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.