book.  It really made me think and feel what it would be like to actually kill somebody.  Not a good thing. 

 The other chapters that we were required to read wern’t that exciting and I don’t really want to get want to get into the details.  Maybe we will address them in our discussion tomorrow.

Not much has happened since the last reading.  More of O’Brien’s stories and a little more drama about the war.  In the two chapters that we were assigned to read, The Dentist and Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong, not much changed about the authors perspective on the war itself.  In the chapter titled ‘The Dentist” a man named Curt Lemon had his tooth removed for no reason but his own satisfaction.  (Earlier, O’Brien described the death of Lemon which involved tossing a grenade and having it explode in his hands…)  In this chapter, Lemon complained about dentists looking at his teeth and that he, under no circumstances, would let the dentist examine him.  However, he ended up fainting and having the dentist pull a random tooth the next day claiming that it ‘hurt’ him, when in reality the dentist couldn’t see anything that was wrong with it.  I’m not really to sure what this chapter means, or signifies about the war or Lemon himself.  But it does show the irony of Lemon being afraid to see a dentist, but not afraid of playing with a grenade.  He proved to himself that he can take the pain of pulling a tooth, symbolizing the pain of war.  But ironically he also died shortly after for doing something stupid.

The next chapter, Sweetheart of the song Tra Bong, frankly freaked me out.  Yet again, another story, this time about a man who brings in a girl into the camp with him.  His name is Mark Fossie, and he is deeply in love with Mary Anne Bell, who he brings in with the next cargo shipment.  From the time she arrived, she resists leaving and seems to be somehow attached to the land.  Unlike Fossie, Mary Anne is compelled to learn more about the war and her surrounding area, weather it be the Vietnamese culture, or the land itself, she is attached.  In the end, Mary Anne completely transforms within the culture of Vietnam, perhaps showing that this war is contagious, or maybe she just understood what the soldiers did not.

 Nothing much more to say.  Looking forward to see what else O’Brien tells us about his experiences. 

My group members: Ryan Haid, Ryan Herzog

After our first reading assignment (pg 86), I learned a lot of about Tim O’Brien and his war stories about the war in Vietnam.  The first chapter, The Things They Carried, consisted of all of the items that the soldiers took with them during the war period.  Weather they carried guns, personal items, emotional items, or just items they wanted to take for fun, the things that the soldiers carried were all necessities to each individual during the war period.  O’Brien tells us that the items these soldiers carry separates them from reality and fantasy.  For example, Jimmy Cross, the lieutenant of the squad, carries a picture of Martha, a girl that he is deeply in love with.  His fantasies for Martha get in the way of the reality of war, and he looses track of his men and what his real responsibilities are.  He puts himself responsible for the death of a solider because of his fantasy and daydreaming about Martha.  Thus, at the end of the chapter Cross decides to burn the pictures of Martha, and essentially burn the memory of her as well, so that he can protect his men and do his job. Other things that the men carried included marijuana, drugs, and personal items of interest for fun or superstition. 

Later in the book, O’Brien talks about his own war experiences and the art of war stories in general.  Tim O’Brien tells us that the storyteller can virtually tell the listener anything he wants and that it will believable but false at the same time.  He tells us that most war stories are false, and even if they were true, they would sound false because war shapes the way people think of right and wrong ideas.  He goes on to tell us all of his stories about his war experience.

At this point in the story I’m still not to sure where the author is going with the plot.  It seems to jump around quite often and get very off topic.  However, I’m excited to how this story will come to an end, and what else O’Brien will tell us about his war experiences.

Yes, Semester 1 is over, and what a semester it was!  We have graduated English 213 and moved on to English 223, well most of us anyways.  To be completely honest, this first half a year of english was one of the best i’ve ever had.  My class was amazing, consisting of the “Ryan’s” the “Alis” and many others, and I think that as a class we have had the most fun learning that has been possible.  Mr. Wasserman has been a great teacher, with enthusiem in class and fun daily plans, but also at the same time doing the work that is required of us.   As for the learning goes, I thought that the assignments that we received were reasonable, and made the students think outside the box.  This year has also been the first year that I have experienced the “Blogs”.  Personally I think there a great idea and a good way for any student to experess his/her thoughts and ideas that he/she didn’t have a chance to in class.  It is also much eaiser then writting out homework, and a more informal way of learning, considering you can comment your peers blogs and even gather ideas from them.  Blogging is a great way of learning and I hope that we continue to use them in our second semester.

For this upcoming semester I think that we can improve our respect for Mr. Wasserman by not talking as much and knowing when its time to get serious.  I hope this semester we can achieve a good mix of a learning enviroment and a fun enviroment in Mr. Wassermans classroom.  

For my final Satire Post, I choose to listen to the interview with Sacha Baron Cohen, the actor who played ‘Borat’.  I found it weird to actually hear this guy talk in his normal voice and with his own personality, I would have pictured they way he talked dumber and less intelligent. (shows you how movies such as Borat change your interpertation).  Nevertheless, I really enjoyed listening to Sacha Cohen talk and he had some very intersting things to say.  One thing he brought up that I took note on was the fact that people “loved” him in character.  He quotes:

“It was an exciting form of comedy that i was in the middle of”

He is of course speaking of the Saitre that he preformed.  He also stated the way people reacted when he was in the character of Borat.  People instantly loved the humor, and could instantly relate to him and his character.  The way people acted when he was in “Borat” mode shows us that Saitre has a unreal power over the way we think and analyze the issues in our own society.  Sacha spoke briefly on the issue of Satire in his peice, but I would have liked to have heard more about how it felt to be acting that way. 

The English Language is Confusing….

1. The bandage was wound around the wound.
2. The farm was used to produce produce.
3. The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4. We must polish the Polish furniture.
5. He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6. The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7. Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
8. A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9. When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10. I did not object to the object.
11. The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12. There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
13. They were too close to the door to close it.
14. The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15. A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16. To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17. The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18. After a number of injections my jaw got number.
19. Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
20. I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
21. How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Just thought that was funny

For this blog entry, I took a step back on the whole slavery topic and found something on “diversity” between races in public schools.  (http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/3938)

 This article addressed racial segregation in schools.  Although now we don’t have nearly as much racial segregation as we once did, it still may persist.  This article also argues if racial desegregation contributes to higher or lower academics among students.  Personally, I think that it contributes to higher performance because it is a “more” race free enviroment.

 The report acknowledged that “recent surveys have indicated generally positive reactions to school desegregation, such as cross-racial friendships and greater understanding of racial and cultural differences.” Nonetheless, the Commission argued, “some of these surveys do not definitively identify a causal relationship” between desegregation and such developments.

This quote is true in that having a desegreated enviroment makes for better relationships and a safer place as a whole.   I think that we should aim to stop racism eventually, because it only causes problems and disagreements among people.

The Slave Narrative that I read was called “The Leisure Hour” By John S. Jacobs.  http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/jjacobs/jjacobs.html

In this article, I found that Mr. Jacobs talked alot about his family.  Most of his family was in slavery, and most importatnly was his dad.  His dad hated slavery, and hated the fact that his child was in slavery as well.  This article shows that family connections are very essentail to slaves during this time period.  I aslo notices that John talked about slave auctions, and one that he was a part of.  Slaves were always being sold and moved to diffrent places and to new owners.  This article also showed a little bit about what slaves were thought of…

Slaves are recognised as property by the law, and can own nothing except by the consent of their masters.

It’s truely sad of how slaves were treated/thought of in this time period.  Reading John Jacobs story helped me get a better understanding of that.

I will admit that slaves are sometimes cheerful; they sing and dance, as it is politic for them to do. I myself had changed owners three times before I could see the policy of this appearance of contentment

This quote suprised me, because I never thought that slaves could ever find a happy emotion within themselves given the conditions of their lives.  But in a way, when the slaves sing, its there way of pushing through it all, a way to get their mind off of everything.  Singing is the slaves escape from there lives.  This article related minorly to Huck Finn, because it does talk about runaway slaves being captured and then sold to other plantations.  This, unfortunatly, could be the fate of poor Jim if he were to be caught.