Kelly

Hi everyone,

This is going to be random and all over the place. and messy.

- also, the juxtaposition of different chapters... enemies followed by friends...
 * Titles**: the titles are sometimes misleading/ironic... For example the chapter called Enemies... it might lead a reader to think that it would be about the VietCong... but it's really about the friends who turn to enemies, then friends again. What does that message symbolize? What does it mean that they are fighting about something so silly? How does this show O'Brien's opinion of the Vietnam War on a small scale? This could perhaps be discussed by having the students do a jigsaw/group thing... each group could take a different chapter and discuss the implications of the title's meaning, the move around the room and share their findings with others.


 * Lists:** He lists a lot, especially in the first chapter. Like we talked about before, students could make their own lists. This might be interesting to do at the beginning and at the end? Or maybe not. Also, when they read that chapter, it's good to point out his mixture of things that are expected (pocket knives, mosquito repellent) and things that are unexpected (few carried underwear, grandmother's distrust of the white man).

- another foreshadowing on 53 for me was the description of his memories of the days at the pig plant... i think it foreshadows what he will see at war, as well as the ptsd that will be with him after the war... the visions he can't get out of his mind.
 * Foreshadowing:** Some of it is direct, some of it isn't. In the first chapter, he keeps repeating "Until Ted Lavender was shot." What is the effect of this? (I think it is because he is constantly reminding readers that this is war, people die.


 * Repitition:** he crosses chapters with repetition of everything like "foggy and hot" to specific descriptions of dead bodies..... or dying ones... Talk about how this changes the feeling of the story....... how it mimics the vietnam experience, the same thing over and over again... The whole "ambush" chapter is a repetition from a slightly different perspective of "the man i killed"


 * Activity:** 'The Man I Killed'--O'Brien stares at the man that he shot and makes comparisons between what the man looks like now and makes up his background story... sometimes people say that creating a fantasy or story makes dealing with harsh realities easier... for him it makes dealing with reality more difficult. Maybe the students could do a writing assignment where they each get a picture of a person and they write their background story kind of like O'Brien did. Maybe they could actually pretend that they were soldiers and found this person dead... I know it sounds kind of gruesome but I think it might be cool to get the students really deep into the character for the book.


 * Random Idea:** There are so many interesting charcters in this book... we could pull a Jago and have the students compare themselves to characters in the book.


 * Obsession**: I'm OBSESSED with Maryann. I'm not sure what we can do with her. that chapter was made into a movie... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0129414/


 * Idea**: In the chapter called 'Friends' on pg 80 I really like this part... "War is hell, but that's not the half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love. War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery. War makes you a man; war makes you dead." I think that this could be a short writing activity........ Student could try to mimic O'Brien's style... the could choose something and describe it the way he does. Kinda like Townsend once had students mimic that Wallace Stevens' 13 ways of describing a blackbird? HMM IDEA: maybe the culminating experience could be a portfolio? eh, maybe not. Anyhow, the students would be able to play with this and perhaps use it later in their future writing. It opens their minds to a different way of describing.

-- Also... "A true war story is never moral It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If a story seems moreal, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of an old and terrible lie." Also..... p. 19. when it switches to how they carried themselves... not what they carried. the end of the page, "dense, oppressive sunlight." --- Also... p.147 "A pity that Max was gone. And a pity about his father, who had his own war and who now preferred silence." --- 157... "Telling stories seemed a natrual, inevitable process, like clearing the throat. Imagery: The beautiful death of Curt Lemon.
 * Favorite thing:** "You can tell a true war story by the way it never seems to end." I like this. This is something we should talk about. ---

---Specifically addresses issue of truth in the Notes chapter... "You pin down certain truths. You make up others. You start sometimes with an incident that truly happened, like the night in the shit field, and you carry it forward by inventing incidents that dd not in fact occur but that nonetheless help to clarify and explain." IDEA: students could play with this by taking a story that perhaps they've already written that was true, then add different details and events that didn't occur to strengthen the human truth of the story. O'Brien takes Norman Bowker's story and adds in his own twist (the silver star).
 * Credibility of the author**... the validity of the stories... This could be something where students discuss... does it really matter? When he says "this is true" on p 67, it made me feel like it isn't. what does that mean?


 * Idea**: p. 58-59... when O'Brien is picturing all of those people in his vision before he decides not to dodge the draft. This is another possibly morbid activity that students could try to imitate... or maybe just study the connotations of the different characters he sees...


 * Perspective:** In the field is a good chapter to talk about perspective... we have what we know already about kiowa, then we have lt cross and the other soldiers... also the lietenants perspective on the war in general.


 * word choice**: the word "certain" on 40... certain blood was shed for uncertain reasons.

Use of **Fragments** to establish voice, conversational almost.... (p 35, and many others)


 * Themes/motifs** time and shit. peppered throughout but culminates in the Courage chapter...

things are always slipping and sliding... mary ann chapter..... and the courage chapter...

---p.156, interesting... who wants parades? he's not a whiner-vet... patriotic idiots. hmm. the specific quotes from bowker's letters make this so real. possibly the most real chapter. but is it his real name? it's this weird confusion where things are almost real. --- p.160. it's better to add to the truth then leave it out. he hung himself.
 * Notes-**- my heart sunk when i read that Norman Bowker hung himself... his story finally was heard, even though he had no one to tell it to... "problem of finding a meaningful use for his life after the war"-I think this is a time when we could talk about the number of veterans who commit suicide, become depressed, or become homeless? compare it to their real life (especially in gainesville where there are tons of homeless vets roaming around)... nothing makes sense or is tangible after being at war.

http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/8200000/Tim-O-Brien-In-Vietnam-tim-obrien-8236081-289-290.jpg
 * photo of tim o'brien at war** http://poetrydispatch.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/tim.jpg


 * Here's a website with original letters from vietnam**... this would be so interesting to me as a student. http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/educators/we.pdf


 * Iraq connection**--this is a TIME magazine photo story about the things iraq soldiers carry http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1558328,00.html


 * IDEA** - maybe they could make a trailer for the book? here's one some students made: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VnoBL_c2NQ&feature=fvsr

---it might be good to do a jago thing and have different groups of students meet and watch movies about the vietnam war and then present to the class the comparison and contrast b/w the book and the movie
 * a list of films about the war:** http://www0.epinions.com/content_4682653828


 * Tim Obrien interviewed:** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG3L0DMeTsE


 * News footage:** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDy0Z3HSkTE


 * short interview with eddie adams, photgrapher of the famous image of Saigon execution photo.** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv11KilBpHQ&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBdeCxJmcAo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev2dEqrN4i0

http://theologyforum.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/nic-utvietnam-napalm.jpg http://img453.imageshack.us/i/vietnamwarke6.jpg/ http://neoskosmos.com/news/sites/default/files/vietnam_war3.jpg http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/vietnam-photos/images/op-yellowstone.gif http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/vietnam-photos/images/op-yellowstone.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/vietnam-photos/&usg=__N08yXDoB7vBgu5Q7KSnSuFSZYJA=&h=600&w=600&sz=224&hl=en&start=88&um=1&tbnid=8zOXw4c3gfpjPM:&tbnh=135&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dvietnam%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN%26start%3D72%26um%3D1 http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http:__//www.archives.gov/education/lessons/vietnam-photos/images/op-yellowstone.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/vietnam-photos/&usg=N08yXDoB7vBgu5Q7KSnSuFSZYJA=&h=600&w=600&sz=224&hl=en&start=88&um=1&tbnid=8zOXw4c3gfpjPM:&tbnh=135&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dvietnam%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN%26start%3D72%26um%3D1 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Vietnam_War_Protest_in_DC,_1967.gif

maybe a clip from the movie Rescue Dawn to show the scenery?

this is a project that another teacher had students do about things they carried... http://www.youtube.com/user/RugbyThrilla#p/u/9/gOOYFTnRnGc i'm not sure what the requirements were but we could do something like that maybe?