I first heard of Tim O'Brien when some of my friends were required to read his novel The Things They Carried for an honors English class their Junior year. I remember the two of them came in homeroom fake-crying, but in a sympathetic way, about a guy shooting a water buffalo multiple times. The buffalo didn't give up. This sounded interesting to me. The book takes place in the Vietnam War. I have always been interested in wars. Both of my grandfathers had fought in wars; The Vietnam War is the only war that no relatives of mine have participated in (that I know of). Mrs. Byma specifically told me that Tim O'Brien is one of the most well known authors that writes about the Vietnam War, so I decided to pick him for my author study.
I'm interested in knowing about a lot of things that go on in Tim's lifestyle, especially after all the horror he and many other men (and women) went through. The Things They Carried talks about his life too. He constantly talks about how it is easy to make a fake war story seem true. Tim often lies in his books, changes the names of characters, and often switches events that happened to a specific person so that they happen to another. It really gave me a new view on war as a whole. There are common stories where people have P.T.S.D. from the horrors of watching people die. The Things They Carried goes more in depth. It talked about how the jungle almost consumed their souls, and that in a way they remained in the bush. He really put a superstitious taste in that novel, which really intrigued me. I just started another one of his novels Going After Cacciato, and I can't wait to crack down on the story that awaits.
I'm sitting here in class trying to think of a character that I connected with. The only person I can think of is Rat Kiley in "The Things They Carried". Rat Kiley is very young, like the majority of men who fought in the Vietnam War. Rat is known for his story telling. Tim O'Brien explains how his story telling was so convincing that half the time everyone didn't know if Rat was telling the truth or not. He tells the stories of how Mary Anne came over to see her boyfriend (a fellow soldier) and that she was lost in the woods; she was present, but her soul was gone in the jungle. He also told stories about 6 F.O.s going to the top of a mountain for a few days to spot any enemy movement, weapon caches, etc. The men grew crazy after being up on that mountain for awhile. They were paranoid, and heard weird sounds like ball-room dancing music and rich parties... in the middle of a jungle... They called in a large amount of artillery for nothing.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if I connect to Rat Kiley. He is just the most interesting character in my opinion. He lies to keep people interested. They aren't necessarily bad lies. It isn't like he's cheating on his partner and lying about it, he's making up stories, and telling true stories. Part of the reason I find him interesting is I can't tell which stories are real or true. When his best friend was blown up, all guts in a tree above, he lost it. Rat took his anger out by shooting a water buffalo to death. He was that angry. I find it fascinating that Rat offered the water buffalo food before killing it. It was almost as if he was offering the water buffalo a last meal.
Rat is significant to the story because he is the medic. He saves so many people at least once, sometimes twice or more. He has to deal with people relying on him to keep them alive. Rat has to move quickly and with a determined mind set. He can't mess up. He is always surrounded by death. He couldn't take it anymore so he shot himself in the foot to get away from the war. I can't imagine the horror someone such as himself could have seen, and that's why I find his character the most interesting.
I recently began reading another one of Tim O'Brien's pieces of work. It's titled In the Lake of the Woods. Although the title seem very bland and cliché, the writing placed in it is very in depth. It's scary how real his writing is. Tim O'Brien is the first author I've read that I can not only relate to, but can make sense regardless what he is attempting to tell his entire reading audience.
ReplyDeleteHis works are focused on the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War was the first war in American History in which soldiers were treated like dirt due to the American public being highly non supportive of the war. O'Brien talks about the horrors of the war during, and after it. In the Lake of the Woods is about a Vietnam veteran and his wife taking a much needed vacation. Wade, the main character severely lost an election for Senator. His marriage is failing. As he and his wife are vacationing, his wife becomes missing.
The story has press statements on certain relatives and friends of both Wade and his wife, along with little pieces of evidence. I'm unsure if he committed a crime upon his wife or not, and the fact of me not knowing keeps me interested in the book.
Tim O'Brien has a various amount of writing styles. His styles include but are not limited to darkness, abrupt and emphasized sentences, and realism. He uses description only when it is needed. He gives enough detail to paint a picture in his own words, but leaves enough out to let the reader make a sense of what's happening on their own. He is careful with his word choice. Personally I did not know what a handful of words were defined as, so I had to look them up to understand what was going on in the story. His writing style contains a lot of fragments. This includes a lot of one-word sentences, repetition of the same words, etc. In "The Things They Carried", O'Brien jumps around a lot. Each chapter focuses on a different group (or singular) soldier[s]. In "In the Lake of the Woods", there is a few chapters on the actual story of the missing victim. Every so often O'Brien takes a break from the story and gives evidence on the fake case. He even quoted some of the hearings of the My Lai incident. It always feels like someone is talking in "The Things They Carried" because it is written in first person; also considering the fact that there are a lot of men in a platoon (Vietnam War). There is a decent amount of talking in "In the Lake of the Woods" too, especially during the evidence and interviews of people that knew the victim and the accused.
ReplyDeleteTim O'Brien's writing style is the way it is due to his real life experiences in the Vietnam War. He actually fought against Communism during the 60's and 70's. He tends to lie in his stories a lot. He explains how any war story can seem real, and how the majority of "real life war stories" that are made public are false and made up. Half of his stories in "The Things They Carried" were fake. The ones that seemed darkest and had no hope tended to be the real ones. The stories that showed even a hint of hope or love were fake. His dark styles of writing most likely came from his horrific experiences in Southeast Asia as a soldier for the United States military. "In the Lake of the Woods" is also a very dark book. The main character is a boy who was never accepted by his father, loved making things disappear (magician) and always felt the need to impress others. This drove his marriage into the ground. The majority of the book seems to hide so much of what is actually happening, which personally kept me intrigued the whole way through. Tim O'Brien is easily my favorite author. I am very interested in the topics of war and the aftermath that it brings to the people it affected in the first place. Darker kinds of stories keep me the most interested, and that's exactly what Tim O'Brien puts down on paper.
I plan on going pretty creative with my visual. I plan on having a backpack with 2-D cut outs of items that the soldiers actually carried in the novel. In the back I would write a lie that Tim O'Brien wrote about in either of the books I've read by him. I thought this would be informal and creative at the same time. Plus, I don't think anyone has done anything similar to this idea before.
ReplyDeleteThis will be good for the audience because my first question for Tim O'Brien was to ask him why he told fake stories / lied / had characters who were fake / who lied in his books. I love drawing, so I could draw the actual item on the flip side of the lie written in the cutout.
The author study project was a fairly simple and easy project that helped my determination to read more. I never have been fond of reading on my own; I normally only read the books that I'm forced to in class. Hearing about Tim O'Brien got me intrigued to read. I was actually excited and anxious to pick up one of his books. It got a little hard to find time to read with my AP exam getting in the way. Blogger helped me communicate with others. I'm not sure if any one reads my posts, but the fact that someone can is pretty neat. I can share my thoughts and opinions on anything I'd like.
ReplyDeleteResearching about my author after reading more than one work of his was valuable to me. I was able to read two different types of his works before I went to learn about him. I noticed a theme between the two books I read, and was able to come up with a synopsis on what type of writer he was. I was able to use the skills I've learned throughout the year to help me learn more about my other and the books I read by said author.