"The Things They Carried"

The things they carried

View more presentations from 2008Adriana06.

Summary vs. Analysis

In “The Ghost Soldiers,” O’Brien remembers getting shot for the first time and Rat Kiley treating him very well and saving his life. O’Brien is thankful that Rat Kiley was there when it happened because he seemed to know what he was doing and “Thank God for Rat Kiley. Every so often, maybe four times altogether, he trotted back to check me out. Which took courage” (O’Brien 180). He was sent out for recovery after that and when he goes back to war, he finds out that Kiley was injured and he was sent out too. A replacement, named Bobby Jorgenson, is sent to the company to take Kiley’s place. O’Brien gets shot a second time, but Jorgenson does not know what to do because he is so frightened. While O’Brian was in recovering, he was borderline affected by gangrene. He had to spend a month on his stomach. He is then placed in the battalion supply section because it’s an easier job. Jorgensen then apologizes for taking so much time to help, but O’Brien starts to hold a grudge against him and promises himself he is going to get back at him. When the company goes to visit O’Brien for a routine operation, O’Brien decides to plan a prank on Jorgenson and attempts to get his friends to help him. The only person that will help him with his evil plan is Azar. While Jorgenson is on night duty, O’Brien and Azar make it seem that they are being attacked by doing a number of different things such as lighting flares and moving around the bushes. Azar blames O’Brien for the prank as Jorgenson finally finds both of the guys. Azar apologizes to O’Brien and everything is back to normal with them. As for Jorgenson and O’Brien, they finally make peace in the end because they are now “even.”

This specific section shows that O’Brien starts to hold a grudge against Jorgenson because “…when I got shot the second time, in the butt, it took the son of a bitch almost ten minutes to work up the nerve to crawl over to me” (O’Brien 181). He feels that Jorgenson is inferior and not good enough because he is new. When he is injured, he holds the grudge because he is jealous that he is no longer the one telling combat stories like the rest of the guys are, including Jorgenson. He might not think it is fair for him to be at war and doing what O’Brien wishes he could be doing. Not only that, but O’Brien seems to have a problem with wanting to be the authority figure and having more power. He probably feels inferior because Jorgenson is new and is already at combat. He seems to be especially affected by this because Jorgenson is the one that caused him to go to the battalion supply selection and “I wanted to hurt Bobby Jorgenson the way he’d hurt me” (O’Brien 191). His prank was a test to see how strong Jorgenson can be and if he can handle being in that environment, “He was green and incompetent and scared” (O’Brien 181). Not only that, but he wanted to humiliate him and get him back for not knowing what to do at when his assistance was needed. O’Brien looked down at Jorgenson throughout the chapter and didn’t have any respect for him. In the end, after he played his prank, he ends up finding out that Jorgenson is good enough to be at war and “I hated him for making me stop hating him” (O’Brien 190).

O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. 2009. New York, NY: Mariner Books, 2009. 1-233. Print.


Image from: http://images.paraorkut.com/img/funnypics/images/j/jealousy_poster-12996.jpg

Set Me Free!!!

How does it feel to be broken physically and emotionally? When the easiest way out is to “set yourself free”? But is it worth it? Is it worth leaving all the people we love behind to pick up the pieces? Joy Harjo wrote a poem called “The Woman Hanging from the Thirteenth Floor Window” about a woman hanging from her 13th floor window trying to decide whether she should commit suicide or not. She is weighing the good things and bad things in her life as she tries to make the decision. There is a significant amount of pain and suffering in every sentence. The emotion in the poem is immense! I understand every line in her poem because, in some ways, I have gone through somewhat of the same situations. Sometimes it’s easier to let go of life than to fight hard for a better life, but is it worth it? I know that in my situation right now, giving up would never be an option.

I believe that the poem could relate to what Joy Harjo went through. Maybe this was her life in the past. She possibly pulled through the negative things and acquired a more optimistic mind-set to move on to be a better person and have a more blissful life. If this poem is about her, then she seems very broken and depressed. The “woman” seemed to be debating between life and death. What was her reasoning though? From the poem, we can tell she is Native American, poor, heartbroken, feels out of place, hears voices, and thinks she’s lost her beauty. Are those enough reasons to let go of the gift of life?

Being poor and trying to provide for three kids is not easy. I don’t have kids, but my baby brother is very expensive. Especially when babies are growing, they need more things than imaginable. One thing that surprised me about the poem is the line that said, “That's when she wants to have another child to hold onto in the night, to be able to fall back into dreams” (Harjo 1). If she is already poor, should that even come to mind? Obviously, her thinking is not in the right place. I think this poem is not only touching, but it brings many different emotions. Like the fact that she even considers having another child is frustrating to me. It’s very frustrating because she does not need another child if she is not financially stable. First, she needs to be able to provide for the children she already has and then she can consider having another one. I haven’t wanted to have kids yet because I KNOW I need to be financially stable and with a college career before I do have them. I don’t want to live the life that this woman is living and that’s the first thing I think about when I’m even a little bit compelled to become a mother. My mom was a single mother and had to work two and three jobs to be able to support me. We were financially stable all the time because my mom always worked hard to be able to provide for me. Life is not easy and sometimes we have to sacrifice some things, such as sleep and luxuries, to keep our heads above water, pay for our bills, and accomplish our goals.

The fact that she is Native American must be one of her main issues because “She thinks of the color of her skin, and of Chicago streets, and of waterfalls and pines” (Harjo 1). These are most likely the causes as to why she is being discriminated. This alone can make a person feel hopeless and it can make it difficult for anyone to be optimistic and work hard for what we want. I can understand what she feels like because I have felt it before. I’m a certified caregiver and I’m the youngest caregiver at my work. Although this is a different type of discrimination, it still hurts and it feels wrong to be degraded and unheard because of my age. Sometimes I also feel out of place because every caregiver is older than. Although some value my intelligence, others disregard the input I give because of my age. Some think I’m too young to really have an opinion. I believe that people who ignore my opinion because of my age are very close-minded, but I do understand that it’s not my fault and that this happens. I can’t help how old I am and the “woman” cannot help who she is either. She is Native American and there is nothing that can reverse that.

After having two husbands, she is emotionally broken, “She is several pieces between the two husbands” (Harjo 1). She probably feels like because she has been married twice and has three kids, she has lost her beauty and lost track of who she is and the things she likes to do. As young as I am, I married “the love of my life” when I was just 18 years of age. We never had any kids because we knew we had bigger priorities, but marriage alone took a toll on our lives. We both started gaining some weight and felt less attractive. Unfortunately, we were too young to know how to work things out and one day we just gave up on our relationship. We were losing track of who we were so we decided to go our separate ways and find ourselves. The first night I had to sleep by myself, not only did my bed feel empty, but so did my heart. I remember waking up every five to ten minutes throughout the night, thinking I had slept for hours. The second night was about the same, but the third night I decided to take some sleep aid. I was completely broken because he had become “my everything” and when I lost him over something insignificant, my life felt empty. The only thing I looked forward to was starting college and after crying about our separation for a week, I decided to add more credit hours to my already-busy school schedule to try to keep my mind busy and try to forget. I can’t imagine what this poor woman went through after two heartbreaks.

Considering the “woman’s” situation, it’s not easy to just decide to “set herself free” or not. “She thinks she remembers listening to her own life break loose, as she falls from the 13th floor window on the east side of Chicago, or as she climbs back up to claim herself again” (Harjo 1). She is broken but she needs to think about how it’s going to affect her loved ones too. We must not be selfish when even thinking about something like this. This poem really moved me because I have had some of the same hardships as well, but I know that it’s important to never give up. Someone once said, “One day, life will flash before our eyes. So let’s make it worth watching.”


Suicide Note-Why do it?

Sam Hammill Response

Any person that has a way with words can accomplish the impossible. Sam Hammill, for example, is a man that has a dazzling talent when writing, and very likely, speaking as well. In my opinion, one of the greater powers a human being can have is the ability to effectively speak his/her mind in a way that not many can. I didn’t expect to be that impressed with Sam Hammill’s “The Necessity to Speak,” but I gave it a chance and I am very impressed. His writing alone is an example of how much of a necessity human beings have to speak.
In his essay, Sam Hammill walks us through his life and gives us exceptional examples of his own personal experiences and gives us reasoning as to why we must be able to speak up. He really emphasizes the importance of speech when it comes to violence or harassment. Criminal activity should not be tolerated anywhere and yet it is. Not everyone has a conscience of the effects a single slap on the face can cause on a woman that does not deserve the abuse. He feels that if more people spoke about their incidents, then we would all have a better life. The fact that he admitted that he was raped at the age of fourteen by many boys was genuinely admirable on his part. That is something so personal that not everyone would have the nerve or desire to admit to a large audience. He deserves a great deal of respect just from this statement alone, I think. The point he was trying to make when telling us such a personal thing, was that he truly lived and therefore he can speak for many of us that won’t or can’t speak our mind. Unfortunately, his speaking for us doesn’t do us any good. We should all have the motivation to become good speakers and not be shy.
Hammill gives more examples than I could ever think of. I believe that this essay was stupendous because, not only is he exceedingly proficient with words, but he puts himself in the place of a victim and an executioner. He believes the best qualities of a good poet are being able to put themselves in anybody’s shoes. He clearly demonstrates his ability to do this in his essay. His professional abilities make the point he is trying to make very effective. His essay really inspired me to try and become better with speech and writing. He shows the world that you don’t need to be a very educated to have the drive to become a better person and change for the best. He states that willpower to become a better person can change everything. A person must be determined, but he is a great example that it is plausible for people to change with determination. He stated he was in jail and I would have never guessed by his use of words if he hadn’t mentioned it.
This essay relates to “The Colonel” by Carolyn Forche because she had the fortitude do speak of her experience at the colonel’s house through her poem. She had the nerve to state what she saw and speak of the alarming things she saw. She was probably frightened to do this considering he had a collection of so many ears and he was disliked and most likely very dangerous as well. She lived to tell the story though, and that’s what’s important. Things like these should also inspire us to make sure that justice happens. We can’t expect it to happen if we don’t do something about it.
“Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting” by Kevin Powers also relates to what Sam Hammill had to say in his essay. Powers’ essay was about war in Iraq and his love for a woman. Speech was important in his situation because he was brave enough to write a poem about how he really felt. Many men are shy to say what they need to say but he knew he needed to. In his poem, he spoke of how his superior stated that war was just a way to exchange metal (bullets) and his superior could be right. Hammill acknowledged the fact that many young men and women are enrolled in the military every year once a year and how the military is training them to be the victim and the executioner. Powers was a victim because he could have been injured in Iraq, yet he was an executioner because he was at war protecting our country, or so we like to say.
I haven’t read many great essays before, but Sam Hammill is a very talented individual with a drive and passion for what he does. I will be thrilled to read other work by him. He made a great point in this essay explaining the importance of speech and I know what to expect from other work by him. Speech is also important when we use it to explain how we feel about certain things, but this essay was beyond my level of aptitude. Even if I really tried, I wouldn’t have the words to describe how well I think this essay was written and what a brilliant writer Hammill is.


Port Townsend Poetry Project_Sam Hamill

Responding to a Poem

Making our own opinions to different pieces of literature is important. We are entitled to our own opinion and we should be allowed to fully express it. I will be responding to two poems, which were unexpectedly shocking to me. They have completely different emotional meanings, but they were equally touching in some way.
“The Colonel” by Carolyn Forche was one of a kind. The imagery in the poem was absolutely…disturbing! I’m not a person with a weak stomach, but when it comes down to murdering people and body parts that are no longer connected to the body, I’m very disturbed. The colonel from the poem seems cold and very “alpha-male.” It’s almost like he is too into himself and his needs to care about having human ears on his kitchen floor. In the poem, it was repellent that, “He took one of them in his hands, shook it in our faces, dropped it into a water glass” (Forche 1). That part of the poem was absolutely the one that stood out the most to me. The description of his house was kept and the fact that he actually had a pistol on the cushion made me believe he was probably a much disliked individual. Constance Coiner stated in an article that the ears belonged to people from El Salvador that were murdered and tortured and that Forche really experience what she stated in the poem. I think that the poem is unique in structure, but the content is very nauseating! It’s almost hard to believe that these occurrences are very real and they still happen in our generation.
Kevin C. Powers wrote a poem that is short and sweet, but it clearly states the point of it. “Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting” is a poem that makes me think back to all the love movies where the guy gets deployed and goes to war. For such a short poem, it has plenty of emotion. It makes sense that he would write a poem like that because “Kevin C. Powers is a poet, writer, and veteran of the Iraq war” according to Poetry Foundation. This poem really brought a great deal of emotion because I know men that are deployed and have one true love are miserable. They especially go through loads of pain if their partner breaks up with them at war. I watched the movie “Dear John” and it’s a movie with this same setting. He goes to war and she breaks up with him through a letter. It’s just really heartbreaking! The reality is though, that distance can break or make a couple.
Both of these poems were really touching to me in different ways. They both had really good points to make and from my research, they were both based off true life events. Without realizing, the poems I chose had a completely different emotions. “The Colonel” was a very disgusted emotion and “Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting” was more of a hopeful emotion. It’s remarkable how different poems can have different moods.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnmsGYk1adw&feature=related

What is a good reader? Nobolcov believes that a good imagination, a good memory, having and using a dictionary properly, and a good sense of art make a great reader. I definitely agree with all of those qualities.. A reader without an imagination will not enjoy a book because they probably won’t be able to visualize what is happening in the story. Visualizing the story makes the book easier to understand, in my opinion. As a reader, we must remember what has happened in previous pages in the book. By remembering previous events, we are able to link them to events that are happening and will happen in future pages, therefore making the story more interesting. It’s also good to have a dictionary handy because some words that some authors use are difficult to understand to other people because we don’t all use the same vocabulary and because we have a wide range of words. A sense of art also contributes to what was discussed earlier in the paragraph about using imagination to be able to visualize the story. Having an artistic sense contributes to picturing the story and making it more enjoyable to read.
Personally, I can agree that to be a good reader, we must have imagination, memory, a dictionary, and a good artistic sense. Although those things are important, a good reader is not created by a negative and close-minded person who hates a book because the couple in the story lives together and the reader is against living together before marriage. We have to always be optimistic when reading and truly give the writer a chance. We can’t have a mind-set that we won’t enjoy a book. I believe I’m a good reader because I have the listed qualities, but I could benefit from making time to read books. The only thing that makes me a bad reader is the fact that I don’t read much due to a lack of time.


http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1951793,00.html

WHAT MAKES A GOOD READER?

What is a good reader? Nobolcov believes that a good imagination, a good memory, having and using a dictionary properly, and a good sense of art make a great reader. I definitely agree with all of those qualities.. A reader without an imagination will not enjoy a book because they probably won’t be able to visualize what is happening in the story. Visualizing the story makes the book easier to understand, in my opinion. As a reader, we must remember what has happened in previous pages in the book. By remembering previous events, we are able to link them to events that are happening and will happen in future pages, therefore making the story more interesting. It’s also good to have a dictionary handy because some words that some authors use are difficult to understand to other people because we don’t all use the same vocabulary and because we have a wide range of words. A sense of art also contributes to what was discussed earlier in the paragraph about using imagination to be able to visualize the story. Having an artistic sense contributes to picturing the story and making it more enjoyable to read.

Personally, I can agree that to be a good reader, we must have imagination, memory, a dictionary, and a good artistic sense. Although those things are important, a good reader is not created by a negative and close-minded person who hates a book because the couple in the story lives together and the reader is against living together before marriage. We have to always be optimistic when reading and truly give the writer a chance. We can’t have a mind-set that we won’t enjoy a book. I believe I’m a good reader because I have the listed qualities, but I could benefit from making time to read books. The only thing that makes me a bad reader is the fact that I don’t read much due to a lack of time.

Welcome Video

My Summer

This summer is going to be a difficult one for me. I am taking 16 credit hours and 17 credit hours in the fall. The only reason why I'm rushing through these classes is because I NEED to get into the nursing program in the Spring. I wasted two years after high school not doing anything with my life and now I really feel like I need to make a real effort to get into the nursing program as soon as possible. Not only am I going to be almost overwhelmed with classes, but it's only fair that I make time to spend with my boyfriend. I'm happy that he understands the importance of college to me and I'm glad I finally have someone I can relate to, as well. He is a business major and also busy as can be. I guess I'm pretty content as to where I'm at in life at the moment. I have a great life and inspiring people around me that only add to my happyness.