In response to In response to The Things They Carried, Chapter 20: The Ghost Soldiers and Chapter 22: The Lives of the Dead

How did O’Brien’s injury impact his relationships with his platoon?

Tim O’Brien’s injury impacted how he was around his platoon members greatly. He states that he starts to become cold inside himself and he realized that he, “didn’t have that patriotic zeal anymore” since he was moved to a different company. He grew extremely envious of his platoon members because they were still experiencing the danger and adventure of combat. He started to become a different person altogether because he was so angry at Jorgenson, the medic that replaced Rat Kiley, for almost letting him die, and this drove much of his change in persona.

What is the significance of Linda and her story?

Linda is a significant character because she represents the war that everyone has inside themselves. She was a fighter; fighting for her life, but she was alone. She represents how the men felt in Vietnam because yes, they were all together fighting the same thing or they all agreed that they didn’t know what they were fighting, but each of them had their own different experiences and ways they were battling in Vietnam. There wasn’t a single person who would have the same exact experience that others could relate to, each situation was different.

In response to The Things They Carried, Chapter 18: Good Form

According to Tim O’Brien, what is the difference between “happening-truth” and “story-truth” in the chapter, Good Form?

According to Tim O’Brien, “happening-truth” is like the skeleton of a story, the structure. It doesn’t have a lot of detail, it’s mainly facts. “Story-truth” is the flesh and skin of the story, each individual little hair is accounted for. It includes the small and big details and the moral of the story. “Story-truth isn’t always real, but it’s what makes a story relatable and able to connect to specific events and characters. O’Brien states, “What stories can do, I guess, is to make things present.”, whether it’s a story with “happening-truth”, or “story-truth”, both serve the purpose of letting listeners or readers know about the story.

In response to Tim O’Brien’s chapter, Sweetheart of the Song tra Bong, from The Things They Carried:

During her time in Vietnam, Mary Anne changed dramatically. When she arrived, she was a typical American girl who was innocent and curious. During her time she spent in Vietnam, she slowly gained an interest in the guns and combat after she began helping the men in the medical unit. She stopped wearing makeup and jewelry and cut her hair showing that she no longer cared about her appearance. She eventually “ended” her relationship with Fossie and actually started going on ambushes and the men even said that her eyes weren’t bright blue anymore, they changed to the green of the jungles.

She changed because she had a different perspective than all of the men which made her more compelled to engage herself in the war. This transformation was very symbolic of the war itself because when she arrived, she immediately began helping with the medical medical unit and only weeks after that she began going on ambushes. Many men went into the war not knowing anything, just like Mary Anne, but they were quickly thrown into the war and had to fight. Not only does she symbolize the innocence of the men in the war, but also the loss of innocence because she wasn’t the ideal American teenage girl anymore. After being in Vietnam, she became a woman, not just a girl because she had been exposed to the horror of war, which consumed her entirely.

It does matter that she was a woman because she changed the perspective of these men on women, and Rat Kiley even tells the men that he’s telling the story to, not be sexist and just listen to the story because the message is what’s more important, the moral. Vietnam’s nature was inevitable and always changing just as the nature of Mary Anne. Things happened that weren’t expected and so many people lost their innocence on both sides.

In response to poetry from multiple beat poets

Trees

The pale rose

Crumbled in the sand

Feverish fairies

Exposed to the elements

Wrinkled books

Lived forever

All floating in an

Ocean of soul

Pety errors

Tears of rage

Brush fires and

Stone fields

Lived forever

Eons after tragedy

All floating in an

Ocean of soul

New continents

Mysterious tombs

Smelling the wind

through the

dead tree

And

Living tree

And

Deathsome tree

And

Lonesome tree

All floating in an

Ocean of soul

Even the better path had

Erosion

But there’s no misery

Only

Beautiful arms

Creating crisp shapes

Towards the

         Light

Their voices are cold

But

They paint their faces

Against the unspoken grief

And the wall of hands

Shining in the sky

All floating in an

Ocean of soul

.