Blog Three NC

O'Brien's work 'The Things They Carried' may be the most expressive form of Vietnam literature to ever be published. The book may look like a novel, but its complex structure tells stories before even actually reading a word. The words that he has written, however, tell only about the Vietnam War at its most shallow level, but the human experience and how it is impacted by war before, during, and after is where the book truly shines.

The structure of the book is different from a novel in that while the reader is following O'Brien's trail of thoughts, s/he reads one small flashback after the other. Though often there is no direct continuity between the story themselves, O'Brien makes the reader feel as if he is an ever-present narrator throughout the book, guiding s/he through his thoughts almost like a tour-guide. The end of this journey takes place in a chapter which finishes on a note about life and death. The name, 'The Lives of the Dead,' helps the reader to understand that this final chapter was selected to end with remembering his childhood sweetheart because he wants the reader to understand that just as his memories are preserved in this work of art long after his death, the dead continue to live with him, and through living in him, they live through his art. By O'Brien's intention, those dead now live within the reader.

In discussing life and death in his finale, he is in fact focusing in on characters, characters whom have been discussed through the entirety of the book. The first chapter acts as a vehicle to help develop these characters in preparation for O'Brien's reflection in 'Lives of the Dead.' Bearing the same name as the book, 'The Things They Carried' discusses the items that his fellow soldiers carried. Through examining these artifacts, the reader can make assumptions and develop images of the people that these characters were. But to me, what O'Brien is really trying to express is that the metaphor of the artifacts is actually a metaphor (a super metaphor?) for peeking into the soul of O'Brien himself. Though the book lets the reader learn about O'Brien through his character's guidance in examining his experiences, the reader in turn can see who the real O'Brien is through everything he has created.

In choosing to call the main character O'Brien, O'Brien wants the reader to believe and associate this character with himself, the author. O'Brien the author, however, informs the reader that the book is fiction at the beginning. Reading between the lines, O'Brien desire is for the reader to read the book with the same intensity fervor as if watching an action-packed thriller on the big screen. He believes that this is not possible in writing non-fiction as the total sum of the facts distorts his intention as an author, to pass on a message or to teach a lesson rather than to offer history. O'Brien even writes "A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than the truth." The truth that he attempts to tell is not a body count or a simple who-was-where, but a human truth that goes beyond the boundaries that non-fiction allows. Whether everything happened as he wrote or not, the idea to take away is that it must be examined as fiction to be read correctly.

Blog 3- S.S

The novel “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien is a story regarding lives of American soldiers in the Vietnam War in particular regarding the men in the Alpha Company. The stories O’Brien tells in his book are fictional war stories, although the stories may appear to be non-fictional, it is understood these stories accurately capture what the American soldiers underwent during the Vietnam War.
The title “Things they carried” is significant because the soldiers carried many things, both tangible and intangible. O’Brien opens the book with a chapter called The Things They Carried”. O’ Brien describes some of the tangible things the men carried “The things they carried were largely determined by necessity. Among the necessities or near necessities were P-38,can openers, pocket knives, heat tabs, wristwatches, dog tags…two or three canteens of water…Together these items weighed between 12 and 18 pounds” (2). These men also carried intangibles. The men carried enormous intangible burden of, friends, family and most importantly of one and other. “For the most part they carried themselves with poise, a kind of dignity. Now and then however there were times of panic and when they squealed or wanted to squeal but couldn’t” (18). Although they were soldiers and they were expected to be physically and mentally strong. The amount of burden the men carried both physical and emotional was unbearable.
O’Brien does an excellent job capturing the true lives of the men at war. Since this book was a work of fiction O’Brien may have extended the truth at time to make the stories more appealing to its audience. O’Brien was able to tell the story through his own memories of the War. “Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story” (36). We know the stories are true but we do not know how much truth is being told, but most importantly from these stories we have learned that American soldiers in Vietnam underwent many hardships both emotionally and physically.
Apart from carrying physical things, O’Brien also carried some intangible things. O’Brien carried the guilt of going to war because he believed it was not a cause worth fighting over. “I did not want to die. Not ever. But certainly not then, not there, not in a wrong war” (42). O’Brien tells a story that he is very compassionate regarding which he has not told anyone before. O’Brien states that he was not a hero. O’Brien panics as soon as he learns that he is being drafted to go to Vietnam War. O’Brien decides to make a run to Canada but eventually decides that he will not to evade the draft and go to Vietnam because he did not want to disappoint this family, and friends. O’Brien does not feel like a Hero because he describes a hero as someone who does not go against his or her own beliefs. A hero is not necessarily someone who sacrifices his life over their country but it is someone who will sacrifice his or her life for a cause they believe in.
O ‘Brien decides to end the book with a story regarding Linda. Tim O’Brien speaks of Linda who was he was madly in love with. Linda was diagnosed with a brain tumor and she dies at age 9. O’Brien is devastated with the death of Linda. In fact O’Brien is devastated every time he witnesses a dead body. Even at war O’Brien cannot handle dead bodies, every time O’Brien witnesses a dead body it reminds him of Linda. Every time he thinks of Linda it reminds him of how he could not stand up to Nick Veenhof when he took off Linda’s hat in front of the entire class to reveal he hairless scalp. O’Brien thought it was would ruin his reputation and pride. This was also evident when O’Brien had to make a decision whether he was going to go to Canada to evade the draft. O’Brien decides to go to Vietnam because he did not want to ruin his families and his own reputation. As human beings we take pride in our reputation and often make decisions to save our reputation.

The Things They Carried...JV

The Things They Carried is a novel based on stories about an individual's experiences at war in Vietnam . Tim O’Brien is able to bring the reader into the life of a soldier, before, during, and after the war. The first chapter titled the same as the book, “The Things They Carried,” is a summarization of the things a particular squad of men brought along with them in Vietnam. The author writes about the things that were issued to each soldier and even the weight of the items. These items included survival gear like ammunition, guns, grenades, and ponchos. Along with what was issued, the soldiers also carried their own personal items. Soldiers carried things with emotional value as well as practicality in Vietnam. Some had their own tools like Kiowa’s grandfathers hatchet. Others had good luck charms like Henry Dobbins and his girlfriend’s pantyhose which he would tie around his neck. Most of the men “humped” photographs. The photographs were a way for the soldiers to separate themselves from the war and think about the people that they had left behind. The chapter is a way for O’Brien to introduce the characters at a more personal level by allowing the reader to get insight on what they were like not only at war but also at home.

In a way each of the soldiers in the book acts as some kind of hero. Some could argue that just being able to go to war makes them a hero. My idea of a hero is someone who is not scared to back down from something and is willing to put their life on line. In the chapter “How to Tell a True War Story”, Kiley writes to a fallen soldier’s sister explaining what a hero her brother was. O’Brien seems to question several things about the story and how a true story shouldn’t be about the people or heroes but of the way the story makes you feel. A true story should have the audience asking if it really happened. The story should be able to just flow and the details make it tie together in order to be recognized as truthful. O’Brien’s sense of real is not of actual facts but of a more emotional approach into how the audience is able to be transported into the story.

O’Brien further proves his idea of truth by making up a story of how he killed a man. The reader is able to feel being at the killing and every detail is able to be experienced. The details seem to draw a vivid picture as if they are happening, like the sound of the pin of the grenade going off and the Vietnamese man beginning to run for his life. The ability of the story to sound so true is what makes it true. A couple chapters later O’Brien reveals that he in fact did not kill that man but it was just a story that he had come up with. As a reader you believe the story to be true when in fact it is just true because of the way it was told.

The final chapter involves a story about O’Brien’s girlfriend when he was in grade school. He talks about her death due to cancer and witnessing her corpse. O’Brien explains that her dying did not mean that she was dead. She still lived through him in his dreams and thoughts. This chapter is a culmination of the other stories in the book. It represents the reason O’Brien wrote the book which is to keep the dead alive. By remembering those who have died and writing about them O’Brien helps them continue a life, as well as his own. His ability to deal with the death of Linda in such a way is also what helped O’Brien in Vietnam and with the losses of those around him. Instead of looking at the dead, O’Brien is able to remember the people that they were when they were alive.

Blog 3 JY

In the book “The Things They Carried,” Tim O’Brien writes about the life of soldiers in the Vietnam War. He starts the book with a chapter describing the things that the soldiers in his platoon carried. The things that the soldiers carried were things they needed in the combat field and some were just extra things they carried were personal items. I believe that O’Brien put this chapter in the beginning in order to describe the characters in the book. The things they carried often described who the person was and why they acted the way they did. For example Lieutenant Jim Cross carried photographs of a girl named Martha. He was madly in love with her and this often distracted him during important missions which resulted in some soldiers dyeing because of his poor decision calls.
I believe in the end O'Brien believes that a true hero is someone that all people to have the freedom to make their own decisions. This is evident with Elroy who O'Brien believes to be a real hero. Elroy allowed Tim time to figure what he wants to do and make his own decisions. People usually tend to give advise, but by allowing O'Brien to make his own choices was better for Elroy to do.
Throughout the book O’Brien talks about different stories that happened in Vietnam. The stories talk about how the war changed people during and even after the war. O’Brien’s way of telling the story allows readers to see every aspect of the war not just blood and gore. The book goes in depth into the minds of the soldiers and how the Vietnam War changed them. One particular chapter explains that all the stories the soldiers tell have some truth. These truths can be more true that what actually happened, because they last forever while memories can fade. The stories are fiction, but in a way they allow us to truly see the true feelings that they felt. O'Brien believes that by making this book fiction it makes it truer than factual occurrences.
He ends the book with the story of a girl he liked during the 4th grade. They both were in love with each other and went on a date to the movies. Later he found out that she had brain tumor and that she died. He tells this story because he wants to feel that she is still alive. That is why he writes books about the Vietnam War and the people that died in the war. When he writes the stories they are still alive and he can relive the events they had together. This sums up the book by explaining why he wrote this book and the other ones as well.
A chapter that stood out to me was "Field Trip" when O'Brien and Kathleen, his child, go to the same place Kiowa died. I believe that this sums up O'Brien's idea that stories are truer than the truth. The place where Kiowa died has changed and is very different from what it used to be. This shows that the factual truth will also change and cannot permanently last, but story truth will last for an eternity.

Blog 3 RR

Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" does a very good job of describing the lives of the American soldier during the Vietnam War. He allows the reader to develop more of a personal relationship with the soldiers, instead of just describing scenery and events. This helps the reader to understand more of what is going on in each soldier's mind, and not just what one can see in plain view.

O'Brien begins with the first chapter, The Things They Carried, for a few reasons. The first is that he wants to show the reader the human behind the soldier. It showed that although these men were in a fight for their lives, they still were reminded of and thought of the things and those that they left at home. It humanizes the characters. He also wants to show the reader how difficult it is for a soldier to keep his mind set on the present, instead of reminiscing and losing touch with the immensity of the war. He specifically lists the things that each person carries, such as pictures, C-rations, salt tablets; he also lists the intangible things that each person carries such as guilt, fear, and anger. This is an important aspect of a soldier's life to understand. Although he only has a 30 lb bag on his pack, he is truly carrying around insurmountable weight.
There are many different "definitions" of hero. It could be the person that goes out of their way to help others. The person who does or has done brave or honorable acts. O'Brien doesn't necessarily see it like that. He talks about most of his troop-mates and how he feels that they are heroes, but not because of the reasons above. He says that what makes a hero is one that can make difficult decisions and is prepared to defend them. He talks about the soldiers that go home and are upset and angry because they did not receive a parade, and wonders why someone would want a parade after coming home from an endless mistake of a war. He does not consider these people heroes. We can also see his perspective of a hero when he decides to go to his draft board instead of running to Canada. O'Brien made a conscious decision to go back home after spending a week or so at the border because he wanted to make the right decision.

O'Brien also explains the difference between "truth" and "true". Although they seem to mean the same thing, he explains that they are two very different words. He explains that the truth is what actually happened: the facts and events that took place. However, true, is up for interpretation, dependant on who is telling the story. For example, when Kiowa dies, there are many "true" stories that arise in the platoon. Kiowa was hit and killed with shrapnel, and sunk into the shit field. That is the truth. However, Lieutenant Cross sees that he chose a bad strategic place to stay the night and Kiowa's death is his fault. Norman Bowker feels that it is his fault because he let go of Kiowa's boot. We can see that though Norman and Lieutenant Cross are speaking of the same event, what is true can be very different. This is where the notion of fiction comes in. O'Brien describes in Good Form that he was a soldier, and that there were many dead bodies, but he did not ever look at their faces. Then he goes on to describe the boy he had killed in a prior chapter. He describes this as true vs. truth. What is the truth are the actual events, he calls this happening truth. What is true is what may very well have happened, but is story-truth. He is sure that a slim man was killed, although he didn't see it for himself. He says that the story-truth makes the past become present.

He ends the book discussing his childhood sweetheart, Linda. Linda died at the age of nine from a brain tumor. He reminisces about their first date to the theater with his parents, her red cap that she wore all the time, and then describes her sickness. I believe that he ends the book with this story because it seems to be the only thing that still causes hurt for him. It seems that speaking about the war all this time has helped him cope, and this is his way of coping with the death of his first-love, which he has yet to do. It brings the book full-circle. The first chapter was about the things (tangible and intangible) that soldiers carried. O'Brien not once mentioned Linda during this chapter. However, it ends with what O'Brien carried during the war and still carries: the hurt and sadness of losing his first love.

Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" is a very interesting book structurally. It has no chronology of any type and jumps from event to event. I think he does this to try to give us the feeling of being at war: although there are things happening in the present, there are still things happening in the past in your mind, and what might be in the future. It also may be a symbol for the chaos of the war.

Blog 3 CA

" The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien is not just another narrative that describes the Vietnam War and the actions taken in it. Although the first two chapters persuade us to think so, the reader soon realizes that the book discusses concepts like the necessity of war, courage and expectancy of soldiers and families, coping with memories and emotional scars that are left behind by bloodshed and aggression and the publication of war in media. All of these concepts are discussed with the help of varying narratives and are told through characters which the reader can easily relate to.
Tim O'Brien discusses the chaos that surrounded the war, when it came to understanding the goals and reasons for the American involvement at a conflict that seemed to be so far away and so irrelevant. In the chapter " On the Rainy River" he is unquestionably honest about his past and does something which the majority would not, due to the fact that it is seen in society as unhonourable and cowardly; he confesses that he tried to run away from war, and that he was confused to why he, who was educated and well behaved, had to die for such a distant cause. This same concept is also mentioned by the author while saying: "They marched for the sake of the march. They plodded along slowly, dumbly, leaning forward against the heat, unthinking, all blood and bone, simple grunts, soldiering with their legs, toilling up the hills and down into the paddies and across the rivers and up again and down, just humping,one step and then the next and then another, but no volition, no will becouse it was automatic, it was anatomy, and the war was entirely a matter of posture and carriage, the humpwas everything, a kind of inertia, a kind of emptiness, a dullness of desire and intellect and conscience and hope and human sensibility."( p. 14), where he clearly shows how monotone war became for the troops who did not have a true incentive other than " serving their country".
It is no surprise that soldiers are expected to be strong and unbreakable and are often shown that way through the media in order to underline the military power of a nation. However, through the guidance of books like " The Things They Carried" we realize that this information is far from reality. Throughout the chapter " On the Rainy River" and the chapter "Dentist" we are introduced to the feelings that the soldiers really feel and the pretend feelings which they use as a cover to satisfy their surroundings. This concept is discussed throughout the book and strikes the reader as one of the most important topics of the book. The best phrase to explain this humane imotion is as follows: "They were afraid of dying but they were even more afraid to show it" ( p.19).
It is obvious that O'Brien has found his way to cope with his memories of war; writing. He discusses that without this relaxation he might not have handled the things that he has seen and might have ended up in a much worse state, like many of the soldiers that returned from Vietnam. This topic is especially expressed in the chapters " The Man I Killed", "Notes" and " The Lives of The Dead". The writer further investigates how he copes with all of the deaths he has had to whitness: by writing about them and keeping their memories alive. The best example to this would be the little girl he fell in love with when he was just a child; Linda.
In the story " The Things They Carried", Tim O'Brien has discussed varying issues that mostly deal with the psychology and emotion of the war and the ones that took part in it. He brings his ideas across by using his memories and telling them to the reader just like a retired soldier would tell his children and grandchildren.
Can Atalay

Blog 3 BJR

Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried has been labeled as both a great book about war, as well as a great example of writing. It chronicles his experiences in the Vietnam War, and the years after. It deals with both the physical and emotional consequences of the not only the war in general, but many smaller aspects as seen through O’Brien’s eyes are analyzed and reviewed.
The structure of the story is truly laid out in the first chapter. In this chapter, entitled “The Things They Carried”, O’Brien lists and describes the physical things that the soldiers carried, from weapons, to food, to drugs. More importantly he writes about the emotional and intangible burdens that were carried. These range again from guilt, fear, responsibility, and brotherhood. I think that he choose to start the book like this because he wanted to lay out how the rest of the book would be. He didn’t want to mislead the reader into thinking that it was just a war story, or that it was just a book about the emotional impact. He is also able to relay some of the feeling of war to the reader in a basic manner.
O’Brien states that the war is not being fought for the men involved to become heroes. He says that they don’t aim to be heroes, and that it is not a goal for them. For almost every person involved in the war, his number one goal was to stay alive, and do his job, and to do what he believed was the right thing to do. If something that they do makes them a hero, then that is how it is, not the other way around. We all have an image of a hero in our head. For some it is one who puts the lives of others before themselves, others may see it as one who does something exceptional against all odds. Tim O’Brien spends large portion of the book on the idea of what a hero is. In the end his idea of a hero, is one who can make hard decisions, and one who can do what they think is right. But making these decisions and taking these actions are not enough. They have to be able to stand up and believe in their actions and defend them if the need arises. For this reason, he views many of his comrades as heroes. An important aspect of the book is that O’Brien does not consider himself a hero because he wanted to go to Canada to avoid the war and did not because he let others influence him, and did not stick to his guns.
Most people think that the words “true”, and “the truth” are synonymous. According to O’Brien, they are far from it. What he considers to be the truth is; what is true and has happened, and can be backed up with facts. What is true however has a different meaning. A reccurring piece in the book is how different people observe things, and therefore people have a different review of the past. A great example of this is the death of Ted Lavender. It is the truth that he was killed after going to the bathroom. However according to Jimmy Cross it is true that Cross was responsible for Lavender’s death. Other soldiers know it is true that Lavender was not always in the best mental state due to the drugs he took. That is why not everything can be true for everyone involved.
One of the more important quotes from the book is when O’Brien is telling how to tell a war story. He says that if you tell the story as it happened and keeps the truth throughout, not many people will not believe the story and may be inclined to question it. That is why he says that you need to add or take away some points, so that those not involved with the story will believe it and take it for the truth. I think that that is why O’Brien considers the book to be a fictional one. While the book is based on his experiences, he may have changed some of the writing around to keep the reader’s attention, and make the book into a better novel. People tell these stories to help themselves deal with something.
I think that he ends the book with a chapter about his childhood sweetheart, Linda, to help and ease the pain. This was the first time that he dealt with death, and clearly that is something that he had to deal with throughout the war. I think the told this story because of the same reasons that other soldiers told their stories, and that is to help themselves deal with the pain, and to try and get others to feel what they are feeling at the time. I also believe that this chapter was included because, like Linda, Tim also loved the men of which he served with.
Overall this book is outstanding. It is not just a war novel, yet it is not just a reflection. It a great example of storytelling and how writing can change things. This book is about how the men who fought and died in Vietnam dealt with it, and how some could not deal with it. This was the story of one man who did what he had to do.

Blog 3- AO

Tim O'Brien in "The Things They Carried" tells stories of memories and fictional stories of soldiers lives during the Vietnam War, and beyond. Most importantly O'Brien focuses in on his own life, and people impacted on his life. The book begins explaining what a soldier carries, not only are they just carrying their own bodies and physical belongings, but also a whole life full memories behind him. These soldiers are carrying memories with them throughout a different world of Vietnam that no one could imagine at home. O'Brien shows how story telling is a way to cope through the devastating war, that is beyond reality for others to grasp.
Even though the stories O'Brien shares seem real throughout the book, they are all still fiction. For example when O'Brien describes what a war story is he states, "You can't even tell a true war story, sometimes it is just beyond telling" (68). Therefore showing what the soldiers experience in the Vietnam War was too devastating to put into words to truly illustrate to others what it was like. If O'Brien wrote about true stories it would create no emotion to the reader because it is impossible to feel the true devastation.
The point then of creating fictional war stories is to use it as a coping mechanism to help put the pieces together of ones experiences in Vietnam. For example when O'Brien states, What stories can do, I guess, is make things present" (172). In doing so he can evaluate what he has seen years ago in Vietnam in order to try to search for reasoning.
"The Things They Carried" Is a tremendous piece of work, that incorporates multiple thoughts into one main central idea of the effects on war on people even though the war has been over for years. Except the Vietnam will never be truly over because story telling will bring all the details of war and the souls who lost their lives back to the present.

blog 3 JK

Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried is a compilation of memories and stories from his character in the book as well as the other soldier’s recollections of the war. These memories and stories come from the fictional soldiers in the Alpha Company that are in Vietnam. They find themselves feeling mixed emotions of guilt, sadness, love, and hopelessness as they continue to fight the war.
The first chapter of the book is directly related to the title of the book. The book starts off with Tim O’Brien telling the audience about what material objects were in each group member’s pack and how heavy burdens their emotions weighed on them, on top of everything else. The soldiers trek through Vietnam, all holding reminders of what is waiting for them at home. O’Brien portrayed to the readers just how much the soldiers carried when he said “They carried the sky. The whole atmosphere, they carried it, the humidity, the monsoons, the stink of fungus and decay, all of it, they carried gravity” (15). The men of the Alpha Company kept letters and trinkets from loved ones back home, and one soldier even wore his girlfriend’s pantyhose around his neck. The men carried these reminders to make them remember what home is and how home will still be there waiting for them when they return home. O’Brien makes it seem as though the weight of their emotions are far heavier than any object in their packs. One of the heaviest emotional burdens on the Alpha Company is the fear of being a coward in the war. O’Brien had run away to the Canadian border to avoid going to Vietnam when he was drafted, but felt so ashamed that he returned home. Tim O’Brien says “I would go to the war-I would kill and maybe die-because I was too embarrassed not to” (59). He was ashamed that his family would think he was not brave and too afraid to fight in the war.
One of the major themes in the book is the idea of a hero. O’Brien sees a hero as someone who is willing to sacrifice and overcome the odds. He would not shake the dead Vietnamese man’s hand when the other soldiers were pressuring him to do it. O’Brien was seen as a hero for resisting his fellow soldier’s and setting an example. O’Brien is a hero when he goes to Canada and eventually comes home. He overcame his cowardice and was willing to sacrifice his life to go to war and fight. He knew he was going to let down his family and friends if he ran away and avoided the situation. He was a hero for being brave and facing his problems.
The author ends his story by telling the readers about the death of his childhood love, Linda. O’Brien shows the reader that Linda’s death was innocent and it came naturally. This is unlike the war where death could have been prevented if there was no war at all. Death would have most likely come to the soldier’s because death was surrounding them in Vietnam. O’Brien uses Linda’s death as a way to connect himself back to his past, before the war had changed him. He talks about his comrades that he lost in the war. When he talks about Linda and his friends from war, he seems to bring them back to life and remember them again.

Blog 3 LW

The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien deals with the common themes of storytelling, truth, and death. O’Brien reveals later in the book that although the book has appeared to be non-fiction, it is mostly purely fictional. He explains that storytelling truth is different than what actually happens, and his reason for embellishing “the happening truth” is to allow the reader to feel what he felt as a soldier in Vietnam. Storytelling is O’Brien’s way of coping with the things he has seen, heard, and felt. He explains that truth in his war stories is “truer sometimes than happening-truth” (203), and his reason for doing this is to make it real for the reader. The truth he continues to express is that war is not glorious, and the reality of it can only be shown through the use of stories.
The novel begins with a story about what each soldier in Alpha Company carries with him. Each man carries many of the same supplies, but he also carries personal effects that are unique to him, symbolizing the life that each of them left behind upon going to war. O’Brien focuses a lot on the weight of the items they carry, some heavy, some light, but this literal weight represents the emotional baggage that each must also bear. The feeling of imminent death, loss of their previous lives at home, and fighting a war that they do not understand are all constantly on the mind of each young man.
O’Brien makes it very known that a real hero is much different than a non-soldier may think. He says each soldier is a hero for fighting in a war that he does not believe in or want to be a part of. A hero is faces the fear of dying. O’Brien says that he is not a hero because he tried to escape the draft, and his own guilt and cowardice were what landed him in Vietnam. In the story of Henry Dobbins after the war, his father thinks of his son as a brave hero for his many medals and honors. Dobbins however feels as though he is not a hero because he never showed bravery, he just did what he was told to do. He does not feel glorious about his medals as his father thinks he should, which is another way O’Brien shows that storytelling is the only way for a non-combatant to see and feel the war for what it truly was.
The last story tells of O’Brien’s childhood sweetheart who died at an early age due to a brain tumor. He does this to show that through the use of stories, he can make the dead appear alive again. It does not just apply to the soldiers and friends he lost in the war; it applies to all the dead. The soldiers would sometimes pretend the dead were alive still, shaking their hands and making them speak. O’Brien reveals that it is one of the only ways to cope. O’Brien’s stories, true or untrue, are a testament to the everyday life of a war veteran, both in the past and in the present.

Blog 3 CT

In the The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, he emphasizes throughout the beginning of the book just what the title provokes, what the soldiers actually carried, mentally and physically. By starting off this way O’Brien makes us feel closer to these characters. He tries to show us the personality of each character and why they bring what they bring. The more detail he shows us about each reader the more we are focused on them throughout the book. Also what they carry is judged by what rank they are in the war. Most of the men are just common rank soldiers, but for those who are higher up they are carrying each of the men in their platoon on their shoulders, trying to protect them. Even for the common rank soldier they each have the weight of one another. A good example of this was when two of the soldiers, Strunk and Jensen, make a pack to make sure if one of them is fatally hurt they will be killed quickly thereafter. Later in the book though we see Strunk get wounded and he begs Jensen not to kill him, but later dies on the ride to medical attention. O’Brien also emphasizes the men’s greatest fear, which was blushing. He blames this as the biggest reason many men died in the war because they were embarrassed about dying. This is when O’Brien explains that men don’t go to war to become heroes they go because they don’t want to be cowards.

What shocked me the most was how all of O’Brien’s accounts are fiction. While I was reading the novel it felt like you were right with these guys and it all seems so realistic. I appreciate how O’Brien realizes the book would be much duller if he had made it nonfiction and just went through the book like a history lesson. The way he describes every characters life and character feels as close as you can get, but he offers what many authors lack on the subject, real life involvement with the Vietnam War. He was right there with these guys. I believe the difference between the true and the truth has a correlation between O’Brien making a fiction book. He talks about in the Good Form chapter about the story he is telling and how he just made it up. While he was being true it is the way he perceived things happening it was necessarily the truth, which is ultimately what actually happened. The fact that he told this story doesn’t necessarily mean it didn’t happen, but that is the way, in his mind, that it played out.

Surprisingly we find out that originally O’Brien never wanted to go to Vietnam he was trying to find ways to not be eligible to go and his final conclusion was to flee to Canada. His home town was excited for him to go but often after work at the meat packing company he would just drive around looking for a way out. Even though he ended up going to Vietnam he doesn’t feel that this makes him a hero at all. O’Brien understands that the true hero is someone who follows their own beliefs and not the beliefs of others like he did. He feels that he would’ve been a hero if he fled to Canada because he would’ve been following his own beliefs and not those of his community. Also one of the girls from his community who he was very close with as a child died of brain cancer prior to Vietnam and he feels that this helped him through the war because he was already around death and he was very close with Linda his childhood sweetheart. If it weren’t for Linda he feels he wouldn’t have been as comfortable in the war as he was.

Throughout this book I kept thinking about O’Brien’s true or truth segment and whether or not this was the way he perceived the war or whether or not it was the ultimate truth. I also wondered if that had to do with him making the story a fiction novel rather than writing a non-fiction book. I feel that he made it a fiction because it was his scope of the war and the way it happened for him which he feels is the true not necessarily the truth. Overall I really enjoyed this novel and felt that it had many good examples of how it felt to be a troop in the Vietnam War.

The Things they Carried-AV

Tim O’Brien’s The Things they Carried, is a collection of stories from fictional characters that fought in the Vietnam War. The book starts off with a description of what the soldiers “carried” with them. This included both material, and immaterial things. Soldiers carried things that we considered “necessities” , such as weapons, water, canned food, and much more. Some more examples of material thing include letters from loved ones, “lucky charms” from loved ones, etc. O’Brien used the list of physical objects that soldiers carry to show the emotional burdens that these soldiers bear. One example is how many of the soldiers are struggling to distinguish between fantasy and reality.

One example of this is Jimmy Cross. He is holding on to a letter from the love of his life, Martha. The letter is not a love letter, but every night, Jimmy sits there and fantasies about the life Martha, and the life that he plans on having with her after the war is over. He is not certain if Martha loves him, but he tries to make himself think that she does. The reason I believe that soldiers were fantasizing instead of being realistic, is because there was a war going on in the real world. There was nothing good in what they were doing every single day, killing people, and having to think about that every day is ideal for many people. Thus, they had no choice but to try and themselves feel happy, and the best way to do that is to fantasize about the people they left back and the life they were going to have after the war. Not many soldiers saw the negative effects of fantasizing but there are a few. One is that it interferes with the duties of being a soldier. They would get caught up into the idea too much, and lose sight of reality and the war, thus, putting their lives and the lives of fellow soldiers in dangerous.

One interesting concept that O’Brien explores is the idea of what a “hero” is. A “hero” in our society is someone who tries to make the world a better place, and puts other people needs before their own. In chapter 4, On the Rainy River, O’Brien starts talking about what a hero is. He does this through telling us war stories, and giving examples of people he saw as heroes. To O’Brien, a hero is someone who has the courage to stand by their convictions and is able to the hard decisions, and stick by them, which not many people can do. O’Brien shows us that he is not a hero. He failed to stand by his own beliefs, and go into Canada and not enlist in the war. However, he didn’t; shame and embarrassment caused him to return back to the states and enlist in a war he didn’t have any reason to believe in. Thus, a hero is not someone who sacrifices his own life for the greater good, or a life of another to save many more, but someone who is able to stand by his own beliefs and make decisions that no one else can.

Another concept that was very interesting in the book was truth vs. the true. Many people would consider these too words synonymous, and in a sense they are. However, in these stories I believe they’re a bit different. Truth, I think, is what really happened and what can be proven. The true, I believe, is also true, but not the ultimate truth. In one event, many people can perceive something in a different way, and when they tell what happened, they are telling their own perception of what happened, and that’s not necessarily a lie, but there can be many different versions of the story because everyone perceived it differently. So, the true, is what one single person perceives and believes happened, truth, is the ultimate truth.

The last chapter of the book, The Live of the Dead, O’Brien talks about the girl that he loved, Linda. Linda died at a very young age due to brain cancer. Linda’s death symbolizes O’Brien’s “loss of innocence” because with that event he experiences both love and death for the first time. This helped him throughout his time in Vietnam because he had dealt with the death of someone he loved prior to going to Vietnam.

This book was an amazing piece of writing. Although, this book may seem like a non-fiction, it’s actually a fiction. Both the characters and the stories within this book are fictional. However, the ideas behind the story is not made up, soldiers in Vietnam really did go through most of things found within this book. O’Brien does a great job getting the things that happened in Vietnam across to the reader through the use of fictional stories. He does all this in a well writing piece that is easy to understand.

Blog 3 EP

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien tells the story of a group of American soldiers and their experiences both during and after the Vietnam war. O'Brien starts the book with a chapter detailing all of the items carried by the soldiers. O'Brien begins in this way to illustrate the way that the war and their previous civilian lives are present in the form of physical items carried by the soldiers. What he does not describe are the emotional and mental burdens weighing on each soldier. They carry reminders of loves back home. They carry mementos of their family and its heritage. Many of them are motivated by the fear of shame. They are afraid of the war. All are afraid to die. The physical items they carry help them cope with these intangible burdens. These thoughts are always on their mind and they gain new ones as the war goes on. O'Brien begins the book with this to show how all of these soldiers were fighting two wars. The American war in Vietnam, and the mental and emotional war to stay connected with the life they left behind in the United States. The fact that none of them want to fight this war makes them heroes according to O'Brien. O'Brien says that courage is not fighting the war. Courage is fighting the war when one did not want to. This courage made them heroes. The courage needed to fight a war they did not support and put up with the daily grunt work gave these men the status of heroes in the author's mind. Coming from a veteran, this hero status does not come lightly.
O'Brien spent some time in the book talking about what constitutes truth in war stories. O'Brien argues that in war stories the material facts are unimportant. What matters is the effect it has on the person hearing the story. The gut wrenching feeling in the reader is what forms the truth. The truth in a war story makes the listener feel the same feelings as the soldier experiencing it. O'Brien summarizes it by saying "truth is what makes the stomach believe". He illustrates this by telling the gruesome stories of Kiowa's death in the muck, Lemon's demise and Rat Kiley torturing the buffalo before having a mental breakdown after Ted Lavender's death. The facts surrounding these stories are not what make it true. The feelings felt by the listener, and the closeness to those feelings felt by the soldier, are what make a war story true. This is why O'Brien calls this book fiction. The facts regarding the stories told may not be true. The feelings generated in the reader are what make it true. It does not matter if the stories are true or not. All that matters is that the reader feels a feeling inside that is close to what a soldier felt in Vietnam. The reader just needs to believe the story is true.
The Things They Carried consists of stories told by O'Brien about his past. O'Brien talks about how all of the soldiers tell the stories of their experiences in order to relieve the pain of the events of their life. O'Brien finishes the book by telling the story of his childhood love, Linda. He tells this story to relieve the pain he felt as a child after her death. Telling the story helps relieve his pain. The same is true for Bowker, telling the story of Kiowa, Cross, telling the events of Lavender's death, and Rat Kiley, telling the story of the death of his good friend Curt Lemon. These men remember their lost friends through stories. These stories bring them back to their past and help to alleviate the pain stemming from these incidents.

Blog 2- RR

Although there are few words in the film The Scent of Green Papaya, the symbolism in the film speaks volumes. Mui is a symbol in herself. She is the symbol of Vietnam's colonization from the French in Part One of the movie, and a symbol of the eventual growth of the country once France has left, in Part Two. She symbolizes the country's endurance despite hardship and change. She was also a symbol in her master's eyes. We learn in the movie that her master's daughter passed away when she was very young; had she still been living, she would have been Mui's age. Mui's master was very kind and loving to Mui and it seems as though she felt that Mui had been sent to her for a reason: to be a daughter.

The youngest son of Mui's master as a child represent the interruption and chaos caused by the French. It also shows the power that the French held over the Vietnamese people. This is shown when the son pours hot wax onto the ants that Mui was so enthralled with. It also shows when he spills the water on the floor that Mui had just cleaned, and pees in the vase where Mui is dusting and cleaning. Regardless of how much Mui cleaned and repeated her cleaning, the son was always there to mess things up again. This also symbolizes the overall occupation of Vietnam. Each time Vietnam was occupied, the country was "messed" up; chaotic, destroyed, and damaged. Each time the Vietnamese picked everything back up and persisted.

The idea of the family unity and strength is also shown in the film. This is shown when we learn that the master's husband is having an affair. Although she knows this, she still allows him back into the house. This signifies the importance of the family unit in Vietnamese culture. Though he does not make a huge impression in the movie himself (he just plays instruments and says very little), we can see what an impact he has as part of the family when the children constantly ask for him, and if he is coming home.

In Part Two, we see the immense influence that French colonization and the West has on Vietnam. Khuyen is wearing western clothing, and playing the Piano, a western instrument. His fiance is shown wearing western clothing, heels, and makeup, which is also very Western. It seems that Mui is stuck in time while Khuyen and his fiance have moved forward.

We also see Khuyen teaching Mui how to read. This is symbolic in that it shows the country of Vietnam advancing and growing. At the end of the film, Mui is reading very well; she is also pregnant. This symbolizes the rebirth of Vietnam after the war.

There is a significance to Part 1 and 2 other than the period of time in which they occur. Part One begins with Mui being a servant. This signifies the servitude that the Vietnamese people were confined to during the French occupation. In Part 2, she begins as a servant, but ends as an expectant mother who is more educated and in love. This signifies the growth of the Vietnamese people after the war. What also signifies both growth, persistence, and rebirth are the last lines of the movie about the cherry tree. It says that regardless of how much the cherry tree is battered and damaged, it will always be a cherry tree. This is a strong symbol of the Vietnamese people. Despite being controlled and ridiculed by so many countries during the conflict, they still are and will always remain Vietnamese.

Blog Two NC

"The Scent of Green Papaya" needs little dialog to convey its meaning. As Mui is sent to become a servant to a wealthy family, it can be interpreted as the Vietnamese service to the French under colonization. Though she is a servant to the family, the family has many issues, including the common absence of the husband/father of the family. The father/husband role in a family can be considered as the most important position in a family in that the male head often had the power in traditional families, and by being absent, the idea of colonization is further stressed as Vietnam was not annexed to France but simply under its control and neglected. Eventually, the husband leaves, like the weakening French presence before World War II, and the family suffers difficulties as the father/husband takes all the money (colonization), just as Vietnam felt the pinch of drifiting into Chinese and Japanese control from the French.

As time passes, she becomes servant to a new master, the pianist. The pianist represents America, as America was considered the most refined country, just as a pianist is respected as having refined skills in music. The pianist, like the first father/husband, also does not spend time correctly with his family, his soon to be fiance. He enjoys playing the piano too much and seems to ignore his duties. This absence yet presence stresses the neglect America placed on the Vietnamese people. As a fiance would tend to his soon to be spouse to demonstrate love and affection as any fiance should, he ignores the love to pursue his own interests, such as the piano. This symbolizes the question of whether America cared about the Vietnamese people at all, even with its good intentions, just as a fiance has good intentions to take on a wife and be responsible for her.

Eventually, Mui and the pianist sleep together. As an engagement is a working commitment, the worst possible action to take would be to cheat. When viewing this, I was reminded of the massacres in My Lai, in that America came to 'help' Vietnam, yet in coming they actually made things worse for a lot of people.

All, however, is not terrible. The pianist's original engagement is broken off, and he is seen teaching Mui how to read. This to me was the most powerful sequence of events in the film, as Mui really had nothing in being a servant for the whole film, yet through her life's struggle she begins to take on an education of sorts. Though this is wonderful in itself, the strongest scene is when she is reading to her unborn child. Mui, through everything that had happened, finally finds her place, though she will never be socially mobile. However, in reading to her unborn child, it represents the hope to pass on her education to her child, in the hopes that better days will come to the new generation, that in her struggle to find meaning and value to everything that had happened in her life, her child could finally have the chance that she never had in life. To me, the ultimate symbolism in this movie is the suggestion that the value of the Vietnam struggle comes from the ability to give the children of the next generation the chance at living a better life.

Blog 2- AO

"The Scent of Green Papaya", was a very symbolic film, with little dialogue or plot. Mui, the young girl who gets sent to be a servant worker to a family in Saigon is not treated properly by some of the family members. The symbolism that is being used is Mui represents the country of Vietnam, and the family represents the French trying to colonize Vietnam.
For example in the beginning of the movie when Mui is trying to work had for the family, the youngest son comes and torments her while she is hard at work. This symbolizes the young boy as France by destroying Mui's work that represents Vietnam's culture of always working hard. In doing so France shows no respect to the Vietnamese culture.
Also the occurrence of the scene of the Papaya,or the music that plays represents the simplicity and tradition of the Vietnamese culture. This shows what the Vietnamese culture was like before the destruction by France. Other cultures were trying to force their values on to them. The Vietnamese knew this was not true to them and held strong in their beliefs. In order to convey these important messages on Vietnamese culture symbolism was places throughout the film.

Blog 2- S.S

The film “Scent of a Green Papaya” was a story regarding a 10 year old Vietnamese girl named Mui. Mui was hired to work as a servant in a home of a wealthy Vietnamese family. Some of Mui’s responsibility included preparing food, cleaning and doing other household chores. Throughout the film there were symbols that represented the Vietnamese people and culture. One of the symbols that were shown repetitively was the symbolism of food. This signifies that Vietnamese people placed a significant value on a good meal. The servants were always shown preparing the food for the family. Vegetables, fruits, and rice were almost always present at the table. Another symbol that I noticed in the film was nature. There were many times, Mui and the other children were shown observing spiders, and plants. This shows that Vietnamese valued and respected their surrounding even to the smallest aspects of it. Another symbol that I discovered was music. It appears that men expressed their feelings through music. The husband was shown playing the guitar beginning of the film, and the one of the sons was shown numerous times playing the piano. This symbolism of men playing the instruments also showed their dominance in the family. The male dominance was also displayed when the husband left his family for another women but he was allowed to come back several times. Another symbol that was significant to me was the siren that went off every night for the curfew. No one was allowed to be outside once the sirens came on but during the day it seemed as if the Vietnamese people lived life as normal. Although this was not the typical Vietnam War film, this film did a great job capturing important symbols from the people and the culture of Vietnam.

Blog 2 CT

Throughout The Scent of Green Papaya even though there is very little dialogue the content seems to lead you on its own. I kept comparing the life of Mui and the life of Lam, who is the son of the man Mui is a servant for. I feel that Mui more clearly represents the life of the Vietnamese people, while Lam represents the French culture of their population. The ant scene struck me in particular because Mui is admiring the ants and it’s one of the few times we see Mui get excited and enjoy herself. Lam on the other hand wants to kill the ants and attempts to smash them. Also Lam doesn't appreciate all that the servants do for them he tries to ruin everything they are cleaning and making for them. In my theory Lam represents the French during the Vietnam War because he is trying to control Mui as the French tried to control the Vietnam population during the war. His family overall is in control over Mui and the other servant until their father leaves then things start to fall apart. When the family starts to fall apart after the father leaves represents how Vietnam was not strong enough to fight after they became independent from France in 1941.

Mui growing up represents Vietnam’s effort to become independent. She eventually gets older wants to look older. When she goes to work for the family friend she sees the beautiful clothes the mistress is wearing. She wants to look beautiful just like her. This care for her look shows how Vietnam wants to have its own beauty and not rely on the culture of someone else to shape it.

Blog 2 JV

The scent of green papaya is a story of a ten year old orphan Mui who is sent to live a life of servitude for a family in Saigon, Vietnam. The story shows what life in Vietnam in the 1950’s was like. Mui, whose name can be translated to “scent” in English, lives a very peaceful life while being faced with certain obstacles including the move to Saigon. She is a representation of the overall culture of Vietnam and how it has since been shaped by the Vietnam War. She finds relaxation in peaceful things like the formations of the ants. She also finds tranquility through the green papaya that grows outside the house. She is very in tune with the scent of the green papaya. Mui, like the green papaya, stays pure throughout her life.

Through the eyes of Mui the viewer is also able to see the disruption of the house. Amidst the antics of the youngest son Tin, the unfaithfulness and betrayal of the father, and the sadness of a mother for a lost daughter, Mui seems to be able to continue in an admirable peaceful manner. This is a representation of resiliency by Mui and her responsibilities continue to be finished.

After the death of the father Mui is sent to work for a family friend, Khuyen. This is where a ten year older Mui really blossoms into a woman. This blossoming is a representstion of the change that Vietnam also went through because of the Vietnam War.

Blog 2 BJR

Throughout “The Scent of Green Papaya”, many things are made to symbolize the effects of the Vietnam war on the people of Vietnam. The story revolves around the main character, Mui, and the families that she serves. The movie tries to get its message across with the great amount of symbolism and characters actions, as opposed to having a great amount of dialogue.
One of the most prevalent messages in this movie is the role of nature and the land. There are many scenes of Mui, and others interacting with nature, gaining food on some occasions, and on other taking away life. It is clear that in the small community of the movie, that the characters appreciate the natural beauty of the house, and the benefits that come from growing their own food products. This symbolizes how the Vietnamese view their land. They rely on it for their survival and do not take it for granted in the least. The two brothers on the other hand are much more destructive when coming to nature and their overall surroundings. In symbolic terms, the brothers and father are the countries that have interfered with the nation of Vietnam, oppressing it, and exploiting it. This is seen where the children are pouring wax on the ants, urinating in the vase that Mui will have to clean, and making Mui do unneeded and extra work for their pleasure. I think that the boys are the leaders of Vietnam because of they may be abusive, but they are always there. The father may be the greatest symbol of all. He symbolizes the foreign countries that have had complete power over Vietnam. He is there when it is convenient to be there, and when he leaves, he takes all that he can, and leaves the family in shambles.
Years later, Mui is now working for a different family, where the man she works for cheats on his fiancé with Mui. I think that the new man can be related to the original father, do what he please and not worrying about how others felt. I believe that this is symbolic of how years after the war, it is still being fought, and that things may be alright to the rest of the world, but to the nation of Vietnam, there is still much work to be done.

Blog 1 CA

"A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain" by Robert Olen Butler is a short story which evaluates Vietnamese still struggling with political issues and the war that has long passed. The author introduces this concept to the reader with the use of two separate narratives: the current story of a dying Vietnamese Dao,and his story of the past and of his frinedship with the Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh.
The first narrative, where the writer introduces Dao to the readers shows the effects of the political struggles in Vietnam and their aftermath. Dao suspects that his son and grandson have killed a writer who had a non-popular standing on Vietnamese struggles. We can conclude from this narrative, that the destructive war has not lost its trate of causing conflict and misunderstanding between the Vietnamese people. It shows the state of chaos and confusion that still exists today.
In the second narrative the friendship of Dao and Ho Chi Minh is displayed with the use of past memories where Dao remembers working in the kitchen of a hotel with Ho Chi Minh. In this narrative we get to learn more about Ho Chi Minh's ideals and views on politics and religion. However the crucial part of this narrative and the whole short essay is the part where Ho realises that there are no borders in afterlife, there are no boundaries and none of the issues he worked so hard to solve are solved.
The thing that is bothering this leader throughout the duration of this conversation is not a political issue but simply one of the ingredients has has learned of in his teenage years. This is a symbol of, how at the end of all the fighting and chaotic politics; most of it does not matter.

Blog 2 CA

The movie " The scent of Green Papaya" takes the audience onto a journey of a Vietnamese girl called Miu. However, it soon becomes clear that we, as the audience, are not only on a journey of Miu's life, but also a journey through Vietnamese culture and lifestyle. I therefore believe that this movie is a great introduction to the course, due to the fact that we get background information of a culture and of people who we will start evaluating very soon.
The main concept that has been discussed in this movie is the culture and lifestyle in Vietnam. The creators of the movie have given special care to evaluate Vietnamese culture. Music, communication, family structure, nature, food and even the preparation of the dishes are carefully discussed and presented to the audience. We can simply detect that the movie will have a cultural aspect to it by the first scene where we are shown a frame where father and son play instruments together. We realize that music is not just a tool for entertainment but also a tool for communication and bonding in Vietnamese culture. We see similar bonding between individuals through the use of the piano as the movie progresses. The importance of music in the vietnamese culture is also underlined by the fact that the grandmother always has some kind of musical tool by her side.
The depth of variety in the Vietnamese cuisine, and the vast difference between western eating habits and eastern consumption habits are clearly shown by the movie. The audience is shown how precious food is to the Vietnamese by the vast effort that is put into the preparation and by the scene where the children find ways to consume the food they have, altough they are not very happy about it.
We can see that nature, and especially animals have a big role in Vietnamese daily life. Although very small creatures: many insects and reptiles are represented in themovie: yet again showing the harmony between animals and the humans surrounding them.
The Vietnamese social class is another subject that has been described in this movie. The importance of family structure is shown by therespect given to elders. This isclearly highlighted by the communication between the mother and grandmother. The most interesting concept however is the transformation of a second class working girl, into a beatiful lady that becomes educated and climb up in the social class.
All of these subjects are discussed in the movie " The Scent of Green Papaya" and give us a very general but firm background on Vietnamese culture and lifestyle.

Blog 2 -- AV

The movie, The Scent of Green Papaya is a slow moving film about the daily routines of a girl servant, Mui. She is sold by her mother to another family because her father left them twice. What was really interesting about how the father left was that the first time he left his family; he just came back and was accepted into the family right away. I think that just shows that males in Vietnam are mostly in charge of their families and can do pretty much whatever they want and the wives don’t have much say over it.

I think the differences between how females and males are seen in Vietnam, is obvious throughout the movie. Women are always seen cleaning, cooking, etc. While men are seen ruling them and trying to make every single task of the women more difficult than it really could be. For example, the little kid who went around and knocked over buckets of water, and threw the clean clothes on the ground so that Mui would have to wash them again.

Throughout that film, we can see how peaceful life was in the eye of Mui. There was always peaceful music playing in the background. There are times throughout the movie were planes are heard flying, and the curfew alarms go off a few times. Both of these are put in the movie to let remind the viewer that there is a war going on during that period, and people are trying to live their lives the best that they can, with a war going on. Mui is hopeful and trying to look past the war in her life. This shows how most Vietnamese people were holding on to hope even though the war was destroying their country.

Blog 2 Papaya EP

The Scent of Green Papaya is rich with images that are symbolic of Vietnam and the country's struggles under French and American occupation. Mui, a servant, is very symbolic of Vietnam itself. Mui is a peaceful soul who enjoys studying the details surrounding her. This is reminiscent of the peaceful nature of most Vietnamese people before French colonization. She is hard working and rarely bothers anyone else. Despite her hard work she is often interrupted by outsiders. She is distracted by outside forces, such as the youngest son of the family, who constantly reverse the impact of her work and act disrespectfully. Another way the Mui represent Vietnam is in the world she lives in. The background to Mui's life is never quite. At the least there are crickets chirping. This represents the lack of peace in Vietnam's history. It was always under attack from outside forces. The Vietnamese people never had peace and their history of violent clashes become a normal and expected part of life.
The family's two sons can be seen as America in their treatment of Mui, They destroy her work and constantly involve themselves in her matters while uninvited. The youngest son is very rude to her and shows her zero respect. His actions are very similar to the actions of America when it got involved and ruined the progress that Vietnam had made. Another way the Older son can be seen as America is his action toward hard working ants outside his window. The ants, all working hard for a common goal, represent a communist North Vietnam. The boy has no reason to disturb the creatures yet he goes out of his way to pour hot wax onto them in a manner that represents the use of napalm by American Forces.
The grandmother in the movie represents French colonization of Vietnam. She lives a luxurious life while the people she has working for her have nothing. She has lost touch with the reality of the situation, telling her grandsons to go to school in the summer. While her employees work hard everyday she takes almost everything they accomplish away from them and in turn lives a wealthy life after no work. An example of this is when after cooking the meal there is no soup left for the servants.
Another major symbol in the movie is the young Khuyen. Khuyen represents the wish of the Vietnamese people to have their Independence and their belief that their country would grow. When Mui fist lays eyes on Khuyen she is in love. However she cannot act on her desires because she is a servant to the family, much as Vietnam was a servant to France when revolutionaries began spreading the idea of a free, independent Vietnam. Mui keeps Khuyen on her mind as she continues fulfilling her responsibilities. The movie progresses to a point when the struggle has become so great that the family cannot afford Mui anymore and they must send her off. This is similar to France losing its grip on Vietnam and ending colonization there. Mui becomes the servant of her long time love Khuyen. Khuyen is everything she expected and after some time he realizes he too loves her and teaches her to read. Mui is now free from being a servant and by learning to read she is growing in her capabilities. This progression by Mui represents the Independence of Vietnam and the great progress the nation could make. For its whole life as a country other nations have told Vietnam what its purpose was. When it finally became free it could grow to something beyond its expectations. For years Vietnamese people yearned for an independent country. Mui, like Vietnam eventually get what she wants after much struggle. Also similar to Vietnam Mui begins to grow in many directions after getting her long awaited dream.

Blog 2 LW

“The Scent of Green Papaya” has very little dialogue and plot, but conveys its message through the use of many symbols. The servant girl, Mui, is a symbol for Vietnam itself. As a young girl, her work is constantly interrupted and sometimes ruined by the little boy whom she serves. The boy represents the power that many other countries hold over Vietnam, such as China, Japan, and the United States. Mui is like Vietnam in that she holds no authority over the little boy’s actions because of his higher status over her. The older boy that Mui serves also represents the countries in higher power. The scene in which he pours wax over the ants that Mui had been so fascinated with shows these powerful nations’ grip over the people of Vietnam. In their eyes, the Vietnamese people are nothing more than ants.
At the beginning and end of the film, planes flying overhead can be heard. This is the only signal in the movie that war is going on. Also at the beginning and end, Mui cuts open a ripe papaya revealing the seeds inside. Even though ten years have passed in the movie and the war is not over, Mui holds on to hope. The seeds represent the hope of a new Vietnam, just in its beginning stages, but with the potential to grow.
The film’s conclusion is a love story, in which Mui’s new master, Khuyen, falls in love with her. As his engagement is broken off, he and Mui fall in love and he teaches her to read and write. The final scene depicts Mui reading a poem about a cherry tree. Although the tree can be beaten and battered, it will always remain a cherry tree. This is a clear illustration of Vietnam. Through devastating war and unwanted interference, Vietnam will always remain Vietnam in the eyes of its citizens, and they will continue to be proud of where they come from. Through the use of symbolism, the film does not need a powerful script or plot; the ideas represented through symbols tell the story perfectly.

Blog 2 JKK

The movie “The Scent of Green Papaya” revolves around a servant girl named Mui who goes to work for an affluent Vietnamese family during the Vietnam War. Within the movie there are many symbols of war, nature, and gender roles.
When the movie starts, there are airplane noises in the background that the audience can hear flying over the house. Also, they point out several times throughout the movie that they must be home by a certain time because there is a curfew. These symbols are meant to reiterate the point to the audience that there is a war going on during the movie. The little boy in the movie is seen many times picking on Mui. He goes to the bathroom in a vase that she has to clean, he dangles a lizard over her shoulder, and he almost knocks over her water bucket. His action symbolize the way Vietnam was treated by the various countries that came in and attempted to change the country. The little boy is also seen dripping hot wax on ants, which is very close to the way the Americans used napalm on the Vietnamese people during the war.
The film shows a lot of nature and animals. The whole house is open on all sides, exposing it to the outdoors and all of nature. Mui is often seen admiring the plants and animals, even the ants that are around the house. In the beginning of the movie, Mui is cutting up a papaya and the older servant tells her to throw the rest of it away, but Mui cuts it open and appreciates the seeds inside of the papaya. Mui also watches the papaya tree as the pants leak juice onto the leaves below. These small acts by Mui represent just how much the Vietnamese people care about their land and the nature that they have. The Vietnamese people appreciate the nature that they have and make it a habit to observe it every day.
The roles of the females and males are very apparent in this movie. The servants are only women and are always either cooking for the masters or cleaning the house. The father and is sons are sitting at the table waiting for their food and go to school. The sons don’t get in trouble for their wrongdoings even though they act out and Mui never does. Mui discovers that the husband has left his wife three times before with all of their money and she still welcomes him back into the house. The grandmother tells the wife it was her fault for not being a better wife to him. When he returns to the house, she’s not upset with him, but she is relieved that he has come back to her even though he openly disrespected her.

Blog 2 JJY

The movie “Scent of the Green Papaya” is about a girl Mui and the family she serves. There are many references to the Vietnam War and the culture of Vietnam. Mui is a very innocent child and through her eyes everything seems very peaceful and serene. I think the green papaya represents the peace that the people in Vietnam want. When Mui slices open the papaya the film depicts it as something peaceful and Mui really likes to feel the seeds inside the papaya. Mui is really amused by the papaya. This represents the times before the Vietnam War and the invasion from the Western Countries. The surrounding is a very traditional to the Vietnamese culture. In the beginning in the movie and throughout the movie there are sounds of airplanes flying by. The setting is between 1951 and 1961 when the Vietnam War was going on. The father is also like the countries that have taken control of Vietnam in the way that he always comes and when there are struggles he abandons the family. The planes remind us of the war that was taking place. The curfew also reminds us of the Vietnam War when the people had to be back after a certain time. When the older son of the mistress is killing the ants with the wax I believe that this represents the French controlling the Vietnamese people and not allowing them to have complete freedom. They are not instantly killed, but trapped by the wax and are not allowed to move. In the end when Mui says that things may change, but are from the same peach tree this means that everything will repeat itself. In the movie the first part and second part are very similar. The male cheats on his wife and falls in love with another woman. I think this can relate with the story “A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain” where things repeated Ho Chi Minh and the French first fought and later Mr. Li was killed because he said that the Vietnamese should surrender to Communism. The war was stilling be fought years later. Just like how Mui said things will repeat. The cherry tree at the end represents Vietnam in a way, because no matter how much you hit it the tree will never fall.

Blog 1-- A Good Scent..

“A good scent from a strange mountain” by Robert Butler, is a story about an elderly man, Dao, who is living his last couple of days of his life. The story starts off with Ho Chi Minh visiting Dao and having a short conversation with him. At first, Dao couldn’t believe his eyes. This story is made up into two narratives; in the first one Dao is visited by his friends and family. In Vietnam it’s a tradition for all your friends and family to visit you during your last days because it’s the way that you tell everyone how you feel and see them for one last time. The first narrative is also where Dao things about his past and what he had gone throughout his life. He thinks about what he went through during the political changes in Vietnam.

In the second narrative, when Ho visits Dao they discuss their relationship and talk about when they first met, working in France. Every time Ho visits Dao, his hands are covered in sugar. The reason for that, is because when they were both working together in France, Ho worked in a pastry shop. During their conversation they talk about the time they were both working in France, and how they became good friends. They also talk how Dao believes in Buddhism and it seems that Ho is not agreeing with him.

The overall connection of the two narratives is that in Vietnam, people went through a lot of changes, which we see through Dao’s and Ho’s conversation. This whole story also represents how close Vietnamese people are with each other. For example, when Ho first comes into the story, he says “Dao, my old friend. I have heard it’s time for my visit.” That shows how in Vietnam, people have traditions that no matter, they always try and stick to them. It represents the unity that exist between all the people.

Blog 1 "A Good Scent"

A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain includes two narratives, Dao, who is an older man who is near death, has been meeting with Ho Chi Minh. He mentions how he knew Ho before he was Ho. Ho Chi Minh’s name was originally Nguyen Ai Quoc. They go way back to when they use to shovel snow together. Dao and Ho also worked at the Carlton Museum together in 1917. Ho visits Dao 3 nights in which the story takes place.

Dao has a great memory of his time with Ho and Ho still visits him with sugar on his hands. Dao also tells Ho about his personal life in which he is very concerned about his son in law. I believe this is when the true idea behind this story begins. Dao’s son represents how Vietnam is changing compared to Dao’s time. The change that is occurring is between the population and the government of Vietnam. Many feel the government is against the population of Vietnam. Dao also mentions how he feels that Ho isn’t aware of the person that Vietnam thinks he is. He will always be the Ho that he originally was to everyone not the Ho he wants people to see him as.

Dao and Ho’s relationship has always been strong and they will always think of themselves as the baker they once were. Dao, even though he is unhappy with his family,believes he should try to treat them well and enjoy them in the time that he has left.

Blog One - "A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain"

Throughout the short story "A Good Scent...," there are two main narratives that tie together to present the overall idea of the story. The first of these narratives is the narrative of the story's present-timed reality, involving a dying grandfather who has lived a long, interesting life that connected to the political changes that occurred in Vietnam. This connection includes a friendship with Ho Chi Minh which leads to the second of these narratives, visions experienced in his dying of their shared experiences.

The overall idea of the story but also the essence of the relationship between the two narratives can be extrapolated from the beautifully written last few lines of the story: "I was only a washer of dishes but I did listen carefully...I wanted to understand everything. His kitchen was full of such smells that you knew you had to understand everything or you would be incomplete forever." Though the most interesting part of the story in my opinion were the flashbacks and imaginations of Ho Chi Minh, the most important point made to me was that even as a dying old man, even residing in a new world, even recollecting an old friend, the questions and thoughts about the politics of Vietnam continue in this man's mind even most likely until his death (though we do not witness it).

As a young man, the now elderly man worked making pastries with Ho Chi Minh in Paris, though in their youth they spoke at length about politics and philosophy. At this time, Ho Chi Minh was not the leader that came to be known in the western world but a young man with dreams. In his final days, in his new home in New Orleans, he recollects the murder of a man who was most likely killed because of the clashing of his views of Vietnam against the hopeful ones that the government pushed. From these two narratives, there is certainly a difference in the events, but the constant is that the politics never die and the present is always a battle to realize the correct politics, which comes from my interpretation from "...[having] to understand everything or [being] incomplete."

Blog 1 A Good Scent

A Good Scent From A Strange Mountain, is a short story about an elderly Vietnamese man, who in his last few days reflects upon his life, mostly those that he knew, and the actions that he took. This story takes place over three nights, and each night Dao is visited by Ho Chi Minh, a good friend, and his close family. This procedure is common in Vietnamese culture, and is to be expected. I think that the two narratives used in this piece are Dao’s relationship with Ho, and Dao’s relationship with his family, as he is in his last few days.

While Dao is visited by Ho, they discuss their relationship and the beginning of the relationship. They met while working in France, in a pastry shop, which is why every time that Ho visits, his hand are always covered in sugar. Throughout their discussions they reflect on their time spent in France with great ambitions, and poor conditions, their religious choosing, and how the country of Vietnam was changed by Ho. However, no matter how the conversation turns, it will always come back to the sugar on Ho’s hands, leading the readers to believe that the time that these two spent together working was a very important time in each person’s life.

The second part of this story is how Dao feels about his family. While he does appreciate what his daughter is doing for him, he also feels that some of the family members are being insincere and are only there because they absolutely have to be. He has very strong feelings about his son-in-law, and his grandson, believing that they are involved in the murder of a Vietnamese man in their current city of New Orleans.

I believe that the overlying idea of this story is the history of Vietnam. While it seems clear that Dao has one very vivid memory of Ho, perhaps that is how he thinks that the country of Vietnam also remembers Ho, as a person in one period of time. It is possible that they view him as they want to , and don’t necessarily get, or even want the whole picture. As far as the family goes, I think that his mixed emotions are symbolic of how some Vietnamese citizens feel about the government, as well as their fellow citizens. Some may feel betrayed by their country, others may feel insecure, and others may welcome it. His feelings are very mixed, as are the feelings of the Vietnamese people after the war.

Butler, "A good scent..." Blog 1

In the short story “A good scent from a strange mountain” Robert Butler combines two narratives. The narrator of the story, Dao is a Vietnamese immigrant who is now settled in New Orleans, Louisiana with his family after the war. Since Dao is nearing death and he is using his final moments to spend time with his family and reminisce regarding his past. The first narrative Butler describes is Dao’s memories of Vietnam and especially with his friend Ho Chi Minh. Dao describes Ho Chi Minh carrying a sweet smell in his hands. Dao spent his younger years with Ho Chi Minh working in London and Paris. The second narrative takes place in the U.S where Dao is spending time with his life with his family. Dao suspects that his Son in-law Thang and grandson Loi are involved in a murder of a popular Vietnamese author Nguyen Bich Le. Thang was a former colonel in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam and his grandson was a lieutenant. Although Le was a patriot of the Republic of Vietnam, Dao believes that Thang and Loi killed Le because he wrote an article stating the people of Vietnam should accept communism.

This story opens up with Dao having a dialogue with Ho Chi Minh, who appears in his dreams a few times through the story. Dao explains how each time Ho Chi Minh comes in his dream he gives off a sweet smell. The sweet smell of Ho Chi Minh reminds him of Vietnam and how innocent people were killed in the war. The sweet smell also reminds him of memories that he shared with Ho Chi Minh. Dao speaks to Ho Chi Minh and asks him “Are you at peace, where you are?” Ho Chi Minh replies “I am not at peace” (245). and Dao replies “you won the country. You know that don’t you” Ho Chi Minh Shrugged. “There are no countries here” (245). This seems to suggest that although Ho Chi Minh led his country to victory, he is still not at peace because many innocent civilians were killed.

The second narrative claims that although the war is over people continued to carry on the conflict. The death of Le suggests that people were very passionate about their beliefs even after the war was over. The two narratives combined suggest war and violence will not bring peace in our afterlife. Although Ho Chi Minh and his army won the war he was still not at peace. In the afterlife there are no countries and no politics, therefore we spend our lives fighting for political reasons when in fact in our afterlife politics, war nor do countries exist. “I will never say a word about my grandson. And perhaps I will be as restless as HO when I join him” (249). Dao finally comes to the understanding that he should forget about the past and should try to live in Harmony with his family.

Blog 1 EP

"A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain" chronicles the last days of an elderly vietnamese man's life as he reflects apon almost a century of memories. The main character Dao is visited by his family members in typical viatnemese fashion but he spends most of his time in his own mind reliving the pain and sacrifice that filled his lifetime. Robert Olen Butler combines the naratives of Dao, an ailing Vienamese man, and revolutionary Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh in a tale about two patriots who have come along way from where they were in 1917. In 1917 Dao and Ho Chi Minh lived together in a run down apartment building in London. They both dreamed of a better Vietnam. In his last days Dao is visited by his friend Uncle Ho in a series of latenight visits and he begins to contemplate how the mens' lives changed so greatly in the decades since they once shared a living space and a dream.
Dao is visited by his old friend on the last three nights of his century long life. They lived together and worked together in the kitchen of the Carlton Hotel. Ho was a pastry chef and his hands are covered in glaze everytime he visits Dao. The two share a dream for a better Vietnam. They both hope for equality. The two men quickly take divergent paths but they share a bond, a sticky connection that holds them together. This sticky glaze on Ho's hands is representing of this bond which lasts beyond a lifetime. Dao takes a religious path in life and conformed to buddhism. Ho took a political path and later became a leader of communist North Vietnam. Dao has recollections of sitting peacefully, as taught by his religion, as bombs fell on Ho's North Vietnames Army. Hos political work in Vietnam had created a comunist government that soon fought and tore apart Dao's South Vietnam homeland. Dao remembers his son dying as an innocent bystander to the war. A war faught against Ho's army. This leaves Dao imcomplete and hoping to meet his son in the afterlife. Dao's son was killed by Uncle Ho's army. Ho's "family" was responsible for the death of Daos innocent infant son. Daos descendants are guilty of killing a follower of Ho. A vietnamese man living in America was killed for a newspaper article saying it was time to accept Vietnam's communist government. Dao has reason to believe his son in law and grandson are responsible for the political murder. This murder of a sympathizer for Ho's cause further connects these two friends. Now Ho needs Daos help to remeber how to make the glaze and Dao needs Ho to help him remember the loss and suffering he has experinced for both his homeland and his family. They shared a dream of a peaceful Vietnam and though they took different paths they were both involved in the violence that still wears on the country. These two friends need eachother to remember the almost forgotten memories of their long lives. They started off innocently and they have come full cirlce to again rely upon eachother. The time spent working in the kitchen has kept these two stuck together and though they had once diverged and lived different lives apart they now are back together and still rely on eachother, only this time to piece together their memories.

Butler A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

The short story, “A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain” written by Robert Butler, follows an elderly vietnamese man, Dao, in a late stage of his life. The story is able to combine two different narratives. Dao feeling close to his death, attempts to come to peace with his life and the memories he has. Both the narratives involve Dao being visited. In one narrative he is visited by his family, including his daughter, Lam, son in law, Thang, and grandson, Loi. In the other he is visited by an old friend, Ho Chi Ming.

In the visit by his family Dao seems to want to stay away from a conversation that is against his beliefs. It seems that Thang and Loi may have been a part to a recent murder of a Vietnamese political writer. Dao slowly begins to close his eyes and pretend he is not listening in order to further himself from what he does not want to hear. Eventually his daughter tells them it is time for the family to allow Dao to rest.

In the second narrative Dao has a three night talk with the spirit of a dead friend and political leader Ho Chi Ming. The first words spoken by Ho are, “Dao, my old friend, I have heard it is time to visit you.” This is in reference to the Vietnamese tradition to visit those who are close to their death. The two talk about their memories in Europe and simple things like when they worked in a hotel in England. There is where Ho worked as a pastry chef and Dao as a dishwasher. Talking about these things seems as a way for them to worry less and just remember good times with each other.

The two narratives come together to represent the past and the present of Dao’s life. Not only Dao’s life, but the Vietnamese people who still continue to face hardships even in his new residence in New Orleans, Louisiana, far from where things originated. The two narratives also show the strong Vietnamese connection with their families. Ho was such a part of Dao's past that he is basically a family member to him. The story ends with Dao hoping to find peace in an afterlife with the help of his already dead friend Ho Chi Ming.