I want a Ford Raptor!

So I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day! I sure did :) Well writing this blog means that the weekend is officially over, so that is why I'm having a hard time sitting down and actually writing it! But here I go...I guess I'll give it a try now.


The article that Jim Neilson write about The Things They Carried gave me a whole new understanding on how to look at this book. Neilson provides clear examples for why O'Brien takes his different approach to telling made up war stories is a great way to explain the conditions and trials that the soldiers go through during the war. After reading this article I now realize how effective this method is, because I now know why he is writing in such a way. Neilson says that even with O'Brien writing this way, he "has been faithful both to Vietnam and to the stories told about it".
The stories are then told to only cope with what he went through in Vietnam and "like many veterans, [O'Brien's] effort to make sense of war-time experience and memory is a continuing struggle. These are burdens O'Brien will forever carry."
O'Brien takes these burdens he has left from the war and brings it back to a "more" normal world to share his experiences with people that do not know exactly what he went through.He is then left to discover what truth really is and if the war stories are real or just something to tell people so it is out of his system, but a re-happening begins and he relives the moments and tries to piece himself back together with these stories. I believe that veterans are one big discourse in the postmodern world. It is "discourse of postmodernism [that] is replete with a radical-sounding rhetoric concerned with opposing tyranny and giving voice to the marginal and the oppressed." Their world is the psyche mind pulling itself back together, figuring out what really happened and what is the truth of the matter. They pick up the pieces. Moreover, then there was the discourse of historical texts making the war seem that "Most revised in the recent historical record has been how horribly destructive the war was for the Vietnamese," when in reality it was just as bad as the Americans that had fought in it. In conclusion, the ideas and insight that were put into the article gave me a greater understanding of the book. Goodnight!

Its way too early :/

Well this discussion in class on Friday helped clarify a majority of my questions. I would have to say that I have enjoyed reading these short stories far more than I have enjoyed reading the bizarre books that take you into another dimension or world. Well as for a main theme in this new book I could have to say and idea that stuck out to me from our class discussion was silence. Which a few of you might be thinking I’m crazy for saying this only because this book is focused on a war and we all know wars are far from quiet, but still I believe that is a central theme. An example is when in the author writes “[he] was a coward. [He] went to the war” (61). Although this theme does not jump out and bite you, it is still there. That quote ties into silence because it shows how he acts as a coward. He did not have the courage to stand up for himself and say that he did not want to fight in the war. Instead he just went along with the plan and remained silent. Another theme I see is truth. In the beginning of the book I read a quote that went, “This book is essentially different…Those who have had any such experience as the author will see truthfulness at once, and to all other readers it is commended as a statement of actual things by one who experienced them to the fullest". This means, that the entire book is being written from the authors perspective and although these stories seem far-fetched and unreasonable, we must remember that we were not there and these are written from the perspective of somebody who was. Well that’s all for now! Byeeeee 