Tim O’Brien Blog #2

Response to “The Things They Carried”

He had to let her go,

He had to live.

Burned in a foxhole,

Martha’s letter lie.

She belonged to another world,

Far beyond his own.

She did not love him,

Signed letters Love Martha.

His love was too much for him,

He felt like he couldn’t move, he wanted to sleep inside her

He wanted to know her.

Her eyes grey and neutral,

Not of flies or swollen black and bruised.

They were not love letters,

This was not Mt. Sebastian,

It was a world where men died from carelessness.

Without negligence and guilt,

He carried his men.

He had to let her go,

He had to live.

http://fazzino.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/loveletterje8.jpg

http://fazzino.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/loveletterje8.jpg

http://www.illyria.com/tob/images/tob.jpg

In Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried, is a chapter called On the Rainy River. It was the summer if 1968 and Tim was working in a pig slaughter house in his hometown of Worthington, Minnesota. That summer he received his draft notice and new that he had to get away. He had to find somewhere to run to, Canada. Tim drove north until he landed at an old fishing lodge. There he spent night and day with a man he hardly knew. There at the lake he began to understand. There he knew he couldn’t run anymore. He knew that he would have to answer that letter.

My analysis of this story is that Tim O’Brien is very insecure and cannot make his own decisions. He was bossed around from his father all his life. As he grew into a young man he wasn’t sure what direction to take. “At dinner that night my father asked what my plans were nothing” (O’Brien 49). Tim was a lost young boy: In the evening I’d sometimes borrow my father’s car and drive aimlessly around town, feeling sorry for myself, thinking about the war and the pig factory and how my life seemed to be collapsing toward slaughter (O’Brien 41).

Works Cited

O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. Boston New York: Mariner Books, 1990. Print

HAMILL

This short story was very moving and powerful. I felt the passion that Sam Hamill felt

regarding the war, broken women, and the abusers. How true is the fact that abuse and death

happens all to often and it is silent. Our silence contributes to shame..misery..and deaths of

millions of unborn children”(Hamill 550). Our silence. That is a very strong idea. 4 or 5

generations ago, silence was the norm. What I mean is, mothers didn't talk about “that stuff”

with their daughters. Fathers would only nod to their sons'. Getting married was what you were

supposed to do. My mother was brought up to not speak up, not to question. There were 4

sisters in my moms house growing up. I am not sure how many are happy today.

No silence. No more. We are to speak up against attacks and attackers. Don't let them get

away. The prison is filled with men from back grounds in abuse. Beatings. Rapes. So that means

the abuse happened to their fathers and mothers and theirs before them. Why? Why does it

continue? To break the cycle. When will it stop. Is it possible? Men grow up and go into war for

their country. So, what if the men that go into war, were raised without violence in the home.

Would that make him any less stronger, tougher, able to kill? Could it be that violence is with

every creature on this planet? Lion cubs, they bite and tackle their brothers. Is that violence in

the home?We as human beings have a responsibility to one another. But I think that we don't

want to over step our bounds. To care for a stranger. To help an elderly woman to put groceries

in her car. Would it be to much if we drive her to her house? I think that trust and mistrust has

left us to not help on another, to be silent. Has media contributed to our idea of how we aren't

supposed to be towards another. Sam Hamill has made a great discussion. His story along with

“Song of Napalm” by Bruce Weigl has war woven in them. In Bruce's story a young girl runs

down her dirt street, flesh from her young body drips off her. The war had happened. Napalm

bomb. In Sam Hamill's story he discuss how bombs are 180,000 stronger than the one that hurt

the young girl in“Song of Napalm”.

I will reread this story of Sam Hamill, to remind myself of how tender we really are. To

remind myself of reality. Or do I just need to watch my local news?

Sam Hamill : The Poetry Foundation : Find Poems and Poets. Discover Poetry.

Sam Hamill : The Poetry Foundation : Find Poems and Poets. Discover Poetry.

Bruce Weigl, Untitled poem for father

Sharon Olds Biography

Sharon Olds Biography

Tales From Neither Here Nor There

Tales From Neither Here Nor There

The Beckoning

The Beckoning

Free eBook Yes You! Yes Now!

San Luis Obispo News - Topix

San Luis Obispo News - Topix

Response to the Norton Reader

My response to the Norton Reader

Nabokov thinks that a good reader should have imagination, memory, a dictionary, and some artistic sense. I believe that. I think an imagination ties a reader to the book. To imagine the black shirt, to feel the hot wind brush by your cheek, and to “hear” the voice while reading a story. “The mind, the brain, the top of the tingling spine, is, or should be the only instrument used upon a book.”

Some books are forgotten some are not. I need to immerse myself in a story to remember the plot, character, or even the title. “A situation in a book is intensely felt because it reminds us of something that happened to us or to someone we know or knew.” To relate to a story is something even more powerful. The author and the reader are on the trail, sort of speaking.

I believe that I am good reader.

this is brand new for me just checking 1.2.