Romanticism in Tim O'Brien's Going After Cacciato
Critics of Tim O'Brien's Going After Cacciato have examined its narrative technique (see Raymond) and its position in literature as metafiction (see Herzog). Still other critics have commented on the motif of time (see McWilliams) and the theme and structure (see Vannatta). On the last point, critics find the structure of the novel is fragmented to reveal the nature of the United States' involvement in Vietnam. Unfortunately, this fragmentation makes the novel appear structurally weak. Critics have found no unifying element to the parts to affirm the sense of wholeness readers feel after completing O'Brien's novel. Nevertheless, the reader senses that the seemingly random construction of the novel serves to underscore the random nature of the Vietnam war. However, to lightly dismiss O'Brien's organization as simply fragmentary does great disservice to this American author. A critical examination of a traditional element found in American Literature since its inception--the symbolic use of Nature--unifies Going After Cacciato and places the work firmly in the Romantic tradition. Just as Romanticists have always relied upon Nature to unify and add substantial depth to their novels so, too, has O'Brien. Specifically, a different element of Nature appears in each of the sections of the novel. The novel divides into three distinct parts: the observation post chapters, the recollected history chapters, and the chasing Cacciato chapters. In the observation post chapters, Nature is represented by the sea. In the recollected history chapters, Nature is represented by the land and the fresh water. In the chasing Cacciato chapters, Nature becomes ...
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.... Nevertheless, the defeat by the land provided O'Brien with a refreshingly new revitalization of the traditionally romantic motifs of water and land, while also exploiting the ambiguous nature of war.
Works Cited
Herzog, Tobey C. "Going After Cacciato: The Soldier-Author- Character Seeking Control." Critique 24 (Winter 1983): 88- 96.
McWilliams, Dean. "Time in Tim O'Brien's Going After Cacciato." Critique 29 (Summer 1988): 245-255.
O'Brien, Tim. Going After Cacciato. New York: Delta/Seymour Lawrence, 1978.
Raymond, Michael W. "Imagined Responses to Vietnam: Tim O'Brien's Going After Cacciato. Critique 24 (Winter 1983).
Vannatta, Dennis. "Theme and Structure in Tim O'Brien's Going After Cacciato." Modern Fiction Studies 28 (Summer 1982): 242-246.
Appy’s book is valuable to its readers in showing how Vietnam became the template for every American war since, from novelties like the invasion of Grenada to the seemingly never-ending conflicts post-9/11. But before all that, there was Vietnam, and, larger lessons aside, Appy’s book is a fascinating, insightful, infuriating and thought-provoking study of that conflict, from its earliest days
Lawrence’s purpose in writing this book was concise and to the point. In recent history, due to the fall of the Soviet bloc, new information has been made available for use in Vietnam. As stated in the introduction, “This book aims to take account of this new scholarship in a brief, accessible narrative of the Vietnam War… It places the war within the long flow of Vietnamese history and then captures the goals and experiences of various governments that became deeply embroiled in the country during the second half of the twentieth century” (Lawrence, 3.) This study is not only about the American government and how they were involved in the Vietnam conflict, but highlights other such countries as France, China, and the Soviet Union. Lawrence goes on to say that one of his major goals in writing this book is to examine the American role in Vietnam within an international context (Lawrence, 4.) Again, this goes to show that the major purpose of Lawrence’s study included not only ...
The years 1961 to 1972 saw the American involvement in Vietnam. For a little over ten years, America sent its sons off to fight for an unknown cause in a country they knew little about. When the United States finally pulled out of Southeast Asia, many were left scratching their heads. Over 58,000 young men died without really knowing why. Although it is a work of fiction, Tim O’Brien’s Going After Cacciato expresses the views of those who spent their lives in the jungles of Vietnam.
Academic colleagues like, David Greenburg, would have been exasperated, part from envy of McCullough’s ability in not only story telling but to sell and he would object to the approach of this book. The colleagues would tear at the lack of compelling rationale for an overused topic, as well as the scene setting, and meager analysis.
Fellers, Carla A. "What A Wonderful World": The Rhetoric Of The Official And The Unofficial In Good Morning, Vietnam." War, Literature & The Arts: An International Journal Of The Humanities 17.1/2 (2005): 232-241. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Mar. 2014.
Ricci, Nino. “Nino Ricci: A Big Canvas.” Interview by Mary Rimmer. Studies in Canadian Literature 18.2 (1993)
Anderson, D. (2002). The Columbia guide to the Vietnam War. New York: Columbia University Press.
...he war. This war is not one only fought by weapons but is fought inside the soldier's mind. The minds, which O'Brien creates, reveal the convoluted aspects of war. Going After Cacciato succeeds because the story is written to create a link between the reader and the characters in a familiar, yet fictional world.
Mahatma Gandhi was born October 2nd in 1869. He grew up with the Hindu culture around him because the main religion where he was born was Hinduism. He heard about a religion called the Jain religion, which influenced his thoughts on the world around him. The religion was based around peace and being non violent to living beings and things. After spent lots of his life in Africa working on Indian civil rights. He tried to make things non violent as he believed that people should be non violent. He held the salt march on the 12th of March 1930 with almost 80 people; they marched about 10 miles a day. They did this because the English made it illegal to have salt. This shows Gandhi’s leader ship and how he believed and made things better. Gandhi died on January 30th in 1948 at the age of 78. Many people were sad at his death because he was an important person to many and people such as Martin Luther King Jr. used his concept of non-violence.
Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Joseph Palmisano. Vol.
Stillinger, Jack, Deidre Lynch, Stephen Greenblatt, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume D. New York, N.Y: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print.
“And then one morning, all alone, Mary Anne walked off into the mountains and did not come back” (110). Tim O’Brien’s short story “The Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” presents an all-American girl who has been held back by social and behavioral norms – grasping for an identity she has been deprived the ability to develop. The water of the Song Tra Bong removes Mary Anne’s former notion of being as she, “stopped for a swim” (92). With her roles being erased Mary Anne becomes obsessed with the land and mystery of Vietnam and is allowed to discover herself. Through the lenses of Mark Fossie and the men in the Alpha Company, Mary Anne becomes an animal and is completely unrecognizable by the end of the story. Mary Anne, however, states she is happy and self-aware. The men of the Alpha Company argue for virtue in that Mary Anne was “gone” (107) and that what she was becoming “was dangerous… ready for the kill” (112). They did not want to accept a woman becoming something different from what women always were. In “How Tell to a True War Story” we are told that a true war story “does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior” (65). Mary Anne did not truly become ‘dark’, because to her this is not a story about war; this is a story about a woman attempting to overcome gender roles and the inability of men to accept it.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born to Elizabeth Manning Hathorne and Nathaniel Hathorne, son of an infamous judge responsible for sentencing many young girls to death for witchcraft (Whitney). Because of this, Hawthorne changed his name from Nathaniel Hathorne to Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne found the legacy left by his grandfather and father despicable and changed his name in an effort to distance himself from the name infamous in Salem’s tragic early history (Faculty of European Graduate School). Only four years after Hawthorne’s birth, his father contracted and died of yellow fever. After the loss of the family patriarch, the remaining family moved in with Elizabeth’s brothers. Nathaniel Hawthorne began his attendance at Worcester’s School before being seriously injured. The details surrounding this injury were never chronicled, but it appears that it was during this time Hawthorne acquired his love of reading. After recovering months later, Hawthorne began attending a boarding school in Stroudwater, Maine, in 1818. Nathaniel Hawthorne later returned to his hometown of Salem, Massachusetts, to attend Samuel Archer’s School in order to prepare for college. In 1820, Benjamin Oliver tutored Hawthorne in Salem right before Hawthorne’s admission and attendance at Bowdoin College. Throughout his attendance at Bowdoin College, Hawthorne’s social life often took center stage. Hawthorne became friends with the likes of Henry Wadswor...
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts on July 4, 1804. His father named Nathaniel Hawthorne, Sr. who died in the shipwreck and his mother, Elizabeth Manning Hawthorne, who remained a widow. In 1825, Hawthorne graduated from Bowdoin College and began his career as a writer. He published some volumes of short stories and children’s literature at the Brook Farn community for the next 10 years. On July 9, 1842, he married Sophia Peabody and moved to Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts where they lived for approximately four years (Werlock).
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts on July 4, 1804 to Nathaniel Hathorne and Elizabeth Clarke Manning. Hawthorne’s father was a sea captain and died of yellow fever in 1808 when Nathaniel was only four years old. After the death of his father, his mother, two sisters, and he moved in with his mother’s relatives, the Manning’s, and lived there for ten years. Hawthorne discovered journals that his father had written as a sailor over the years, showing an immediate interest which inspired him to become a writer. In 1821, Hawthorne started college at Bowdoin College with the financial support of his uncle, Robert Manning. He was elected Phi Beta Kappa in 1824, graduated in 1825, and published his first work, a novel called “Fanshawe” in 1828. Shortly after graduating, Hawthorne added the “w” to his last name in order to hide his relation to one of his ancestors, John Hathorne, one of the only judges involved in the Salem witch trials and never repented of his actions.