1. This is one of my favorites because it brought alot to my attention at the beginning of the semester that I didn't even think about previously. Of course I absoulutly love the picture. It'a my son reading to his younger cousin. Nabokov also had some very good ideas. Here is the link to Good readers and writers.
http://roomforsix.blogspot.com/2011/01/good-readers-and-writers.html
2. This is another one of my favorites. I really liked the book of Tim O'Brien's. This was also a great story he wrote. "On the Rainy River" is the next one. Take a look on this link if you would like.
http://roomforsix.blogspot.com/2011/02/on-rainy-river.html
3. Lastly is "The Sandstorm." I chose this one because it was a touching story. I have never really paid much mind to what went on during the time of war. History, for some reason, is a hard thing for me to keep straight. All the different stories I here make no connection in my brain to which battle they belong to. Here is the link for that one:
http://roomforsix.blogspot.com/2011/03/sand-storm.html
Monday, May 2, 2011
Sunday, May 1, 2011
A "live" essay
War Changes Men
War can change men’s personality in many ways. Some men don’t get affected by much and there are some that are so affected that their personalities change forever. The way men may act during war can be completely opposite of who the really are. There are many similarities between Bob Kiley, known to his buddies as “Rat” and Lance Cpl. Casey Dodd, who is a character from a play written by Sean Huze. Rat is a character from one of Tim O’Brien’s books. While fighting for our freedom, even the softest hearted men have to be as strong as they can be to survive the war, physically and mentally.
First of all, Rat Kiley is a soft hearted man, but in order to fulfill his promise to the government, he has to act as tough as nails to make it back home. Rat is such a sensitive young nineteen year old that has gone off to war. He writes a letter to Curt Lemon’s sister telling her of what a great brother Lemon was. Rat just witnessed his brutal death. The death of Lemon had affected Rat dramatically. One of Rat’s buddies stated a few lines of what’s written in the letter, “It’s a terrific letter, very personal and touching. Rat almost bawls writing it. And the letter gets very sad and serious. Rat pours his heart out. He says he loves the guy” (O’Brien 64-65). Now here 
we can all see he is soft hearted, deep down. Rat waits months for a reply from the sister of his best friend, Curt Lemon, and a letter never returns back to him. He is deeply hurt by this and says, “The dumb cooze never writes back. Then he spits and stares. He looks at you with those big sad gentle killer eyes and says cooze” (O’Brien 65). This rejection is hard for him too. After the death of his best friend, he goes crazy and Rat takes his anger out on a baby water buffalo. He tortures the buffalo and shoots it many times before it dies. This shooting was
not to kill, but to hurt the baby buffalo. Huze states, “He bent forward and whispered something, as if talking to a pet, then shot it in the throat. Rat Kiley was crying” (Huze 75-76). Here it is obvious that this is not really Rat. It’s Rat at war. Going to war and seeing many deaths of fellow soldiers can be mentally challenging for soldiers.
we can all see he is soft hearted, deep down. Rat waits months for a reply from the sister of his best friend, Curt Lemon, and a letter never returns back to him. He is deeply hurt by this and says, “The dumb cooze never writes back. Then he spits and stares. He looks at you with those big sad gentle killer eyes and says cooze” (O’Brien 65). This rejection is hard for him too. After the death of his best friend, he goes crazy and Rat takes his anger out on a baby water buffalo. He tortures the buffalo and shoots it many times before it dies. This shooting was not to kill, but to hurt the baby buffalo. Huze states, “He bent forward and whispered something, as if talking to a pet, then shot it in the throat. Rat Kiley was crying” (Huze 75-76). Here it is obvious that this is not really Rat. It’s Rat at war. Going to war and seeing many deaths of fellow soldiers can be mentally challenging for soldiers. Lance Cpl. Casey Dodd is very similar in many ways to Rat. They are both soft hearted and sensitive. They also act very tough and aggressive. Dodd uses very vulgar language! He is a twenty-two year old Teflon kid looking for “new experiences” (Huze 2) in life. During war there is fighting and death. Dodd states, “Nothing over there seemed to follow me you know. Then that damned kid kept popping out in my mind. What did he do to deserve to die that day? It’s gotta be wrong for that child, that fucking baby to die!” (Huze 3) Here Dodd is showing he does get affected by what is happening around him, especially if he thinks it is wrong. The image of the kid will never leave him. Dodd is very hardened to what is happening around him during war. He also has craziness about him too. Dodd says, “I took pictures of the dead hajjis. Hell if I could shoot ‘em with my M-16 I guess it’s no big deal to shoot ‘em with a camera too (Huze 3). Dodd is there to fight and survive with the rest of the soldiers. 
Soldiers have to witness many horrific scenes. This alone can affect the way they act in certain situations. Some soldiers may turn to different drugs and/or alcohol to keep their minds going back into the past to what they have seen. Others may change to be reserved and quiet men and/or women. There are many with some kind of post-traumatic stress disorder that has thought there life isn’t worth living anymore and committed suicide some way or another. This wording from Huze’s book is great and should be written another time, “War is hell, but that’s not 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. But in truth war is also beauty” (O’Brien 76-77). In order to survive war, soldiers have to be strong both mentally and physically.
Works Cited
Huze, Sean. The Sand Storm. New York, NY: Susan Schulman Literary Agency, 2004. 4-5. Print.
O’Brien, Tim. “The Things They Carried.” New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1990. Print.
Here's a few links worth checking out:
1. http://www.vietnampix.com/intro.htm
2. Another book worth checking into is Writing Vietnam, Writing Life by Tim O'Brien. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Writing-Vietnam-Writing-Life/Tobey-C-Herzog/e/9781587296314
3. Here's all about the book. www.sparknotes.com/lit/thingscarried/2. Another book worth checking into is Writing Vietnam, Writing Life by Tim O'Brien. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Writing-Vietnam-Writing-Life/Tobey-C-Herzog/e/9781587296314
4. An interesting article on the minds of Vietnam soldiers; http://www.socialistappeal.org/usa/hearts_and_minds.html
5. And another one;http://www.americanwarlibrary.com/a44/pc18.htm
Pictures:
http://www.wbur.org/npr/127133594, http://www.bing.com/images/search, http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=238188,http://www.bing.com/images/search?, http://vietnam68-69.com/war-buddies/http://www.bing.com/images/search
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