History has shaped every country and their people, in particular negative experiences like the Holocaust in Nazi-Germany or the Vietnam war, involving the United States in a grueling controversy from 1964 until 1975. The author Tim O'Brian confronts an American audience in his short stories "The Things They Carried" with the inhumane consequences of political and military power decisions by rewriting history from a subjective,individual point of view. Thus he forces the audience to take a stand, to ask questions, to get morally and ethically involved.
The narrative structure of the "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" and "How to Tell a True War Story" contains two levels, the first on being a discourse about the characters of Vietnam stories. The "I", the narrator, introduces 'Rat' Kiley as his source for the narrative that follows. He characterizes stories about war as "strange", "swirling back and forth across the border between trivia and bedlam, the mad and mundane". The stories have a life of their own, reality is not absolute, not final. With this image he describes the ambiguity of war itself, the normality that turns into insanity, he summarizes the narrative about Mary Ann Bell and her experiences with the war. The narrator clearly states the purposes of these stories, he is not interested in factual truths about the war, he openly questions the reliability of his source: "Rat had a reputation for exaggeration and overstatement". He wants the audience to "feel exactly what he felt", an emotional experience, a subjective approach.
The second narrative level tells the story about Mary Ann Bell, the "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong". The narrator, probably the author, retells Rat's story in his own words, so that t...
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...ositive as well as its negative accomplishments. But how is this to be done, how do we deal with history personally and politically? Ths author Tim O'Brian gives us one answer in "How to Tell a True War Story" on page 69: "You can tell a true war story if it embarrasses you. It you don't care for obscenity, you don't care for the truth; if you don't care for the truth, watch how you vote. Send guys to war, they come home talking dirty". In other words if you don't want war watch how you vote. The connotation of this statement is far reaching, it naturally places responsibility on the American government for having participated in the war, but it foremost appeals to the american public to take responsibility and to use this history, this story to create a better future.
Works Cited:
O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried.New York: Penguin Books USA Inc., 1990.
‘Fire in a canebrake’ is quite a scorcher by Laura Wexler and which focuses on the last mass lynching which occurred in the American Deep South, the one in the heartland of rural Georgia, precisely Walton County, Georgia on 25th July, 1946, less than a year after the Second World War. Wexler narrates the story of the four black sharecroppers who met their end ‘at the hand of person’s unknown’ when an undisclosed number of white men simply shot the blacks to death. The author concentrates on the way the evidence was collected in those eerie post war times and how the FBI was actually involved in the case, but how nothing came of their extensive investigations.
Weitzer, Ronald. "Prostitution: Facts and Fiction." Gwu.edu. George Washington University, 2007. Web. 08 Apr. 2014.
Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji in the Punjab area, now Pakistan, founded the Sikh faith. He began preaching the way to enlightenment and God after receiving a vision. After his death a series of nine Gurus (regarded as reincarnations of Guru Nanak) led the movement until 1708. At this time these functions passed to the Panth and the holy text. The tenth Guru, Gobind Singh, compiled this text, the Shri Guru Granth Sahib. It consists of hymns and writings of the first 10 Gurus, along with texts from different Muslim and Hindu saints. The holy text is considered the 11th and final Guru.
...see the water and agricultural projects. Source 10 (46) tells of a man who traveled inspecting water usage and helping to build irrigation methods. Rulers, such as Frontinus, as shown in Source 11 (46) had to make laws about water usage. Source 7 (44) shows an entire section of Hammurabi’s code dedicated to what should happen to a man if he does not properly canal or acts in an unjust manner with water usage. Not only did water affect technological developments and the economy, it also brought forth new areas in politics and laws.
When we hears the term Viking an immediate image of bloodthirsty men with long beards and horned helmets is conjured up in our minds. This is the image the historical sources have given us, and it is partly true. Vikings were merciless when raiding, but they were peaceful when they traded. Their navigational technology was exceptional, and the ones who settled in foreign lands contributed greatly to the lands’ culture.
O’Brien, Tim. “How to Tell a True War Story.” The Things They Carried. Boston and New York: Mariner Books, 2009. 64-81. Print.
...Leòn serves both as an artistic stroke and an underlining of the stories message. The tale of Ponce de Leòn's futile search for the fountain of youth is well known, and this allusion hammers down the nail of pain and loss that alcoholism has brought Merrill.
Dental assistant mostly experience right-sided neck and shoulder pain, also hand and finger pain that is worst in the first and second fingers. If it doesn’t get taken care of immediately, this pain could lead to muscle imbalances, ischemia, nerve compression, or disc degeneration. Structures in the musculoskeletal system can be affected by long-term wear and tear.
O’Brien, Tim. “How to Tell a True War Story.” The Things They Carried. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990. Print.
The books we read in Creative Writing are Slaughterhouse-Five and The Things They Carried. Slaughterhouse-Five was written by Kurt Vonnegut in 1969 and The Things They Carried was written by Tim O’Brien in 1990. The Things They Carried and Slaughterhouse-Five are two examples of anti-war literature. Slaughterhouse-Five is a story describing the time traveling between periods of time in Billie’s life. Billie is an American prisoner in the Dresden, Germany. The Things They Carried is a journal of the events that occurred in the Vietnam War that the author writes from the Alpha Company. These two stories are similar and different in their description of the horrors of war. They are classic anti-war books. The two books are successful in blending fiction and nonfiction items to demonstrate dreamlike and unbelievable descriptions that give a complete picture of war.
Like millions of Americans or hundreds them that never really enjoy a poem I’m definitely one of them. There is so much anger in this poem that it quickly grabs my attention and pulled me into his world. I have never knew that such a poem could express such a strong emotion on paper, and even though, I don’t consider myself a communist lover I can clearly understand why he might have been one. His world was clearly different from mine and through his words I was able to feel his pain and suffering because of it. For people that never consider reading a poem they should give it a try because one’s never know what they will find.
O’Brien, Tim. “How To Tell a True War Story.” The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: Bedford St. Martins, 2003. p. 420-429.
The truth to any war does not lie in the depths of storytelling but rather it’s embedded in every person involved. According to O’Brien, “A true war story does not depend on that kind of truth. Absolute occurrence is irrelevant. A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than the truth” (pg. 80). Truths of any war story in my own opinion cannot be fully conveyed or explained through the use of words. Any and all war stories provide specific or certain facts about war but each of them do not and cannot allow the audience to fully grasp the tru...
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien tells war stories, from different perspectives, of soldiers during the Vietnam War. Many of these heart-wrenching stories are true but provide no value to society as a whole. Yes they allow soldiers to tell their story, but all that story is is a reminder of how awful the war was. Instead of reading about what has been done wrong, we should be reading about what we can do better. That’s why stories about what the world should be like provide more value to the reader than factual books do. Next time there is a war brewing, instead of hearing about how bad the last one was, or what we did wrong there, let’s read about what we should try to do in this situation, and how we want society to evolve as a result. Arguing that real stories provide context for how we went wrong in one scenario is pointless. The things leading up to an event will never be the same as a previous time so they provide no real insight as to what to do in the present. Although historically accurate books may provide some value to historical gurus, they have no added value for a society that is dynamic and
...n process is very important for an organization to hire new members, as employees need to select the right person to do the right job. Therefore, employees need to read through applicant’s document and qualifications, hence organize an interview to be more close with the applicant, to know more about the applicants, see if they are suitable for the job position. Selection process can help the employees not to make wrong decisions, this is a good opportunities to assess skills, aptitude and abilities. (John, 2007)