The Things They Carried: Blog Prompt #3

1. This says that people at war have to adjust to their surroundings and basically create their own reality at war thats seperate from their world outside of war. I think that the war helps the soldiers bond together more and they strive for things to talk about and so they go on deeper levels of friendships. I think its more so then if they werent at war. Because the time they are together, any minute the person next to them could die. like for instance when Ted Died he made an impression on the guys before so that he would be remembered.
2. Mary Anne Bell was the chick that ended up taking part in the war by being a nurse. She was at first Fossies lover and then she turned on him because she loved the war more so. Obrien was trying to show us how the war can change people drastically. He made this character to be like this because she was an example for many other people who changed during the war.

3. Well the way Obrien presents the story is from his memory and not all of it is axactly true because its a long time to remeber all of it. I think it adds to the story and mnakes it more interesting cause its coming from someone who was actually in the war so his mind is veteran. I dont think it distracts from the story because for the most part hes being honest and trying to add the emotion to it as well. It adds to the story quite well and makes it more interesting by the way he makes it out.

The Things They Carried Prompt #2

In the book "things they carried" the other "things" that O'brien talks about is all the soldiers future, legacys, and burdens that they are carrying. Jimmy Cross carries his burden of his possible future girlfriend when he gets back and only has a picture of her to meditate on. He really wants to tie her to a bed and touch her knee, weird.

The character i choose to talk about is Ted Lavendaer becasue he is talked about alot. For one he died early in the book and everyone describes how he died. He tranquilized himself, went for a piss, and then got shot. "fell like a sack of bricks"they say.

They all talk about Vietnam and how all these things relate to the war, both politicaly and personally. They go behind the scenes and describe in depth about the war. all the stories are different and they really are just "stories".

The Great Gatsby

Throughout The Great Gatsby there has been several things that the author put in the book that people could apply and relate to their own life. One of those things that i got out of the book was that drinking is very bad and effects people's attitude and perspectives. Gatsby was involved with bootlegging and he had to hide his identity because of it, even though it made him rich he still struggled with his business. Also Tom made bad choices in the book that caused him to make mistakes he wouldn't do if he was sober. People who drink have poor judgement and poor reasoning so it effects how they act and tends to be a bad result. Owl eyes was a good example of a bad example for instance he crashed outside of Gatsbys house because he was drunk and couldn't drive correctly. As you can see there are several instances where characters in The Great Gatsby had been drinking and caused a problem.

"you're a rotten driver," i protested. " either you ought to be more careful, or you oughtn't to drive at all." pg.58


" making a short deft movement, Tom buchanan broke her nose with his open hand. " pg 37

Essay Writing

Some writing assigments over the years of my high school career have really helped me progress in writing essays. for instance in freshmen year I wrote an essay on The Odyssey and it really helped me with a 5 part paragraph and how to do one. i have also learned to understand the sections of a essay and how important each section is and what chunks you need to have it be good essay.

When writing an essay I have to be open to ideas that be creative with words to use or transitions to select for my essay. I need to be able to completly understand the subject so i can write a good essay and have enough to write about. I need to have good vocab and speak clearly for the reader to understand what i mean.

Nature vs. Self-Reliance

The poem thats more relevent to me would be Self-Reliance because it talks about not conforming to society expectations and to live independantly. its more relevent to me because i want to be independant and i dont want to comform to what the society wants of me. I think that we need to make our own desicions and follow what our heart disires even if society is against it. we should be true to ourselfs and live out what we have a passion for instead of being pulled into a group of conformers who are taught to do the same thing everyday.

Poetry out loud - My poem

The poem I picked was "I Close My Eyes" by David Ignatow and what i think the poem means is that if we do everythig according to what the world see's right then why cant we live forever if we try hard enough? I think that if we try to live a busy life and try to do all that we can that is required of us that we will have lived a wasted life for trying to be perfect. I think this is what David was trying to point out and that we cant live forever obviously so why try to do what the world expects us to do. I think he's trying to point out that we cant live forever by doing everything in our power that is required of us, that we jsut need to live life the way we want to instead of conforming. so the way i was gunna read this poem would be in a way were its sarcastically speaking and at the end i would sarcastically ask " why cant i live for ever? " to get the audience to realize its not by the stuff we are required to do thats important to use but by the things we do to fullfill our life with out own interests.