Summary of The Things They Carried
The Things They Carried is an inspiring war novel by Tim O'Brien. O'Brien recounts his experience as a soldier in the Vietnam War in an indirect way. O'Brien writes in a manner to try to make the reader feel and see the world in the same perspective as one would in the Vietnam War. He accounts for many his experiences, good or bad, throughout the war.
The first event is O'Brien's drafting. O'Brien at first is terrified of the war and did not expect to be drafted. O'Brien attempts to flee towards Canada to escape the draft, where he is taken in by a elderly man at the Canadian border. The man in the boat presents O'Brien with the option to flee to Canada or stay. O'Brien is internally torn between fear of rejection from society and family and fear of the war. O'Brien ultimately backs down and returns home to be drafted.
O'Brien then turns to the subject of stories. Stories he says can put a spin on the war, making it less real, less painful, and more moral. Stories can get the story-truth by avoiding factual truth. Stories do this by blurring the edges of reality one can grasp the moral and the feeling behind the story.
O'Brien then uses a story to show how no one returns from Vietnam unchanged. He talks about how Mark Fossie's girlfriend came to Vietnam. Here she was quickly turned from an all-American sweetheart into a viscous, unrecognizable killer who wore a necklace of human tongues. She says how one living in such a sheltered camp could not truly understand, not feel Vietnam for what it really is, and that one was not truly alive if not out there. She then is rumored to have snuck off into jungle, never to have been seen again.
O'Brien then returns to Vietnam, as a old veteran now, to the field where Kiowa died. There he submerges Kiowa's moccasins into the mud in memoriam of him. He then notices that the war has ended for the Vietnamese, and not many trace can even be seen, which helps him put the past behind him. He then shows putting the past behind him through a story about a grudge between him and a young medic named Jorgensen, and how every time he tried to finalize his grudge, it caused him and those around him tremendous pain. He tells another story about a girl named Linda, and how when she died of a brain tumor O'Brien came to terms with her death with a story. For a story one can blur the edges of reality and bring that person back to life, so that they could help one come to terms with their death
Summary by Kees van Muyden
The first event is O'Brien's drafting. O'Brien at first is terrified of the war and did not expect to be drafted. O'Brien attempts to flee towards Canada to escape the draft, where he is taken in by a elderly man at the Canadian border. The man in the boat presents O'Brien with the option to flee to Canada or stay. O'Brien is internally torn between fear of rejection from society and family and fear of the war. O'Brien ultimately backs down and returns home to be drafted.
O'Brien then turns to the subject of stories. Stories he says can put a spin on the war, making it less real, less painful, and more moral. Stories can get the story-truth by avoiding factual truth. Stories do this by blurring the edges of reality one can grasp the moral and the feeling behind the story.
O'Brien then uses a story to show how no one returns from Vietnam unchanged. He talks about how Mark Fossie's girlfriend came to Vietnam. Here she was quickly turned from an all-American sweetheart into a viscous, unrecognizable killer who wore a necklace of human tongues. She says how one living in such a sheltered camp could not truly understand, not feel Vietnam for what it really is, and that one was not truly alive if not out there. She then is rumored to have snuck off into jungle, never to have been seen again.
O'Brien then returns to Vietnam, as a old veteran now, to the field where Kiowa died. There he submerges Kiowa's moccasins into the mud in memoriam of him. He then notices that the war has ended for the Vietnamese, and not many trace can even be seen, which helps him put the past behind him. He then shows putting the past behind him through a story about a grudge between him and a young medic named Jorgensen, and how every time he tried to finalize his grudge, it caused him and those around him tremendous pain. He tells another story about a girl named Linda, and how when she died of a brain tumor O'Brien came to terms with her death with a story. For a story one can blur the edges of reality and bring that person back to life, so that they could help one come to terms with their death
Summary by Kees van Muyden
Movie Pilot #1 for The Things They Carried
Summary of Fallen Angels
Fallen Angels is an inspiring novel by Walter Dean Myers about an all black platoon fighting in the Vietnam War. Fallen Angels follows the young Perry throughout his time in Vietnam and what he goes through with his friends. He first meets another soldier named Peewee who he quickly befriends. This compelling novel has an anti-war theme that is told in the form of an almost lighthearted story. Myers makes no attempt to hide the costs of war and how devastating war can be to the individual as this novel can be graphic at times.