Exploration Six from Brandon

Part One: My active reading has been a little difficult to get used to. After reading a certain way for so long it is difficult to change. I have been taught to read a chapter of a book and remember as much as I can, rather than create notes and mark in the book to help me. I hope that by the end of this semester I have fully adopted active reading. I believe it will help me with anything I read. The biggest strengths I see in this book are that the author is able to tell stories that are true, partially true, or made up. However, each story is written with the same amount of detail as if it is real and happening right before the reader’s eyes. This leaves the reader to decide whether a story really happened. The biggest weakness I could see is the author, Tim O’Brien, moves around from different points in his lifetime. For some readers who like things in a chronological order it could become confusing for those readers. My favorite chapter is How to Tell a True War Story. I believe it shows that there are many ways to tell a war story, and sometimes it doesn't matter if the story is completely true or not. War stories can be used to shape others thoughts and opinions about a war. My favorite character is Mitchell Sanders. Sanders is one for showing kindness when it is needed, but he also believes in doing what is just or morally right. “But then for a few seconds everything goes quiet and you look up and see the sun and a few puffy white clouds, and the immense serenity flashes against your eyeballs - the whole world gets rearranged- and even though you’re pinned down by a war you never felt more at peace.”(Page 34, Spin) This quote from the chapter shows the effect Sanders story had on O’Brien, and how soldiers need a break from war. However, after sometime they want back in, they want to fight again.

Part Two: I spoke to my mom about her thoughts about this period in time. She believes that the United States simply should have stayed out of Vietnam, it simply wasn't our war. She also doesn't like how people would treat the soldiers who fought over in Vietnam; they weren't thanked for what they did. They didn't have much of a choice, and they stuck it out and fought for our freedom and others as well. I think this was a big time in America as far as change, considering the civil rights movements, government problems (Watergate) and the war in Vietnam. I did not know much about this time period until this class, and I understand it much better now. I do not think we should have gone into Vietnam either, putting 500,000 soldiers lives at risk for the sake of a country that wants to change its government does not seem like a reasonable risk to take.

Exploration 6: Anthony Applegate

1.  The active reading has helped me retain information better and better correlate the information as I read more into the novel. In my opinion the biggest strength the book has is its way to portray human life in a different environment than what every-day Americans are used to facing. It is important to understand that because all the soldiers once had a normal American life before the war and had their own perspective on life and people and then it seems to change once they go to a combat zone. The author does a good job explaining how people react to different situations such as taking a life, losing a best friend, or even losing a girlfriend over in the states and that’s what I like about his writing the most. It makes me think about how I would react to those same situations if I were in those peoples shoes. The greatest weakness I find with the novel is the lack of constant description of the scenery because of how scenic Vietnam and of how often they move positions and i like to have a constant visual in my head of where he is and what it looks like because that is how I relate to things the best. 
My favorite chapter so far has been "On The Rainy River" because, Tim is just an ordinary citizen like I am right now and his entire future is flashed right before him. One quote that really interested me was when his brain kind of broke and he heard this sound in his head that gave him a paralysis feeling and Tim said "I remember a sound in my head. It wasn't thinking, just a silent howl. A million things all at once - I wad too good for the this war." Even though he is an American citizen like everyone else, he views himself as better than all the other war draftees. Rat Kiley has got to be my favorite character so far because of the note he wrote for his best friend Curt Lemon to his sister telling her how good of a soldier and person he was. He passionately writes to her event though he receives nothing in return over some time. I know anyone of my family members would appreciate that to the fullest. I like the description they give Curt and Rat when they describe them being friends and how it says "...and they were giggling and calling each other yellow mother and playing silly a game they'd invented." I like this because this expected between best friends but it surprised me that they could still be playful and have fun inside a war zone.

2.  I learned that it affected almost all my uncles in my family because they all signed up and joined a part of the military instead of waiting for their draft number to be called. They all took none combat roles during the war and my grandpa always makes the joke that in the Air Force he flew a type writer because, he had a desk job that required a lot of typing. My grandpa and I had talked the most about the Vietnam War and he had a good story of when another officer pissed him and my Grandpa had the job of assigning officers to different bases and he sent the other officer to a base Vietnam but wasn't worried about sending him to his death because the other guy played a non combat role in the Air Force as well. This fascinated me because, my grandpas had never really shared his time in the service with me. 

Exploration 6 by Nick Fox

     So far my active reading has been doing very well, one of the biggest strengths of active reading is that it really makes you pay attention to the content. It also does a great job on making it easy to go back and review what you read in previous chapters. It really helps you understand what you are reading and helps make sure that you don't skip over anything important. The only flaw or weakness i found in active reading is that it does take more time than just reading.
     My favorite chapter so far was "the dentist" , I really liked this chapter because it show humanity in the characters. It showed that a hardened soldier can summit to his fears, Lemon was scared of the dentist so he fainted out of anticipation. The chapter was short but really brought up a good memory of Lemon. "It was over fast. He fainted even before the man touched him"(page 83 "the dentist" the things they carried). This quote really sums up how the chapter is pointing out a interesting memory of Lemon.
     My favorite character is O'Brien the narrator, he shows great compassion and deals with the horrors of combat much better than most of the other characters. The is revealed a lot in the chapter ambush where he talks about the young man he watched die. He shows so much compassion about a man he didn't even know and this is a nice difference compared to some of the other characters in the book. In the chapter "Ambush" on page 128 he says "sometimes i forgive myself,others i don't". The fact that he showed this much remorse and that it still hurts him is very touching.
     I talked to my uncle about when he was young and the war was going on, and he told me about how he remembered how many people didn't agree with the war. He said from what he remembered a lot of people were against it and our trust in the government was at an all time low. This book is very similar to my preconceptions of the Vietnam war i already knew a good amount going into reading this book.I already knew that at the time many people did not support the war and many people thought starting it in the first place was a mistake. But I find it very interesting reading their point of views and learning how they felt and acted at the time.

Exploration 6 by Amanda

Part One
With my active reading, some parts are really easy to read and I can annotate a lot.  However, some chapters I am somewhat confused and not sure what opinions to form.  I think the biggest strength of this novel so far is the specific chapter of "Speaking of Courage".  This chapter does an excellent job at showing the negative side of the aftermath of war and what it has on an individual.  Tim O'Brien fortunately does not experience this negative side because he tunnels the feelings of war into his stories.  Norman on the other hand, does not know what to do with himself.  Tim exemplifies how war changes people and sometimes these certain people never recover from it.  The biggest weakness in this novel so far is knowing which war stories are true and which are somewhat fiction.  The chapter with the longer story, Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong, seems almost too unrealistic for me to believe it is true.  How is it possible for a character to undergo that drastic of a change?  The ending of this chapter is what left me the most unsure because Mary Ann has became such an opposite of her former self, it is hard to believe this event would've actually occurred.
My favorite chapter so far is The Man I Killed.  This is my favorite chapter because it shows a side of Tim O'Brien we haven't seen before.  This is his first killing as a soldier at war and it truly has a toll on his mindset.  He creates a life for the man he killed and plays out the life this man had in his mind.  In the end of the chapter, O'Brien still thinks about the day of the man he killed.  "Even now I haven't finished sorting it out.  Sometimes I forgive myself, other times I don't" (O'Brien 128).  This experience Tim has had continues to haunt him in his everyday life and he even states how sometimes he does not forgive himself for killing this man.  I believe that would be very hard to accept as a person and I think Tim does a good job of portraying how he still struggles years later from this event.
My favorite character thus far in the book is Tim O'Brien.  Obviously he is the narrator of this novel, but I believe he does a great job at telling the stories and portraying what is exactly going through characters minds while at war.  What I like the most about him is that he tunnels his feelings through his writing, which I see as very cool and a great quality to have.  From past experience, it is a great coping method when bad things happen in your life.  "Telling stories seemed a natural, inevitable process, like clearing of the throat.  Partly catharsis, partly communication, it was the way of grabbing people by the shirt and explaining exactly what happened to me, how I'd allowed myself to get dragged into a wrong war, all the mistakes I'd made, all the terrible things I had seen and done. (O'Brien 151).  Tim O'Brien is truthful when it comes to telling his point of view of the war.  He lets readers know his emotions about every situation and makes it easier to connect, so that is why he is my favorite character.


Part Two
I spoke to my father when asking his opinions on the Vietnam war.  My Mom was too young to know much about this era, but the only aspect she remembers is praying at church that her older brothers would not get sent away to war due to the draft.  Back to my father, he has two older brothers.  He, like my mother, was afraid they were going to get drafted as well.  My grandparents were also very worried their sons would get sent to war too.  My grandpa served in the Navy, but he said that this war was different from others.  My dad was only in grade school as there is a larger age difference between my dad and his brothers.  Personally he never had the fear that he himself would get drafted due to his age.  There were multiple things my dad said he noticed while the Vietnam was was going on.  First, gas prices rose after the war started.  He also noticed how the media portrayed this war.  On television, he remembers seeing real images of what was actually happening at war.  This was also the first time he saw actual protests going on.  My Uncle Craig attended Kent State when the shooting happened, so my dad had that aftermath experience as well.  My Uncle was not injured, but was involved with these protests as he was unhappy with the war like the rest of the Kent State students. The final thing my dad noticed as this war went on is that the amount of drug use truly went up.  He believed drugs were used as a coping method for Americans struggling with the reality of this war.

Exploration Six by Liz

Part One: 
  I believe the strongest thing about this book is how Tim O'Brien is able to tell a story. He makes you feel as though you are really experiencing all the things he is writing about. I really enjoy this aspect of the book. I think the greatest books are the ones that make you feel as though you are hovering over the scenes and experiencing the things first hand. I think one of the best stories he told was Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong. His use of sense detail really impressed me. Most specifically when he was talking about Mary Anne being in the Greenie’s tent with  " Thick and numbing, like an animal's den, a mix of blood and scorched hair and excrement and the sweet-sour odor of moldering flesh - the stink of the kill"  (O’Brien 105). This is one of the best examples of how good he is at describing things. I think one of the draw backs of this book is how O’Brien jumps back and forth through time a lot. Initially when you read it can be difficult to follow through the jumps. This is where I found my active reading came in handy most. Although it can sometimes be tedious to do, my active reading during these parts of the book really helped me to highlight where the jumps are at.

My favorite chapter of the book is the Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong. This is my favorite chapter because it really shows how someone so innocent and bubbly can go from the girl next door to someone who enjoys to kill. It shows how much war can change a person. Although the war didn’t change all the men this drastically, it is something that can never be erased from your mind. “What happened to her, Rat said, happened to all of them. You come over clean and you get dirty and then afterwards it’s never the same) (109). Rat was talking about how Mary Anne had changed into a completely different person.

My favorite character of the book is Kiowa. I like him the best because he is a really good guy. You can tell he genuinely cares about others. In the chapter The Man I Killed, Kiowa really displays his kindness. He knows how much killing the man has upset Tim, so he tried to explain why Tim should let the killing go. “Tim, it’s a war. The guy wasn’t Heidi – he had a weapon, right? It’s a tough thing, for sure, but you got to cut out that staring” (120). Kiowa truly cared about how Tim was feeling and I feel like the war needed more people like Kiowa.

Part Two:
I had talked to my Great Uncle about the war. He was stationed in California. The thing my Uncle remembered most about the war was all the drugs. There were so many drugs being used by so many people it was insane. I asked him about how many there were and he just started rattling off all the different names. He told me many people became addicted and after the war, it was extremely hard to get clean.  

Exploration 6 from Maverick

The novel The Things They Carried is well written and interesting. The biggest strength of this book is how O’Brien can jump between settings and still have the reader be able to follow along easily. A different strength is how well O’Brien writes the different stories of the book which keeps the reader intrigued and enjoy reading it. An example of this would be in the chapters Enemies and Friends, the stories take place at two different times during the war but they go well together. In the chapter Enemies, O’Brien keeps the reader wanting to read more to find out what will happen of the tension between Strunk and Jensen. A weakness of this novel would be the fact that you can’t tell whether these stories are true, partially true, or completely false. I don’t know if this would be considered a weakness, but for me in particular I like to know whether the story is to some extent true or not at all. I don’t want to read about things that are completely made up.

My favorite chapter so far would be Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong. I liked this chapter because there is the possibility of parts of this story to be true and others to be false. This story kept me thinking of why anyone would bring someone they loved to war to risk them dying. This story was a little weird because Mary Anne didn’t die or get wounded she just changed into a completely different person. Maybe this story was to show meaning. The meaning behind this story being war changes people a lot. The part that stood out to me was when it stated, “At the end of the second week, when four casualties came in, Mary Anne wasn’t afraid to get her hands bloody. At times, in fact, she seemed fascinated by it” (O’Brien 93). This shows how much Mary Anne is different from normal girls. Most of them would hate seeing all the blood but she wouldn’t mind getting it on her hands.

My favorite character so far would be Henry Dobbins. He is like a friendly giant, powerful but kind. My favorite quote about Dobbins is, “But Henry Dobbins, who moved gracefully for such a big man, took Azar from behind and lifted him up high and carried him over to a deep well and asked if he wanted to be dumped in” (O’Brien 130). Dobbins is my favorite character because who wouldn’t want a powerful and intimidating friend that others fear. He would be like a bodyguard without being one.

Part 2

I learned quite a bit about Vietnam from asking people I knew. They said that Vietnam is now a communist country because of the tragic defeat during the war. The war brings back bad memories to the veterans who served during the time. They talked about how friends would go missing during the draft because they fled to Canada to avoid it. I also learned that the war itself was tragic. A lot of lives were lost and not a lot was accomplished. It was like those lives went to waste. North Vietnam was able to transform South Vietnam into a communist state because American troops were withdrawn from the country. People who didn’t go to war at the time didn’t know what was going on. They thought that the troops were winning because the president lied in order to keep support for the war. They talked about how shocking the pictures that were released since they had no idea how terrible it was.

Exploration Six: Tia Lyons

     I feel my active reading is going well so far in The Things They Carried. By highlighting and writing notes to myself it has become easier for me to recall more about the book. I think the biggest strengths of this novel are that Tim O'Brien makes the character's personalities, the way they look and small details about events so easy to picture. I think by doing this it makes the story being told make sense and flow better. An example of this is when Curt Lemon got killed and he wrote, "His face was suddenly brown and shinning. A handsome kid, really. Sharp eyes, lean and narrow-waisted, and when he died it was almost beautiful, the way the sunlight came around him and lifted him up and sucked him high into a tree full of moss and vines and white blossoms."(pg.67) I fell a weakness for me with this novel is how Tim O'Brien skips time periods a lot in some of the same chapters and it could get confusing at times. In the chapter Spin he starts writing as if it were today when he says " I'm forty-three years old, and a writer now, and the war has been over for a long while" (pg.31) and then in the same chapter moves to war scenes, like when he writes about Azar killing Ted Lavender's puppy. (pg.35)
     One of my favorite chapters in this book is the very first chapter, The Things They Carried. I really liked this chapter because it explains a lot about what soldiers had to carried physically and what they also carried emotionally. I felt this chapter gave insight about a lot of the characters by explaining what they held important enough to carry during the war. The emotional baggage was evident when Tim writes " He carried a strobe light and the responsibility for the lives of his men." (pg.5).
     One of my favorite characters in this book is Mary Anne Bell. Mary was a character that has stuck out in my mind because she transformed from a polite naive girl to a strong willed, some might say crazy and brave woman. I thought Mary was an interesting character, maybe because she was a woman trying to be like the men (Greenies) that made me like her spunk. Tim writes about Mary's first noticed transformation by Fossie, "Fossie took a half step forward and hesitated. It was as though he had trouble recognizing her. She wore a bush hat and filthy green fatigues; she carried the standard M-16 automatic assault rifle; her face black with charcoal."(pg.98)

     I asked my parents about the Vietnam war and my mom didn't remember much but my dad remembered a few things. My father said he was just three years shy of being eligible for the draft but said he had a few friends who had to go to war. He remembered some friends dying and some coming back severely physically wounded. He also said the Vietnam war was constantly on TV and was all anyone talked about for a long time.

Exploration Six: Salma

Part one: 

So far throughout reading The Things They Carried I have found myself really enjoying the book. I have only ever actively read a text book but now I realize the impact active reading has on the  understanding of any text. With the use of sense detail and interior monologue O'Brien is succesful in bringing his story to life, and by doing so he allows the reader to envision the journey he faced through his own shoes. An example where I believe he does this flawlessly is within the chapter On the Rainy River. Although O'Brien does a great job of allowing the reader to feel all the emotions he was going through there was one passage that stood out to me the most. Elroy takes O'Brien out boating, O'Brien realizes he is 20 feet away from Canada, 20 feet away from an entirely different life. O'Brien is then struck with the realization that "Canada had become a pitiful fantasy. Silly and hopeless." He continues by bringing to life his town and all the people that unintentionally played a role in his decision to go to war instead of escaping to Canada (Chapter 4, page 59-61). I believe that the main weakness in this book came from the chapter How to Tell a True War Story. This chapter jumps back and forth giving insight on the properties needed to tell a true war story and ultimately states that there is no such thing as a true war story which left me questioning the book in its entirety. O'Brien states "In war you lose your sense of the definite, hence your sense of truth itself, and therefore it's safe to say that in a true war story nothing is ever absolutely true"(Chapter 6, page 82). 

My favorite chapter so far is Speaking of Courage. Throughout this chapter the way O'Brien is able to sum up the story of Norman Bowker and all that he wished he could've said had an impact on me. As readers we are able to feel how lonely Bowker was and how he wanted to talk about what happened but didn't know how to put it into words."There was nothing to say, he could not talk about it and never would"(144).  

My favorite character so far has been Kiowa. In the chapter The Man I Killed, Kiowa does everything he can to help O'Brien justify his killing. He makes Azar go away after seeing that O'Brien needed space although Kiowa is reluctant to giving him space he does but constantly checks up on him, trying to get O'Brien to talk about what had happened. "Hey you're looking better, No doubt about it. All you needed was time, some mental R&R." We are able to see how much Kiowa cares about his friends and  how he was there to listen when they needed him.

Part Two:

I spoke to my brother in law's grandfather Henry. When speaking to him I learned that he remembered the time of Vietnam as a sad time in human history and that the affects of PTSD were surfacing around this time. He also said that there wasn't only a war going on in Vietnam but also back at home, he stated that this war was between public opinion and government action. Before reading this book I didn't know much about the Vietnam war. What I did know was that it was an unnecessary war and that lives of many Americans were affected. I have learned a lot but mostly I have learned the importance of learning from your mistakes and not just pretending that it never happened.

Exploration 6: Lauren

     So far, I think the book, The Things They Carried, is very interesting and an easy and quick read. It's really easy to get into the book and feel like you know the author when he tells stories. One of the biggest strengths of the novel so far is the author's ability to make you feel like you are there with the soldiers in the war. His stories are so personal and detailed that you really believe that you share that memory with him. In the story, Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong, O'Brien says, "She had crossed to the other side. She was part of the land. She was wearing her culottes, her pink sweater, and a necklace of human tongues. She was dangerous. She was ready for the kill" (110). He is so specific in this description that you can vividly imagine her standing in front of you. One of the biggest weaknesses of the novel would be the lack of true stories. All of the stories in the book are fascinating and fun to read about, but are any of them even true? He has a chapter in the book called How To Tell a True War Story, which talks about how most stories you hear from the war aren't 100% true. A lot of the stories have bits and pieces that are true, but the rest is just made up for your own enjoyment. In this chapter of the book, O'Brien says, "In any war story, but especially a true one, it's difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen" (67). I understand that it would be hard to recollect every detail of a specific moment in time, especially in war. However this is just one part of his writing that I don't know how I should feel about. I want to believe everything's true because it all seems true, but he says not all of it's true, which makes me wonder what is and what isn't true from what I've read so far.
     So far, my favorite chapter in the novel would have to be Speaking of Courage. This is definitely my favorite chapter because O'Brien really helps you to connect and feel close to Norman Bowker. You feel sympathy for him and want to be his friend. He seems very lonely and depressed and he makes you feel like you are in his shoes, like you know what he was feeling when he left the war and went back home. He felt like he had nobody, like nobody cared that he was even there. O'Brien describes Norman to feel like nobody even noticed that he was back from the war when he says, "He felt invisible in the soft twilight" (144). I felt heartbroken for Norman because I wish I could have been there for him. He needed someone in that time, and I'm sure there were people who would have been there for him but he wouldn't let himself go to people for help or comfort. He just decided to be on his own and not bother anybody.
     My favorite character in the book so far would have to be Henry Dobbins. He really sticks in my mind out of all the characters because he is so confident in himself. He carries stockings around his neck everywhere he goes for good luck. They are his girlfriend's, and they comfort him because he feels safe when he thinks of her. He smells them and keeps them tied close to his face for relief during the stressful times of the war. He believes that they are giving him good luck because nothing bad ever happens to him compared to all the others. Even when his girlfriend breaks up with him during the war, he still wears them for good luck. He realized that it's not his girlfriend that was bringing him good luck, it was the pantyhose. In the chapter Stockings, O'Brien says, "The pantyhose, he said, had the properties of a good-luck charm" (111). This was true in his case, he was very superstitious and so am I so I feel like a can relate to him on some kind of level.


     After asking my family about the Vietnam War, I learned a lot more than I originally knew, which wasn't much. My grandfather served in the Vietnam War in the U.S. Air Force when he was 20 and 21. He worked on the aircrafts used in the war. He is not alive anymore, but my dad told me a few things that he told him when he was younger. My dad moved around a lot when he was a kid due to my grandfather's army base moving constantly. The Vietnam War was a horrible war. It shouldn't have happened. There were way too many deaths and it was considered one of the most gruesome wars.