Blog 6 CT

While many movies and novels portray the U.S. army as one “team” during the Vietnam War, Komunyakaa shows us otherwise. In his poem Tu Do Street he shows us just how segregated it was at the time. He shows us how nothing has changed just because they are on the same side for the war. Even the Vietnamese have grown accustomed. “America pushes through the membrane of mist and smoke, and I’m only a small boy again in Boglusa. White only signs and Hank Snow.” While all these men fought on the same side during the war it goes back to the way it was before when they all return. For many it meant nothing to them that both black and white men fought during the war they still do not see them as being equal. “Down the street black GIs hold to their turf also.” The black soldiers hold their ground but what are they really protecting. All these men were once the same to the Vietnamese, all fighting against them whether they were white or black and none were welcome in that land.

In A Greenness Taller Than Gods the poem is representing the Napalm that has devastated the Vietnam land. They have destroyed everything this land has made with this chemical that is driving out everyone. Everything seems fierce in this poem and it gives off the color red with the fire and burning it talks about rather than green. These men wish they could move like the Vietcong and are left following them. They say their shadows have gotten lost and I took this as meaning they have lost track of where they are no longer complete aware in their lives, just trying to stay alive.

You and I are Disappearing was, in my opinion, the most graphic of all the poems and also the most emotional. The narrator is just watching this girl burn and did nothing about it. It is coming back to him now and it brings him down more than anything in his life. Through all this fighting he has her on his mind. Not only when he is sleeping but then he imagines just how it happens and makes him deteriorate on the inside. The war has run him down and I think we can see these thoughts as PTSD from the war. The war is coming back to haunt him and he feels there is nothing he can do about it.

Blog 6 - AV

The book Dien Can Dau by Yusef Komunyakaa is compiled of a number of poems written about the Vietnam War. Most of the poems talk about what soldiers went through in the Vietnam War and after, but a few also talk about the racism that was going on in Vietnam.

One of the poems that I really noticed a lot of racism is was Tu Do Street on page 29 is a great example of what it meant to be a black soldier in the Vietnam War. In the poem we see a black soldier going into the bar and tries to order a beer but the bartenders pretends to not understand him, but she understands all of the white soldiers in the bar, but only has a problem with the black one. The only thing that brought blacks and whites together was the fighting. They helped one another survive. The last part of the poem, “there’s more than a nation….to the underworld” (29) shows that the soldiers, white and black, were closer than they really thought. Both races were committing a sin by treating each other wrong, and according to this poem they would all end up in the “underworld”, in other words hell.

The other poem that I found to be pretty interesting was Losses on page 61. This poem was a great description of what happened to soldiers when they came back home from the war. Each verse descries something that they were faced with back home, whether it was PTSD or their girlfriends and wives leaving them because they had changed too much, and were a totally different person. The first verse “After Nam he lost himself, not trusting his hands with loved ones” showed that when soldiers came back they were scared about anything that happened. They weren’t the same confident people that went into the way, they were scared of trusting anyone or letting anyone trust them because they were afraid of letting anyone down. When soldiers return, they have lost so much that they have just lost themselves.

The third poem I found to be interesting was 2517^th Birthday of the Buddha. This poem, I thought, was pretty interesting because it shows how people in Vietnam were so anti-war, that they took great measures to show that they don’t agree. One person lighted himself on fire in the middle of the street. Even today, that’s a symbol that people remember of how much people were against the war. According to the poem, the person who burned himself didn’t feel any pain.

Blog 6 S.S

“Dien Cai Dau” by Yusef Komunyakaa is a collection of poems regarding different aspects of the Vietnam War. Komuyakaa was an African American soldier in the Vietnam War and writes many of the poems from his personal perspective of the war.

“Tu Do Street” on pg 29 is regarding segregation between white and black soldiers. Although white and black soldiers were fighting this war together, white soldier brought segregation even to Vietnam. Black soldiers were discriminated against at “white only bars”. They were not given the same treatment that white soldiers received. “When I order a beer, the mama-san behind the counter acts as if she can’t understand while her eyes skirt each white face”. Only the machine gun fire brings these men closer Komuyakaa writes. White soldiers and black soldiers were touching the same women only minutes apart. Black and White soldiers were fighting the same war, for the same country, and touching the same women. Some of black soldiers felt as if they were fighting for a country that could not even provide them with equal rights.

“2527^th Birthday of the Buddha” on pg 18 shows that not only there was hostility among white and black soldiers but the Vietnamese also faced conflicts. Vietnam was divided among the ones who were ready to retaliate and then one who could not even consider the idea of war. This poem depicts the scene of a Buddhist monk, sitting in a busy intersection and setting fire to his own body. This self- immolation was due to the events and emotions caused by the war. This is image gained tremendous attention worldwide. This was an example of how war affects one’s emotions even if one is not directly involved in the fighting and killing. Since Buddhist monks are heavily spiritually and peaceful individuals war was completely opposite of their beliefs.

“Toys in the Field” on pg 56 uses powerful imagery to describe a scene in the field. In this poem Komuyakaa refers to Vietnamese children playing on an abandoned helicopter. He describes “Using gun mounts for monkey bars, Vietnamese children play skin-the-cat…suspended in doorways of multimillion-dollar helicopters.” The Vietnamese children are similar to American soldiers. American soldiers were very young and they can be viewed as playing with guns and expensive equipment except they were killing people while these kids remained innocent. Towards the end of the poem Komuyakaa writes “for the boy with American eyes who keeps singing rat-a-tat-tat, hugging a broken machine gun”. This is similar to the film Full Metal Jacket, where American soldiers were taught to love their rifles because it would save their lives instead this American eyed kid is hugging the rifle but with no intentions of killing anyone.

Blog 6- AO

Yusef Komunyakaa takes a non traditional way in writing about the Vietnam in his book of poems called "Dien Can Dau". The poems express different themes on the effects of war. Some of these themes include innocence, PTSD,and the hearts of the Vietnamese. Komunyakaa's poem "Toys in the Field" represents the theme of the soldiers innocence. The soldiers who are fighting in Vietnam are still just boys, as if still paying with toys, instead they now need to be real weapons. At the end of the poem when it shows how the soldiers at then end of the war are still just boys who cannot escape what the war has done to them, when it states "Except for the boys with American eyes, who keep singing rat-a-tat-tat, hugging a machine gun" (p 56). Therefore showing emotionally they are unable to to recover from the devastation of the war.
The second poem, "Losses" shows the sense of hopelessness from suffering from PTSD. This is the sense of the soldiers got returning to their homeland after the war was over. They were changed people who could not fit into society and live the same way they had done prior to leaving for Vietnam. Where he still possesses the same instincts as being in the war that only drags him farther into hopelessness.
The third poem, "The Dead at Quang Tri", represents the strong heart of Vietnam. For example when the American soldiers make the reference to the Buddhist boy as gliding by like a white moon. Representing the Vietnamese as a moon where the scene of the moon can never disappear. Therefore showing the message to the American soldiers to whatever they do to the Vietnamese they never fully die away, from their strong hearts.

Blog 6 LW

Dien Cai Dau is written by Yusef Komunyakaa, an African American veteran. His poetry addresses such issues as race, love, returning home and post-traumatic stress disorder, and mainly the experiences of soldiers on the front line.

“Tu Do Street” is Komunyakaa’s way of showing his views on race in relation to the war. The racism that he as a black soldier in Vietnam experiences is all too familiar to the racism he experienced in America. He explains that once again he feels like “a small boy again in Bogalusa”, illustrated by the bartender who pretends not to understand him while serving the white soldiers without delay. In the second half of the poem the author explains that the black and white soldiers are divided, and the only thing connecting them is the war that they are fighting together. He goes on to say that the soldiers share prostitutes, “tasting each other’s breath”. They are more connected than they are aware of. The last few lines of the poem are the most effective in showing how divided but connected the black and white soldiers are: “these rooms run into each other like tunnels leading to the underworld”. The author means to convey that the very rooms in which the soldiers are sharing prostitutes are figuratively the tunnels to the same fate. Both blacks and whites will go to the same underworld. Despite the obvious segregation of the races, they are ultimately connected through the brutality of war.

“We Never Know” shows that some soldiers had some humanity left in them and respected the dignity of the dead, even a dead enemy. The poem is about the killing of an enemy, but the author glorifies the death with pleasant language. First, as the dead man is shot, he “danced with tall grass” and a “blue halo of flies” surrounds him. The author takes the crumbled photograph from the dead man and realizes that he too, is a human. Although it is not explained what the photograph shows, the reader can assume that it was the dead man’s family or lover. This photo makes the author fall in love with the dead man, understanding that the enemy had loved ones and a life of his own just as the author does. It is in this moment that the author decides to turn the dead man over “so he wouldn’t be kissing the ground”. Again, Komunyakaa uses words such as kissing and falling in love to take away from the brutality of the killing, and show a little compassion.

“Thanks” is a poem that relates to the theme of luck. During the war, many soldiers relied on luck as their hope for survival, and death was the sign of one’s luck running out. Throughout the poem, the author is thanking someone or something from saving him countless times from certain death, including a sniper shot hitting a tree and a dud grenade that failed to detonate. Since many soldiers took comfort in belief in supernatural forces were keeping them alive, it is safe to believe that the author may be addressing a guardian angel or some other force: “I know that something stood among those lost trees and moved only when I moved”. This poem is important to the culture of war because soldiers hung on to whatever comforted them. With the possibility of death always present, every soldier had their own way of explaining the unexplainable.

Blog 6 JY

Dien Cai Dau means crazy in the head. This title is very revealing about what the poems will be about.
"A Greenness Taller Than Gods" describes being in the jungles of Vietnam. He describes the devastation in the jungles. How all the napalm has burned the jungles and how the animals are all burning or trying to get away. The soldiers wished that they walked like the trees which are the Vietcong that are one with the jungles. When he talks about the branches quivering after they cross with the VC this shows how they are actually becoming more like the trees, because they are afraid but not making it that noticeable. In the last few sentence he talks about how they are able to maneuver through the forest without making noises and how their shadows left them. The shadows represent their old selves that have left and are now lost. They will never become the same selves that they were before. This poem shows how when they went in the jungles how much the war changed them.
"Tu Do Street" is about the soldier life when they went to R&R. Tu Do Street is a street with prostitution and drug trafficking. This poem is about the racism against the black soldier in the war. "Drawing lines in the dust" represents how the races separated from each other. He talks about how he went to a Vietnamese bar where there is white music playing. The author describes how the war was the only thing to bring the soldiers together. The prostitutes also are the ones that unite the blacks and whites because they are having sex with the same person. This is a common interest that they share.
"Toy in a Field" talks about the post war events in Vietnam. It shows how children used the left over weaponry to play around. Kom describes the children as vulture that silently play on the broken helicopters. Everyone then is able to go home except the illegitimate child that had a white father. He is left alone outside with a machine gun that his father may of had held. This describes how the American soldiers had children unknowingly and how tortured the children were when the soldiers left.
These poems show different aspects of the war but they all depict the hardship that people faced during the war. The only time were race was not an issue was when they were in combat where they have to save each others life. During the time they weren't in country the soldier also reeked havoc on the Vietnamese by having intercourse with prostitutes and then illegitimate children were born. They also lost who they originally were when they went inside the jungle. This is basically about the hardship of the war and the effects of the war years later.

blog 6 jkk

The author of Dien Cai Dau ,Yusef Komunyakaa, is an African American Vietnam veteran who tells his stories through his poetry. In Dien Cai Dau the reader sees many themes that were common throughout the Vietnam War such as racial issues, PTSD, a loss of innocence, and loved ones.
In the poem Sunset Threnody, the author is describing how one of the soldiers longs for his loved one and the memories left behind. Yusef shows the struggle that the soldier deals with in war as he misses a female companion. The soldier watches a young lady in a bar and it makes him think of his own girl that he left at home. The girl is a reminder to the soldier of a girl in his life and he says “How many faces are hers?" (51). This shows that many soldiers in the war that saw her probably put the face of their loved one on her and it made the memory seem more real. Many of the soldiers in the war were young men who did not have a chance to live out their lives with their girlfriends back home and they carried pictures of them and thought about going home to them. The idea of having someone to go home to and someone who loves you back home helped the soldiers in the war get through it and maintain the goal to stay alive and get home. The soldier does not approach the girl and says “I’m still there and halfway to her table where she sits holding the sun in her icy glass” (52). This quote is very symbolic. The soldier says he is halfway to her table meaning he is almost home and she holds the sun in her glass, which is the happiness of being home. Once the soldier reaches the girl, he will be home and happy.
The next theme that is apparent in the poetry is PTSD which can be seen in the poem Losses. Yusef writes about a veteran who is back from war and cannot fit back into society. The opening line of the poem is “After Nam he lost himself, not trusting his hands with loved ones” (61). This soldier went to war and was changed because of the horrific events and killing that he witnessed unfold in Vietnam. The soldier was changed in Vietnam and could not come back to society the same way he left. He did not trust his life with his loved ones he returned to and only felt safe with himself. Yusef shows the soldier walking around by himself acting as if he is still afraid of war and that it will follow him. The soldier is “always with one ear cocked and ready to retreat, to blend with hills…” (61). The soldier is ready to camouflage himself if anything was to happen around him, but he is in society where there is no fighting. The soldier cannot find his place back in society as many soldiers that came back from the war felt. Seeing the destruction and killing that went on in Vietnam scarred many soldiers for life and coming back to a civilized area without fighting was a foreign concept to them. They simply could not adjust back to the way they were because they had been changed and were suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. They had seen too many awful things to come back and live their lives as they normally would have.
The poem Report from the Skull’s Diorama addresses the theme of race within the war and the tensions that were occurring. Yusef writes about a white soldier who is flying in a helicopter above Vietnam to go to a black platoon and take men that were killed. The soldier in the helicopter tells the reader “our chopper glides in closer, down to the platoon of black GI’s back from night patrol with five dead” (47). The white soldier is flying safely above the land in a helicopter while there is a group of black GI’s on land at night. The minorities such as African Americans were discriminated against during the war and were sent to do the more dangerous tasks. The platoon lost five men in one night patrol because they were sent to do the tasks that the white soldiers did not want to do. A symbolic part of the poem comes when Yusef describes the black soldiers by saying “These men have lost their tongues” (47). This quote symbolizes that the black soldiers do not have any say in the tasks they receive and cannot voice their opinions. The black soldiers in the war were treated poorly and sent to do the most dangerous work and essentially were sent to die in the line of fire before the white soldiers went into the area.
These themes are commonly seen in Vietnam veterans and in many stories that are written about the war. The soldiers experienced different combat and areas, but left with many of the same issues.

Blog 6 BJR

The term Dien Cai Dau is the Vietnamese translation of crazy, which is how they described the American soldiers fighting in Vietnam. Dien Cai Dau, is a collection of poems written by Vietnam veteran and journalist, Yusef Komunyakaa. These poems reflect his experiences of the war, and many social issues that go along with the war.
Based on some of these poems, Komunyakaa is able to describe the Vietnam War. There is a lot of mentioning of nature in this collection, and nature seems to be a common factor in the previous books and movies we have read and seen. The writers often use nature to lighten the mood or in a sort of contrast to the war. While Komunyakaa does use this writing technique, he also points out that nature is not always what it seems, and can often have a dark side. Another prevalent opinion of Komunyakaa is the physiological role of the war. I think that he does this to show both the physical and mental distress of the soldiers in the war.
Yet another aspect of this book is the race factor. Several poems deal with him being a black soldier and how certain things affected him. The first poem is Hanoi Hannah. This is the name given to a women who speaks over a loud speaker, directed at the black soldiers. She asks why they are fighting for a country that does not want them, nor respects them. This plays into the physiological warfare aspect of the writing. In Tu Do Street, the black soldiers are refused service to a Vietnamese bar, due to their race. The author raises the point of why they are being treated differently simply because of their race. They are fighting and dying just like everyone else, yet they are still not considered equal. The final story is the One Legged Stool. The points raised here are very powerful. They VC think that they can torture the prisoner until he breaks, and tells them what they want to know. However, the soldier brings up the point that no matter what they do to him, it can be no worse than what he has had to deal with, and will have to continue to deal with from his fellow citizens.
This collection of poems was much more than poems about the war, and typical war stories. These writing samples bring the reader into the physiological warfare, and I think more importantly, it discusses how incredibly different the war experience was for a black soldier, compared to a white soldier.

Blog 6 CA
Yusef Komunyakaa's " Dien Cai Dau" carries a big importance between the Vietnam War literature by using a form of literature that has hardly been used while reffering to the war; poetry. This literary device might not be as descriptive or detailed as the dozens of novels that successfully analyze the war, however it introduces the emotion and vivid interpretation of the war as a completely new concept.
Yusef Komunyakaa has used symbolism, connotation, and vivid memories to represent his emotions and memories of war. His use of the nature and his constant comparison of the war and the individuals to nature, show the reader the influence of wildlife in the life in vietnam.
In his poem " You and I Are Disappearing", Yusef Komunyakaa describes the travma that is whitnessed by every individual in the war. The horryfying sight of a girl burning to death, and its affect to the narrator are described by metaphors and alliteration. We can see how one action is described in dozens of different ways: " She burns like oil on water", " She burns like a cattail torch.". The countless times that the girls burning is describes, shows the reader how deaply the narrator was affected by this happening and how war really scars most for life.
In his poem " We Never Know", the poet describes the death of one of his fellow soldiers. The catcy part of this poem however is not the death of a soldier, it is the way the poet describes his death; the connotation that is used. Words like " danced with tall grass, like he was swaying with a woman", and " turned him over, so he wouldn't be kissing the ground." do not necessarily convey a death, but peaceful actions.
"Toys in a Field" on the other hand analyzes a social aspect of war, its affect on children. It evaluates how vietnamese children get used to play with aggression and with war all around them. How these little minds have to imagine a peaceful world in order to neglect the hatred that surrounds them.
All in all, we can say that Yusef Komunyakaa, uses symbolism, connotation, and vivid memories to represent his emotions and memories of war. He does so by analyzing different situations he had to face, and vividly describes war to the readers.

Blog 5- RR

The movie Full Metal Jacket shows the intensity of war, and how each soldier progresses from basic training to the front lines. We see how much of a drastic change each soldier goes through during this progression. There are three parts of this film that are quite symbolic that show these stages.

The first part of the film shows Sgt. Hartman and his soldiers at boot camp. This part shows the change of a boy into a soldier. It also demonstrates the transformation of the soldiers from individuals to groups, when a soldier loses his individual identity. I think this is very important and symbolic because regardless of what war is being fought, if the soldiers are not working in a group, the mission is hampered. It also shows the different effects that joining the military has on people. We watch Joker become a leader, and at the same time watch Pyle drift slowly into a depression, then committing suicide once he murders Hartman. This specific scene puts military life and war into perspective for the viewer, showing how soldiers are transformed so drastically, for the better or worse.

The second part of the film is when we follow Joker and Rafterman, who work for the military newspaper "Stars and Stripes." This part of the film is significant because it shows the part of war that was not on the front lines. Joker and Rafterman beg to go into the battlefields, not really knowing what they are asking themselves to get into. This shows that although they are trained to kill, they are unaware of the brevity of the actual war. This shows how naive young soldiers can be, and shows their immaturity.

The third part of the film is when Joker and Rafterman finally are allowed into the battlefields to interview soldiers who are fighting. They realize that the frontlines are much different than they imagined, but are soon transformed from desk soldiers to battle soldiers. They become less sympathetic to death, and begin to mesh into the squad. This part shows the transformation of soldiers from boys to men, from trained fighters to actual killers. This also shows how soldiers can lose regard for human life when faced with so much death during wartime. This is shown when Joker shoots the woman sniper point blank toward the end of the movie to kill her. Before he was assimilated into the squad, he had trouble looking at a corpse.

I believe the Mickey Mouse song had a couple of connections to the film. One connection I made was the main idea of a group. When we think of the Mickey Mouse song, we think of the Mickey Mouse Club, a group of children, etc. At the end of th movie, they are singing the song together, as a group, not as individuals. This symbolizes the strong, undying bond that soldiers have with their squad and platoon members. The song could also symbolize that although they are killing machines and have transformed from boys to men in the battlefield, they may still be young and too naive to understand that gravity of the situation that faces them.

Blog 4-RR

Flash fiction stories is a form of fiction literature that is usually 1,000 words or less. Because of the shortness of this type of fiction, every word in each story counts. In Richard Currey's "Fatal Light", this type of fiction is used throughout the book. Each chapter was very short, sometimes ending abruptly, leaving the reader to wonder what was next. Also, some of Currey's chapters did not link together; one chapter talked about a completely different subject than the next. I think that this benefits the ideas of the novel for a few reasons. First, based on what we know about the Vietnam War, we know that events that took place were full of abrupt endings. A firefight would begin, and before the soldier knew it, the jungle would be silent. This is what I think of when I think of flash fiction within a war scene. It also benefits the ideas of "Fatal Light" because it seems that Currey is trying to convey a different idea other than the story (or stories) itself. The shortness and sometimes random nature of his chapters showed what the war was like to the soldiers. Though their life often seemed monotonous, full of the same duties as each day went on, they never knew what was going to happen next. Their time in the war was unorganized and chaotic, much like the chapters of the book. Also, there were many instances in the book where events took place that could have been explained in depth, much like one of Tim O'Brien's chapters of battles. However, Currey chose to keep these chapters short, only offering a glimmer of the whole picture. I believe that this represents a soldier's experience during the war. For example, in chapter 10, the platoon was told by intelligence that NVA may be moving closer to their direction. Then, the only other description of this event was that there was a sound and a description of what it may have been. We have no other knowledge of how this ended, if there was a firefight, if anyone died, or if it was a false alarm. The anticipation it leaves the reader mimics the anticipation that a soldier would have felt that that very moment.

Blog 5 JY

Full Metal Jacket follows Joker who goes through military training and then becomes a reporter in the Vietnam War. The movie is separated into three parts that depict different parts of the war. The first part of the war is the military training they receive on Parris island. The very beginning shows the soldier getting their heads shaved. This shows how they are losing their innocence and all becoming uniform soldiers. Pyle was one of the recruits on Parris Island. When the instructor first goes up to him he is smiling. This depicts how before the military the soldiers were innocent and still were happy civilians. Then as the military training goes on the audience see how the soldiers are getting in unison and trained to kill the enemy. The audience also see how Pyle gets more into a mental delirious state. He is left behind and is constantly yelled at by the instructor. The only part of the training he excelled in was the shooting. In the end when they all become killers, Pyle kills the instructor and himself.
Part two starts with Joker in the Vietnam War and is with his partner Rafter Man. They are photographers for the Stars and Strips, the army newspaper. The newspaper is propaganda so that the army can look good and make the people in America believe that the war is going well. Joker wrote an article about a mission where Americans were shot and killed. The editor then tells Joker to make it sound like Vietcong were killed. This part depicts how the war was very disliked and opposed against.The part ends with the Tet Offensive where American bases were attacked during the Vietnamese New Years.
Part three starts off when Joker is sent of to the combat zones. He meets his friend from Parris Island, Cowboy. They go on a mission and mid way they walk into a trap where one soldier is killed. They then enter an area where a hidden sniper injures one of the soldier. The sniper tries to lure in more soldiers into the area. One more soldier goes in and gets shot. Then they all decide to find the sniper. At this point Cowboy gets shot and Animal Mother leads the soldiers into the building. They find out that the sniper was a little girl. When they shoot here they see her on the floor in pain. Animal Mother wants to leave her to die, but Joker says that they should do something. Later she says to kill her and Joker ends up killing her. This part shows the brutality of war. How even kids were included in the war. It also showed how a helicopter gunner shot innocent civilians. Then he said how running Vietnamese are Vietcong and ones that stand still are brave Vietcong. This basically labeled all the Vietnamese enemies.
The whole movie tries to show what a soldier goes through since the very beginning. They are trained to become killers and it shows when Joker kills the child. In the end the soldier are singing the Mickey Mouse song. Mickey Mouse represents innocence and purity. This is ironic because they are solider and have killed people yet they still have the innocence of a child.

Blog 5 LW

“Full Metal Jacket” is a Vietnam War film that is divided into three parts showing the experience of Private Joker, a Marine who is trained, shipped to Vietnam, and placed in the middle of combat. The first section of the film follows Private Joker’s training as a Marine, along with his friend Private Cowboy and the dim-witted Private Pyle. This section of the movie shows how even before these boys saw combat, they were trained to kill and no longer be an individual. They belonged to the core, whose one mission was to destroy the enemy. Private Pyle’s breakdown is the climax of this section; the mental and physical beating becomes too much for him and he kills the Sergeant and then himself. This illustrates the loss of self that occurs as a soldier is prepared to be a killing machine.
The second section of the film is when Joker is in-country but not in combat. He is in the protection of the city and the Marine base, writing exaggerated news articles to boost the morale of the soldiers. Joker and his photographer and friend, Rafter Man, are both anxious to see action. Joker claims to have been in combat, but really lacks any real experience. The purpose of this part is to show that these men think that they are prepared for anything, ready to kill, ready to die. However, they have no idea what they are really getting into. Even when the base is lightly invaded by the enemy, Joker says he is not ready for it, even though he continues to claim he has had so much experience in the field.
The final part of the film is when Joker and Rafter Man are assigned to Cowboy’s squad, where they meet Animal Mother, Eight Ball, and other soldiers who have been in “The Shit” for a while, and have been forever changed. Joker finally sees the combat he had been anticipating for so long, but unfortunately he if forced to watch Cowboy and other soldiers die, and he must kill his first enemy. This part of the film shows that despite all the training in the world, nothing can prepare a soldier for the reality of combat. Also, we are introduced to Animal Mother, a soldier who is completely nihilistic and bloodthirsty. He represents every soldier who loses all feeling in the war and truly is a killing machine. When combined, the three parts of the film show the brutality or war and its effect on the lives of everyone involved.
The end of the film shows the soldiers marching through a destroyed city singing the Mickey Mouse theme song. Stanley Kubrick used a lot of interesting music choices throughout the film, and this one was used to reiterate how young and previously innocent all of these boys were. Also, it shows the cohesiveness of the squad, that they truly are a brotherhood and close group, as the Mickey Mouse Club was. It shows the contrast between the fun-loving nature of the television program as opposed to the terror of warfare.

Blog 5- AV

The movie Full Metal Jacket by Stanley Kubrick is broken up into three parts. Individually each part tells an important piece of the war and the process that soldiers went through. When combined together, the three parts show what soldiers went through from the very beginning.

The first part of the movie is when all of the soldiers are in training and preparing for war. I thought this part was the most interesting and most important when looking at the whole Vietnam War and soldiers went in and how they came out of the war. In this part the audience is able to see how the drill instructor was trying to prepare the soldiers for war. We see the drill instructor treating them horribly because he wants them to lose all emotion and have no feeling for anything. One thing that I found interesting was how the drill instructor was telling everyone that they were killers, and they must kill everything they see. These soldiers knew nothing else when they went to war, killing was their only priority. This explains why many soldiers, when they come back from war they look like animals to us, and have no feelings. That’s what training taught them, and for many years that all they did.

The second part of the film shows what people, like reporters, who were not in the front line fighting for their lives, were doing. In this part we can see the other part of war that we’re not used to, the part where people are not shooting until their base was attacked. One thing I found interesting was when Joker, one of the reporters, was talking about how he wanted to experience being in the front line and fighting and that he was ready for it. However, when their base was attacked, and they all grabbed their guns to defend themselves, Joker said that he wasn’t ready for this. This just shows that the soldiers never really knew what they would they be facing when they got to war, until they were actually in the front line, fighting for their lives.

The last of the movie is when we really see what war is really like. This part shows us what we are used to when we think of war, people shooting at the enemy and many dying. In this part we also see how the reporter, Joker, who has never been in the front line fighting, hesitates when he is faced with whether or not to kill the young girl who just killed his three good friends. All the other soldiers are teling him that they don’t care and will shoot her in a heartbeat, but Joker can’t. He finally does, but this just shows how even though they all went through training, people who didn’t fight in the front line, still have emotions, however the soldiers who were used to it, don’t even think twice because they don’t feel anything.

The last few minutes of the movie, we see all the soldiers singing the Mickey Mouse song. I think this scene is put in the movie to show that these soldiers were young and they were forced to kill on a daily basis, and not have any emotion towards it. I think it might also show that they are still young, even though they are trying to be taught and grown up.

Blog 5 CT

The film Full Metal Jacket by Stanley Kubrick depicts the journey through the Vietnam War of one marine. Throughout the movie we see the intensity the soldiers go through for training and combat. The movie contains three parts that include the basic training the soldiers receive before war, Joker becoming a sergeant in Vietnam with the Stars and Stripes, and finally serving on Cowboys Platoon until he gets shot.

During basic training the soldiers are interrogated until they are no longer scared and want to be fighting machines. Hartman is tough on his guys so they will be ready for Vietnam and real combat. On one man he is particularly tough on and it eventually gets to Pyle’s head. We get to the scene where he is singing the Mickey Mouse song and he eventually shoots Hartmann in the chest and kills him, and then proceeds to kill himself. This shows how much the marines have to go through before even getting there. Through the training we realize that these men are just young men. They will be ready for anything that comes to them.

The second part to the movie shows Joker in Vietnam. We see that he has few worries writing for the military journalism. At the same time we also see that his friend’s camera gets stolen while they are talking to the prostitute. They are forced to make the U.S. believe that everything is going well in the U.S. Private Joker, who hasn’t even been involved in combat, is writing pro war stories.

The final scene shows the reality of war for Private Joker when he finally goes into combat in Vietnam. Throughout the movie we first see Private Joker show up to the training camp looking innocent and joking around but the final scene shows him shooting a Vietnamese sniper woman and we realize that just like the others he has transformed into a fighting machine just like Hartmann wanted. We have now seen the brutality of war and how is has affected them and the last scene is the young boys marching off to the Mickey Mouse song and it just reminds us how young they are. They truly are not men like they have forced to train as, they are still young boys fighting to stay alive.

Blog Five NC

The three parts of Full Metal Jacket are the training, the graduation (DI and Pile's deaths), and the war. The first part of the movie expresses the psychological idea of the film in terms of the experiences of the soldiers. The soldiers are compared to the DI, who is the military extreme, to Pile, who is nearly the opposite of the military ideal. Their journey through basic training examines the human element of the soldiers before they are deployed. The second part of the movie examines anticipation, as the soldiers receive their assignments and realize that they will soon be going to Vietnam. Though this part is relatively small compared to the others, it is integral as a transition to the war as Joker experiences an almost war-like experience as he is about to be deployed. The third part of the movie is in Vietnam, in which the soldiers are exposed to the war, lives are lost, and the reflection of the first part of the movie is seen in how they deal with the situation in which they must survive. Together, the three parts demonstrate the war as a vehicle for the American men drafted in the military to go through a transformation as a child becomes an adult, but the final scene in the movie in which Joker is confronted with the sniper changes the entire idea of the war as the sniper, though seen with disdain among many of the soldiers, seems to be too human and does not seem to be fighting as the Americans fight. To clarify, the sniper seems to lack certain freedoms and experiences that the soldiers were blessed with and did not have the idea of the military family but the ideas of survival against an invading force, and for this reason Joker seems to not be angry at the sniper even after killing off friends but compassionate for everything the sniper is rather than what the sniper had done; he reaches a sense of understanding of everything that is going on in Vietnam.

The Micky Mouse song parallels the "Eskimo Pussy" song in that it builds comraderie, as the words of the song illustrate. More than that, it is a happy and cheerful song, and seldom in the film are there real smiles. There are jokes cracked, but no one is truly happy with what is going on the film, and the idea of transition of adulthood also means a taking of innocence with both the transitions and the actions that the soldiers execute, so the song is a reachout back to childhood, innocence, happiness, and all the things that the soldiers want but can never have.

Blog 5 JKK

The film “Full Metal Jacket” is split up into three parts to show the soldiers different phases through the war. The first stage of their progression is a training camp. Then the film moves to the protagonist Joker and his time in Vietnam as a journalist. The final transition in the film is when the young soldiers are in combat in the jungles of Vietnam.
In the first stage, the soldiers are sent to Parris Island where they must learn to function as a group. The young men are sent to training and broken down physically and mentally so they can be built back up with the idea of killing in their minds. The protagonist in the film is known by Joker and is assigned to help another soldier named Pyle who struggles to keep up and is mentally slower than the rest of the group. The sergeant drills them into becoming killers and desensitizes them. He works them down until the only thing they know is to kill. Pyle shows the audience that killing is all they know when he snaps and kills the sergeant and then commits suicide. This stage shows the change from innocent young men to killing machines that are being sent to war.
In the second stage of the film, Joker is seen as a journalist in Vietnam. His job is to persuade the United States citizens that the events in Vietnam are positive and that America is doing well. At the base that Joker is located there is not much action to be seen, but an editor tells Joker to report about Americans killing Vietnamese officers during combat. The article is to please the American people even though many are against the war already. The government wanted support from the public and were going to go to lengths like lying to get that support. At the end of this stage, Joker meets the soldiers that he is going to be fighting with in combat.
In the final stage of the movie, Joker is with his friend from Parris Island, Cowboy, because they are in the same company when they go out to fight. Until now, Joker has only seen training and a military base where he would write his articles. While roaming in Vietnam, a sniper shoots down one of the soldiers in their company and as another goes to help him, he is shot as well. With two soldiers shot, the company goes to find the sniper and shoots her. The sniper is a young Vietnamese girl, which is unexpected and shows that in the Vietnam War, everyone was fighting and everyone was involved. The face of the enemy was a young girl who had lost her innocence, just like the young soldiers fighting against her. When they catch her they shoot her, but she does not die she is just badly wounded. She begs for one of the soldiers to shoot her again to kill her so she won’t have to suffer. Joker shoots her in the head and she dies. This is the first time Joker has seen combat in Vietnam and the first time we see him kill someone. This is the part of the film where Joker has fully transitioned from a young man into an emotionless killer.
At the end of the film, the young soldiers sing and march to the Mickey Mouse song. This shows that even though these young men have seen horror and death, they are still young and it shows the audience that they still have some innocence left in them. They must kill the enemy in order to ensure their survival, but are still young at heart and can sing Mickey Mouse songs when they are killers. This song also reminds the boys of their childhoods and home which is a memory that they can hold onto when they are in Vietnam.

Blog 5 AO

"Full Metal Jacket" is a film that has three sections that each show a different story, but in the end they all form together to show one message about the Vietnam War. Through all the sections they show how the main character Private Joker develops from being a boy to a marine to a killing machine in the middle of combat.
The first part of the movie where Private Joker and the rest of his platoon are in basic training camp. This is where young innocent boys are brainwashed to become killing machines. For example Leonard who is a happy boy that cannot stop smiling in the beginning, forms into being a possessed killer who does not even make it to Vietnam before he kills himself. This shows the impact the marines had on the soldiers before even entering the actual war in Vietnam.
The second part when Private Joker is a journalist for The Stars and Stripes in country but out of the war zone. This is where private joker writes pro-war stories, without knowing what war was really like. Therefore showing one cannot write a war story unless one has truly experienced the war.
The last part when Private Joker actually enters true combat zone with Private Cowboys Platoon, shows the realty of the Vietnam War. The war was no typical war, unlike the rules one thinks of war. For example the movie ends with Private Joker shooting the girl sniper who shot three platoon members. This final section has shown how much Private Joker's character has changed, into shooting a Vietnamese women. The very last scene of the movie ends with the platoon marching off after the girl is shot with a mickey mouse song playing in the background. This song was a very symbolic song. The Club part of the song shows how these guys are now always going to be in a group with one another as Vietnam veterans. Where the Mickey Mouse part shows how there young innocent boys had to be turned into men, when in reality they are still just boys. Overall this movie shows to be an anti-war movie. With all the sections coming together to show the harsh reality of war, and the impacts it had on the individuals involved in the war.

Blog 5 JV

Full Metal Jacket directed by Stanley Kubrick is a Vietnam War film centered on the progression of a soldier and not so much the fighting that went on. At the start of the movie there are three main characters that are focused on. These three are Joker, Pyle, and Cowboy. As the men begin their training on Parris Island, certain things become clear as to what abilities are suited for whom. Pyle is an overweight soldier who struggles through most of the basic training. Due to his lack of athleticism he becomes an outsider and dedicates his time to his rifle. Throughout the training Pyle has become so mentally unstable that he ends up shooting his drill instructor, Hartman, as well as himself. This is an example of how much a person can change. The first day Pyle could not help himself from smiling and on the last day he seemed insane.

After Parris Island, the movie focuses on the movement of Joker to the military newspaper, Stars & Stripes, in Vietnam. There Joker is told to spice up his stories to make the readers want to back the war more. In an article Joker writes he is told to lie and say the US soldiers killed when they did not. This shows how there was a struggle for the American civilians and soldiers to want to be involved in the war. This is also true when Rafterman says “We’re supposed to be helping them, and they shit all over us every chance they get.” The soldiers felt as if they were underappreciated in the war.

On the way to Joker’s new relocation in the helicopter the gunner says, “Anyone who runs is a VC anyone who stands still is a well disciplined VC,” as he is blatantly shooting Vietnamese farmers. This is an example of how the soldiers got to the point where they did not care who they killed as long as they weren’t the ones that were getting shot. The gunner made it seem as if nobody was off limits to kill.

Towards the end of the movie Joker has joined Cowboys platoon. There is a standoff with a sniper in an abandoned building who kills multiple soldiers. The twist of the situation was that the Vietnamese sniper was female. After a gun fight the movie culminates with Joker being the one that gives the fatal shot to put the woman out of pain. This shot is the complete transformation for Joker. Then the movie ends with the innocence of the Mickey Mouse Club song sung by the soldiers to contradict what the soldiers have become.

Blog 5 S.S

The film “Full Metal Jacket” by Stanley Kubrick is organized into 3 different parts with each revealing an important story about the war. Each part separately tells a different story however when combined it tells a unified story about the Vietnam War.
The first part of the film takes place at a Marines Training facility. This is where the Soldiers receive basic training. The soldiers are put through rigorous obstacles to tests their physical capabilities. The Soldiers are not only prepared psychically but also mentally. Sergeant Hartman repeatedly asks the soldiers whether “they are killers?” Or whether they “they love their rifles”. The men are trained to act and behave like killers. This was clearly evident in the situation with Private “Pyle”. Pyle is an innocent kid but often lacks motivation. Hartman often punishes Pyle and the rest of the soldiers for Pyle’s mishaps. Hartman asks Private “Joker” to motivate and train Pyle. Pyle slowly starts picking up the slack and becomes an excellent shooter and excels at training. Pyle become so involved that it overtakes him mentally. With all the emotions bottled inside Pyle decides that he is in fact a killer. Pyle kills Sergeant Hartman and then shoots himself with his own rifle. The first part of the film shows the innocence in the boys who are now soldiers. Many young men drafted to Vietnam were not mentally ready to face an atrocity such war. The fact that they were drafted meant that they had to be prepared physically and emotionally.
The film suddenly shifts directions while showing no emotions towards the tragedy that took place at training. The second part of the film begins at a base in Vietnam. This is where we meet Private Joker as writer for the Stars and Stripes newspaper. Stars and Stripes’s editor Sergeant Lockhart asks the writers to spice up their articles by using specific language. Lockhart implies that Joker needs to show that the Americans are winning the war by showing blood and death of the Vietnamese. Lockhart also admits that the war is unpopular amongst Americans therefore the newspaper will help win people over. This is evident that there is a disconnect between different the ranks and positions in the war. Lockhart admits that he does not want to be on the front lines fighting. The soldiers who are on the front lines are watching their best friends and brothers getting killed while a newspaper editor is more concerned about dressing up the killings to win support.
The final part of film takes place in combat. Private Joker and Private Hasterman are sent on a mission to write a story about the war. While on the mission Joker reunites with Private “Cowboy” from the first platoon and Joker and Hasterman decide to go on a mission with the first platoon. During the mission with the first platoon, Joker witnesses his first combat death. 8-ball and the medic both get shot by the sniper. The men set out to find and kill the sniper meanwhile Cowboy is also shot and get killed. When faced with the decision to kill the sniper we discover that the sniper is in fact a woman. Hasterman shoots her while Joker does not find the courage. Although these young men were soldiers they often had to make tough decisions to kill other individuals. This scene showed Jokers innocence as a young man. Although he was soldier he still did not have the courage to take someone life away. Joker eventually has to kill her to take her out of her misery.
The final scene in the film shows the men walking after the battle singing the Mickey Mouse Club song. This song implies that war takes everyone innocence away because if you do not kill your enemy he or she will kill you. These young men were often forced to make fierce decisions to take the enemy’s life away. After witnessing so much at a young age these boys were transformed into men. The director brilliantly joins 3 different segments of the film together to create a powerful film.

Blog 5 BJR

In the movie Full Metal Jacket, there are three main parts. The first part is when the soldiers are in boot camp and they all go through all of the training that they will need, and ends with Private Lawrence shooting Gny. Sgt. Hartman, and himself. The next part of the movie is about how Joker goes about his work in the back lines, and how light he has it. This part ends with the assault on the base during the Tet Offensive. The third and final part starts with Joker and Rafterman going in country to join up with Cowboy’s squad. This part goes until the end of the movie when the squad takes over the village, and they all start to sing the Mickey Mouse theme song.
The first part is just training and preparation for the war, and combat. This is the transition of boys to men, and from men to killing machines. It lays out how the movie will go and the main characters in the movie. The next part is how the war was for them men in the rear. It mainly follows Joker while he does his reporting. He is upset about how they paper goes about its writing, often telling the readers what they want to hear, and not what is actually happening. This part shows a different side to the war than people are used to seeing. For the most part, they go about their business in peace, until the base is attacked. In this attack, the reporters all grab their weapons and resort back to their training to fight back the offensive. The third and last part shows the gruesome and realistic part of war. We see men getting killed, and the realism of the war. After Cowboy is killed, the remaining members of the squad go into the building to find and kill the sniper, and find out that it is a young girl. They want revenge for their fallen brothers, but they also struggle with killing this now defenseless person. In the end, they kill her, and that part shows how the men have changes from their time spend in basic training on Parris Island.
I think that they sing the Mickey Mouse song for three main reasons. The first is to show how these men have changed from being boys. Mickey Mouse is a symbol of youth, and this shows how these men were forced to grow up, possibly before their time. The second reason that hi think these men sing the song is because the song is about being a member of a group, and that is a very important aspect of war. All of these men are fighting on the same side, and they are all connected through the bonds that they share. The third reason is because of the Americanism of the song. Mickey Mouse is an American figure, and at the time, America was involved in many worldly affairs, whether they wanted us there, or didn’t.

Blog 5 EP

Full Metal Jacket by Stanley Kubrick portrays one marine's journey through the Vietnam War. The movie is split into three parts, basic training, Joker's time serving with stars and stripes and Joker's servinvg with Cowboy's platoon during the Tet Offensive. During basic training the group of future marines is broken down into fighting machines. They lose their rawness and innocence. They become fighting machines. During Joker's time with stars and stripes he lives a pretty care free lifestyle writing peices of war journalism. His partner Raffterman wanted more action but Joker told him that that was a bad idea. When the camp is hit with artillery and all the marines must act to defend the camp the innocent writers were forced into the war headfirst. Rafterman got what he wanted. The innocent writers lost their innocence when they had to fight when they had to defend the camp. The new to battle writers become fighting machines from that moment forward. When the two men go to fight with Cowboy's platoon they become even more battle hardened as they see war up close and personal. The men further lose their innocence and become fighting machines. The two men can be seen experiencing the thousand yard stare. The men are not completely damaged by the war. They have become the strange, war crazed soldiers that they looked at with contempt. The movie as a whole shows how the Vietnam war took the innocence from everyone who served there. The war made them all love kill and look forward to the next chance they got to kill the enemy. Kubrick makes this film to show that the war took the innocence away fromevery american soldier that served and made them into a total animal.
The mickey mouse song at the end of the movie is very symbolic. When Private Pyle has the gun in the head at basic training the Drill Sgt. runs in he asks "what is this mickey mouse shit?" Pyle's actions were mickey mouse because they were insane and crazy and he was doing something he would have never done had the war not broken him down mentally. By the end of the movie all of the soldiers had lost their innocence. They had all been made crazy and become the animal that Pyle had become. In effect they had all joined the mickey mouse club when they were mentally broken down and driven to near insanity by the events of the Vietnam War.

Blog 5 CA

The Movie " Full Metal Jacket" has been produced by Stanley Kubrick in 1987, and has become a classic between the many war movies who intend to show the audience the real face of war. We can say that "Full Metal Jacket" has accomplished this goal thoroughly by investigating the pre-war training soldiers are put through in order to become killing machines, the journalist and media aspect of war and its importance in propaganda and on sight conflict and its effect on each and every individual.
Some of the most basic concepts in war are analyzed in the first quarter of the movie. The long speech by the overly vocal Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, prepares both the soon to be soldiers and the audience to the upcoming war. The simple goals of the training are to inflict a sense of aggression towards the enemy and equality towards the fellow soldiers. These goals are expressed by the quotes " You will be a weapon!", and " Here you are equally worthless!". We can see the transmition of each and every soldier in the training. They are transformed from normal citizens to killing machines. Especially the case of Leonard Lawrence clearly analyzes the change in character that is inflicted by the training.
The second part of the movie follows Joker and his days as a journalist. It is clearly shown in this middle part of the movie; that the war journalists goals are propoganda and pro-war story telling, instead of portraying the basolute truth. The importance of this part of the movie becomes clear, once we realize that this same the same situation is valid for todays war reporters and journalists.
The third and last part of the movie takes the audience to the front lines and investigates the stress level that each trooper has to endure on a daily basis. We see how horrifying events cause soldiers to become numb to any kind of emotion or rationality. Many concepts like the thousand yard stare, the irony of war for peace and the ethics of killing are investigated and presented to the audience in a vivid manner. The Mickey Mouse song at the end conveys how brutality and death can be manipulated with and be represented by a fictional character.
All in all the movie " Full Metal Jacket" is a masterpiece which criticizes and analyzes war, hereby making the audience evaluate its validity in our society.

Blog 4- AV

“Flash Fiction” is a form of fiction literature. Flash fiction stories are short fiction stories, anywhere from 300 to 1000 words. They are known for their extreme brevity, thus making every word count. Richard Currey’s book Fatal Light is a good example of flash fiction writing. I think that this book really benefited from flash fiction because each one of the chapter is not longer than a few pages, thus making it much easier for the reader to comprehend what’s going on.

One of the main reasons why Currey writes this book in flash fiction, I thought, is because it’s a good representation of what happened in Vietnam. None of the chapters go into detail about each event because how it really was in the war. Everything happened so fast, there was time for anyone to really thing about all the small details. Also, as a reader you don’t have to think about the small details in the story, since everything is being told so fast, you just pay attention to the most important information.

One of example is chapter 6 of Saigon. The sergeant asks where he had done time, and the narrator answers him, and that’s the end of it. This chapter could’ve easily taken 15 pages to write about in a regular fiction book, but in flash fiction the author was able to get his message across and do it in only about two paragraphs.

Blog 4 CA

"Flash Fiction" is a type of fictional literature that is not used as often as others. This might be due to the fact that in order to convey the fiction to the readers, lots of detail and depth is demanded. However, there are occasional cases where the author can bring across exactly what he wants, with the minimum amount of words. This is what we are experiencing with Richard Currey's fiction " Fatal Light".
Currey brings across his message with few striking words, that create vivid images in the readers mind. He uses a technique which is often used in war; efficient, surprising and effective strikes which barely last a minute. The amount of information and feeling that he hereby delivers to the reader is surprising and overwhelming. It is this way, that he keeps the reader interested and wondering. It is this kind of unusual fiction which he uses to make the reader feel fear for having to leave home for war; feel the terror of being a medic constantly risking his life; and his confusion about this world and its ways of functioning. His short glimpses of memory convey war and the state of chaos, portraying hectic and terror as a life style. Once again showing the readers the intensity and reality of vietnam.

Blog 4 CT

In The Fatal Light by Richard Curry, he uses flash fiction to keep the reader hooked to the book on a topic that many may find depressing. First off flash fiction is the use of very few words between 300 and 1000 to describe a story. Curry sticks to this and that is why his chapters are so short. I don’t think I would’ve enjoyed the book as much if he made longer chapters due to the heavy stories he was telling. With the short length the chapters to go by fast and you want to get to the next one.

While Curry was describing what it was like to be part of Vietnam and survive the war. With the use of short chapters it makes it feel more like we don’t know what will happen next just like the soldiers in Vietnam were feeling. But being able to use few words it means Curry had to get right to the point and choose his words very carefully. During the book you feel that Curry did not elevate anything to make it seem worse or better he just told it how it was. Also the quick chapters could reflect Curry’s how fast his mind was going everyday of the war. He didn’t have time to think about much besides staying alive and supporting his group.

I thought The Fatal Light was much like how David and Marc were describing it to us, intense and not sure how much longer you will be around. The use of flash fiction makes the novel easier for the reader and much more intense at the same time.

Blog 4 S.S

“Flash Fiction” refers to a short story that is written using 300 to 1000 words. Flash Fiction stories are known for their brevity therefore choice of words is crucial. In “Fatal Light” Richard Currey uses concise language to tell his stories. This novel benefits from flash fiction form of writing because similarly the Vietnam War also consisted of many different events and which happened quickly. Each day was different and soldiers did not know whether they would be alive the next day or the next hour. Each chapter represents different stages of the soldier’s experience. The story went from the protagonist being home in the US to being drafted to Vietnam, to being sick in the hospital to Saigon and then finally home to the US.
Currey effectively uses flash fiction to depict the life of US soldiers through the various stages. Currey creates a universal story instead of telling the story through the lens of only one specific character. Many soldiers left girlfriends, grandparents, parents and friends just as main character of this story did. Each chapter describes a different event. The book jumps around from one topic to another to portray the extremity of war and to show how each day was different for the US soldiers. Therefore using a form of flash fiction accurately depicts the lives of the US soldiers in the Vietnam War.

Blog Four NC

The form of flash fiction benefits the ideas of the novel by keeping things simple and allowing the reader to focus in on individual ideas through each chapter/story. Using a child character, his writing explores the Vietnam experience through the perception of light. The use of light is made to show contrasts and give detail of the experience, but he does not romanticize about it. This explains the title "Fatal Light," that the experience of light, often a symbol of life, meant often death in Vietnam.

The use of flash fiction also allows for brutality to be better explored, as instead of being nested into a bigger collection of paragraph, he simply states things how badly things were and aims for the reader to try to comprehend the harshness of the war. The detail is well-written in each chapter and in seeing the style of flash fiction, it made the book what it is. Chapter 2 of malaria is a great example where the chapter itself is no more than a paragraph but if not written in flash fiction, that paragraph may have taken 10 pages. This method saves us reading times and delivers a more powerful message.

Blog 4 LW

“Flash fiction” refers to a style of writing short fiction. An author uses extreme brevity in telling a story in order to be concise and meaningful. Every word, sentence, and paragraph has a distinct purpose in the story and must be carefully written so that the reader gets the full emotional impact without reading many words. This style of writing can be more significant to the reader than a long novel because it is abrupt and carefully constructed.
“Fatal Light” by Richard Curry is a fine example of flash fiction because the ideas presented in the novel benefit from the shortness of the chapters. Each chapter contains scenes that are not in immediate succession from each other. Especially in the chapters that involve the narrators experience in direct combat, the chapters are extremely short and choppy with incomplete sentences, signifying the intensity of battle.
The chapters that involve the homecoming of the soldier are also brief. The narrator feels disconnection with the world, which is accentuated by the harsh abruptness of the chapters. Curry uses this style so that the reader can get a short but considerable look at each aspect of the soldier’s life before the war, in direct battle, in Saigon, and returning home. Each description, because of its shortness, is directly honest and not glorified. Every idea in the novel is well represented in this short style. The soldier’s fear of leaving home, his terror as a medic in Vietnam, his detachment from the real world in Saigon and at home s the hectic, violent, and emotional roller coaster that he experiences.

Blog 4 BJR

Richard Curry’s Fatal Light, is a narrative of a man who is drafted to fight in the Vietnam War. His stories are told from a first person point of view, and the book is written in the style of “Flash Fiction”. Each chapter, or story is no longer than a few pages, keeping the reader’s interest, and effectively communicating the authors words.
I think that Curry uses this style of writing to try and show the reader how things were for the narrator. There were many things going on at once, and everything was happening so quickly. This style of writing allows the author to describe everything that he must, and be able to tell the story with the most effectiveness. Instead of going into details that may not be necessary, he is able to skip a lot of writing, and is able to get his message, or story across in a simple manner.
Overall, I think that the form of this book does help the ideas in the book, because there is so much information in this book, and there are such a large number of stories to tell, that to try and make them all work together and try to combine all of these ideas would make the book worse.

Blog 4- AO

A "flash fiction" story is a work of fiction ranging anywhere from 300 to 1,000 words. A story typically gets right to the point in focusing on a powerful image. Richard Currey's book "Fatal Light", is a perfect example of a novel that uses "flash fiction". Currey used this form to help benefit the ideas of the story in order for the readers to get a feel of what the Vietnam War was like for a soldier before, during, and after.
Curry wanted to portray what is was really like to live and survive in Vietnam, by always living in the moment, with events happening sudden and quick all around them. As a reader one will never know what could happen next. Therefore Currey has achieved his goal on creating the feeling for his audience in gaining the feeling of what a soldier lived every moment in Vietnam.
In the last section of the book when he returns home from the war, the "flash fiction" stories begins to slow down with the longer stories flowing together. This was intended to focus more of the emotions from returning from the war. Overall Currey's "Fatal Light" is an outstanding piece of literature that implemented "flash fiction" into his novel to achieve his message of the book better compared to a typical novel.

Blog 4 JY

Flash Fiction is when the chapter are very short and usually shorter than 1000 words. This makes each chapter very concise and straight to the point. This can allow the authors to bring in an important thought in each of the chapters and make the books as a whole more compelling.
"Fatal Light" by Richard Currey contains short stories about a soldier's life. This books is about the soldier before, during and after the war. Each chapter gives a different picture about the horrors of the war. For instances chapter 13 showed how a soldier can totally lose it and start to kill even harmless civilians with any remorse. This type of story is in most Vietnam War books, but by using flash fiction the authors can directly show this using short amount of words.
This book was very interesting because even though the chapters were short they still were able to paint a colorful picture of what was going on. It also allowed the readers to understand the pains of the war.

Blog 4 JK

The book “Fatal Light” by Richard Currey is written in the style of “flash fiction”. Flash fiction is a way of writing in which the author uses short chapters and descriptions to depict the actual experience better. “Fatal Light” is about a young man who goes to Vietnam through the draft and leaves behind his family and girlfriend.
The author writes in very short chapters that are mostly a page or two long and get the point and story across to the reader without having any excess. The author makes it a point to show how as the war goes on, the main character gets less and less emotional about the life he left behind. He writes to Mary less and talks less about his family and more about war stories. His day to day stories are short and depict just how quickly and how much the characters life changes. The character never stays in one place for long and the combat is short and gruesome. Even though the chapters are short, the reader gets the full effect of the stories and also gets a better feel for how the soldier felt.
Flash fiction works well to show the reader just how the soldier felt and how he lived in Vietnam and when he returned home. The short paragraphs allows the reader to deeply read into what the author is saying and experience the flashes of memory with the character.

Blog 4 JV

The book Fatal Light written by Richard Currey, tells the story of a man that was drafted into the Vietnam War. The reader follows the protagonist from his years before the war to his most dangerous points of the war.

The book is written in a form of flash fiction. Flash fictions are stories which are comprised of very few words ranging from 300 to 1000. Although there is no real set restriction to the amount of words a story may have to be considered flash fiction.

The use of flash fiction in the Richard Currey’s novel is applied to his chapters being their own individual short stories. Although each story or chapter may not have had much to do with the previous one, the culmination of the stories creates a broader view of the overall theme. Having written the novel in this way created a faster paced read. The stories go by so fast that before the reader is able to grasp what happened in the previous chapter there is something new that’s involved. Creating a book like this was very enjoyable and grasped the attention of the reader. The short chapters were also a way to keep the reader turning the pages in order to see what the next story was about. The speed of the chapters enhances the feeling of being on the battlefield where split decisions are needed to survive.

Blog 4 EP

Fatal Light By Richard Curry tells the story of the narrator's life during the Vietnam War period. The book tells the story of the narrator's life before and after the war as well as describes the events he experienced as a medic during the war. Curry utilizes "flash fiction" to portray account the events of his character's Vietnam experience. "Flash fiction" is a form of story telling where the author uses a small amount of words to tell short "flashes" of events in order to string together a story. These small scenes describe the setting character and events in a very quick yet detailed way that shows the reader the action as if it was experienced in a traumatic manner. This flash fiction greatly benefits the idea of Curry's story. Curry portrays a war that was fast and action packed, with many traumatic events. He portrays life after the war as slow and a let down compared to the excitement the soldeirs experinced during combat. This is evidenced by the quick, energetic and vivid chapters that tell the story during the narrator's time in country. After he returns the life he lives, and the chapters that depict it slowdown and focus more on conversations and emotioanl moments. Curry also wants the reader to see how hectic, fast paced and violent the war was. He does this no only with the content of the text but how fast and short the chapters are during the war action. Another thing Richard Curry wants the reader to undertand is how fast everything in Vietnam could change. Curry also addresses how the longer a soldier spends in Vietnam the farther away the life they lived becomes. They forget about girlfriends past and stop believing theyll be waiting. They partially distance themselves from their family. This is seen by the main chanracter's letters to Mary becoming less frequent as he spends more time in country. When the main character leaves for Vientnam his family is on the forefront of his thoughts. After his return he visits his grandfather before seeing his mom and dad, who were so important to him. The fast paced and frantic pace to "flash fiction" allows Richard Currey to add emphasis to his text through the format that it is presented in.