The Things They Carried/AP Question

1982. In great literature, no scene of violence exists for its own sake. Choose a work of literary merit that confronts the reader or audiance with a scene or scenes of violence. In a well-organized essay, explain how the scene or scenes contribute to the meaning of the complete work. Avoid plot summary. In Tim O’Brien’s classic novel, The Things They Carried, there are lots of scenes with violence; just waiting to start leaking out. One scene is where, at night, the soldiers were laying down for a good rest until Ted Lavender got up to take a leak. Then, as Ted Lavender was coming back, a shot rang out like a bolt of lightning and hit Ted Lavender square in the center of his skull. You could hear him fall, but it was motionless. This scene contributes to the meaning of the complete work because, in real life, death is everlasting and life is certainly fragile and has to be cared for. Ted Lavender’s death, truely, is preventable and because its preventable is why it illustrates the expendability of human life in a senseless war. Another scene that shows violence is the scene where Curt Lemon is killed while using a grenade to play catch with the medic, Rat Kiley. Again, this is another “preventable” death caused by a senseless war. One scene, however, has Lee Strunk dying from injuries he sustained when he stepped on a landmine. Even after Strunk was hurt, he helplessly begged for aid from Jensen, a soldier that Strunk had made a pact with earlier in the book. And, of course, Jensen made the “right” decision and helped Strunk out of the predicament he was in. It is so sad and sometimes everlasting to hear of tales like these. Still, I think they all could have found a much better death if they had not have “played” with their lives so often. Would you rather die cruely in agony or live just long enough to fight another day?

The Things They Carried/Book2Media Post

Sadly, there was no film version of The Things They Carried. But, I did do some research on Youtube and found a few music videos about the horrors of the Vietnam War. It was quite interesting because 1) I didn’t know that much about the Vietnam War and 2) all the little facts that I never knew before. Did you know that 61% of the men killed were 21 or younger? Did you know that 58,000 Americans were killed in the Vietnam War? Plus, that 47,400 of them were hostile deaths? If you really look at it, it wasn’t the best idea to go to war with Vietnam in the first place. Not to mention our economic draws that had kept us, as a country, busy as well. I mean with gas prices skyrocketing, our gvernment being crooked and false; especially President Nixon. Anyways, this book has a lot of ideas and basic knowledge that were out in the world back then and can still be found today.

The Things They Carried/Post 5

Close to the ending of the first story, the soldiers find themselves in combat with the enemy. During the siege, O’Brien says this, “For all the ambiguities of Vietnam, all the mysteries and unknowns, there was at least the single abiding certainty that they would never be at a loss for things to carry.” O’Brien’s talking about the uncertainty of, not only the war, but of basic life itself; the surpise that every person on earth watches and waits for. No matter what, however, they all know that, if worse comes to worse, they will still have a way of defending themselves. What, if you have read this story, would you say is most likely going to happen next?

The Things They Carried/Post 4

Near the end of the first story, the soldiers are laying down, resting on the ground for the night. This is were one of the climaxes of the story is revealed. But, then it says, “Lee Strunk made a funny ghost sound, a kind of moaning, yet very happy, and right then, when Strunk made that high happy moaning sound, when he went Ahhooooo, right then Ted Lavendar was shot in the head on his way back from peeing. He lay with his mouth open. The teeth were broken. There was a swollen black bruise under his left eye. The cheeckbone was gone. Oh shit, Rat Kiley said, the guy’s dead. The guy’s dead, he kept saying, which seemed profound–the guy’s dead. I mean really.” I think that this scene is important to the story because an accident is what caused Ted Lavendar’s death. For example, in Saving Private Ryan, Cpl. Timothy P. Upham is in the middle of a battle between the Americans and the Germans. Mean while, Pvt. Stanley Mellish is having a hand-to-hand combat brawl with a German soldier. Stanley pulls out a knife, trys to kill the German with it, but the scuffle is turned around, in the other’s favor, with the German stabbing Stanley. As Timothy is trying to get enough courage to climb the stairs; it is too late and his friend is dead. This is how these two scenes compare and contrast to one another. They each deal with a simple conflict; man vs. man.

The Things They Carried/Post 3

In the first story, O’Brien dicusses what weapon supplies the soldiers had to carry and how they had to guard it with their lives in order to stay alive. It says at the end of this paragraph, “They carried all they could bear, and then some, including a silent awe for the terrible power of the things they carried.” As you can see, there are a few sacred, ancient things that the soldiers carry on their journey. One of the “odd” things that Kiowa, a close friend of O’Brien’s, carries his grandfather’s feathered hatchet. Every soldier has to carry frag grenades, one M-18 colored smoke grenade, and at least have three standard weapons–the M-60, M-16, and the M-79. It looks to me like the soldiers really don’t have anything else to carry, but that silent awe for the terrible power for all the weapons of “mass destruction” they carry.

Author bio blurb, publication blurb, and tagline on The Things They Carried

Born on October 1, 1946 in Austin, Minnesota was Tim O’Brien; an American novelist who often wrote about his experiences as a Vietnam veterian and the impact the war had on the American servicemen who fought there. Upon completing his tour of duty, O’Brien went on to graduate school at Harvard University and received an internship at the Washington Post. While O’ Brien insists it is not his job or his place to discuss the politics of the Vietnam War, he does occasionally let fly. One attribute in O’Brien’s work is the blur between fiction and reality; labeled “verisimilitude”, his work contains actual details of the situations he experienced; while that is not unusual, his conscious, explicit, and metafictional approach to the distinction between fiction and fact is extraordinary. He is one of the best writers of his time.

The Things They Carried/Post 2

In the first story, O’Brien talks about the men, the ones in his platoon, missing home and thier families. In these few paragraphs, he writes, “Almost everyone humped photographs. In his wallet, Lieutenant Cross carried two photographs of Martha. The first was a Kodacolor snapshot signed Love, though he knew better. She stood against a brick wall. Her eyes were gray and neutral, her lips slightly open as she stared straight-on at the camera.”…”The second photograph had been clipped from the 1968 Mount Sebastian yearbook. There was no visible sweat. She wore white gym shorts. Her legs, he thought, were almost certainly the legs of a virgin, dry and without hair, the left knee cocked and carrying her entire weight, which was just over 117 pounds. Lieutenant Cross remembered touching that left knee.” I think O’Brien put this in the story because it puts a sense of how the soldiers miss and still love thier women. This scene of the book also shows a sense of hope or freedom of going home and getting the hell out of there.

The Things They Carried/Post 1

In the first story, Tim O’Brien, the narrator, said, “In April, for instance, when Ted Lavender was shot, they used his poncho to wrap him up, then to carry him across the paddy, then to lift him onto the chopper that took him away.” O’Brien says this because this scene pulls out one very, good survival technique. Back in the “old days”, people would have to use anything from a medical pack to a spoon for injuries. I thought that this way was a “smart” way to use the basic elements around you and to be creative with one’s survival skills.

Heart of Darkness/AP Question

1997. Novels and plays often include scenes of weddings, funerals, parties, and other social occasions. Such scenes may reveal the values of the characters and the society in which they live. Select a novel or play that includes such a scene and, in a focused essay, discuss the contribution the scene makes to the meaning of the work as a whole. You may choose a work from the list below or another novel or play of literary merit.   In the novel, Heart of Darkness, there is a scene where Marlow and his crew meet up with a group of people and have a little party with them. During the social gathering, the two groups mingle and discuss their different traits and customs that they have. The few contributions that this scene makes to the meaning of the work as a whole is very elaborate; but, at the same time, laid out very simple. The first contribution that this scene makes to the meaning of the work as a whole is its simple need of a healthy family. Everyone, no matter who you are, needs, wants, loves, and cares to have a family or somebody around; ready to stand by them at almost every call for help. The second contribution that this scene makes to the meaning of the work as a whole is the gift of ever lasting love that surrounds the two families. All people everywhere, who have a family or someone to love or care for, should be able to show love and compassion for one another. The third contribution that this scene makes to the meaning of the work as a whole is the ability to make friends with one another, even though the other group of people, may be trespassing their boundries. All though the group of people are just visiting there, the other people have every right to defend their property how so ever they choose to. And the fourth contribution that this scene makes to the meaning of the work as a whole is the fact that not only do these people love each other with passion, care for one another with the up most respect, but they also have this sort of a “bind” between the two families that puts them at perfect measures to be a heart warming clan. Just remember, that everyone diserves to be needed, loved, and cared for, no matter their race, ethnicity, color, or size.

Heart of Darkness/Book2Media Post

Yeserday, I got a chance to watch “Apocalypse Now“, the movie based on “Heart of Darkness.” For the most part, I thought the movie was very good with its setting, mood, plot, and character selection that Coppola did to bring this story to the big screen; especially with the viewing of other famous actors such as Harrison Ford, Robert Duvall, and Marlon Brando. I did think, however, that Martin Sheen, brought a little confusion to the start of the film by showing himself nude; wrapped up in a blanket. I did realize that the director also put the plot of the original story in a military situation. Pretty much, it was the original saga, but a little bit misguided from the viewers’ look at it. I guess that how movies should be viewed; the plot of the original story steered in a completely different direction.