Friday, February 29, 2008
Day 2 The Things They Carried
Remember to post twice for a B. More than that will get you the A. We've been seeing a lot of plot summary. You've all ready the book so that isn't necessary. We've also seen a lot of GREAT comments about characters and conflicts. Keep it up! Question each other and dig deeper.
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28 comments:
In my opinion, this book isn't the best. It seems to me like this is one big run on sentence, and there aren't good enough breaks between each story. They start telling a story about what they are carrying and it runs on for a while, then they switch to another story without much warning.
I'm hoping that the book will get better, and the stories will be more interesting. Right now, the stories are boring and long and I have almost fell asleep each time I've been reading.
Jeremiah Kazan
im seeing if this works
My first reaction to this book is how slow of a start it was and how much it talked about what the people carried in their packs. Not sure what that stuff is supposed to mean but it was repetitive and annoying.
The characters in the book are interesting because they all have a certain weirdness to them. For example one guy wears his girlfriends underwear around his neck, one fantasizes about being with a girl, and one is always worried about catching a disease. A conflict with the main character is that he was drafted and before he left he had an inner conflict to weather he should run away or stay in the country and go to Vietnam.
Tyler Demers
I thought that so far thuis book has been and awsome book. It has had a lot of detail and it has also made me think about how life was in the war where people die and they just have to keep moving on like when lavender died they went to the next village.
Also i thought that this book has been kind of confusing becasue i havent really been able to figure out who the main characters are yet becasue it keeps talking about the different guys in there battalion. This confuses me becasue i thought that maybe lavender was going to be a main character then he died! But all and all i think that it is good so far.
Ben Jackson
I the bokk the things they carried it is about a group of soilders that are in a group. The people in the book are all diffrent. They all carrie alot of diffrent things. They carrie almost every thing that some on would need. They carrie dope,extra food,bandages and love notes. They carrie alot more other things that athey may need to keep themselfs alive or make them happy. In this book they doo alot of things that most millatry groups do. they pick numbers to see who goes in the fox hole with a gun and light. They are fighting the japanesses. they kill of some of the main charictors and it is not very good.
James Maheux
Steve Desrochers
So far in the book i don't see any characters that stand out. i think that they are all individual in their own ways because they all have something different with them to show how they are different in a lot of different ways so it's kind of hard to pick out one character in the book. But if i were to choose i would say that lavender is a stand out even though he is dead because they mentioned his name and what had happend to him. But aside from him there wasnt anybody who had a personality that stood out to me.
So far there arent any conflicts between characters but a lot of the soldiers are suffering individually because they are missing family and friends and like Leutenant cross, having regrets of not making a move on martha before he left because now he feels that she doesnt love him and that she has other boyfriends.
The narrator of the book was obviously a part of the war but he doesn't seem to mention any personal experiences or stories directly related to him. Everything seems to just be based on general happenings. Already a character has been killed off and it doesn't seem like any main characters have been developed except for Lieutenant Jimmy Cross.
Not a whole lot has taken place. The narrator has basically discussedthethings that the soldiers carry with them at all times during the war; including things such as firearms, personal belongings and the mental/emotional weight of eveything that takesplace. There seem to beongoing issues within all of their heads dealing with people that they miss from home and the stress that beingin war creates.
Chris Allen
Ted Lavender is an intresting character because he was so afraid that he would carry tons of tranqualizers, And if he used to many in a day he would become extremily relaxed and if anybody asked him how's the war today he would say Mellow man, We got ourselves a nice mellow war today with a soft,spacey grin.
I also found intresting some of the stuff they carried and that the soulders would get away with carrying stuff like dope.
Some of the conflicts were with the lutenant and his almost obsession with a girl back home.
-Kamrynn Thyng
The book was a little slow to start with but then it got interesting as I kept reading. The book talks a lot about what the soldiers carried (hence the name) but it could have been more interesting int he beginning.
The characters are all funny sort of in way. Like the under wear part. Kinda weird but oh well. The conflict was that the main character did not want to be drafted because he thought he was to good to be drafted.
Aaron Moore
Kamrynn Thyng
The begining of the book is kind of boring and it has a very slow start but once you get a little farther into it the book definitly gets better. Also there are more conflicts like if the guy against the war should flee to canada and the old man who somehow figures out what the boy is trying to do even though the boy hasn't really even told the old man anything about himself.
HARRY KNOX DAY 2 BLOCK 3
this book had a very slow start, and its not very good in my oppinion right now. it is getting a little better now. the book really started off really slow, and it wasnt very good, but when it started all they talked about was the things they carried, AND IT WASNT VERY GOOD.
its now starting to get better, they are telling war stories, and how he tried to run away to canada, and how that man was really nice to him, and gave him 200 dollars to run to canada if he ran to canada. it is getting a lot better, and i am starting to like it now.
The opening of the book, is exactly what the title implys. The things they carried. There is a story to this book. To someone who expected a all out war story. This is anything but, Every solider is listed an is described what it is they carry. It has this way of putting you right into the perspective of a grunt on the ground in nam'.
Im looking forward to reading this book more, its a change. An a welcome one at that.
Dennis Hurteau
Chris Allen - D2B4
In the second section of the book the narrator got into his own personal exeperience as far as learning that he was being drafted. He talked about the personal conflicts that this caused him. He debated whether or not he should run away to Canada and avoid going to Vietnam and he nearly did, but in the end he wound up facing the war because he was "too embarassed not to" or something like that.
After that, he told a few stories about that war and then came the chapter "How to Tell a True War Story". That was the most obnoxious thing I have ever read. It seemed like he constantly contradicted himself and I don't know whether to think that no war story ever told is true, all of them are, or they're all some sort of code language with a secret meaning behind them. I'm just not quite getting the point yet and so far the book makes me want to never read again.
I have extreme mixed feelings about this book so far. The first part of the book really annoyed me. It was repetitive and although I know the author was making a point by discussing all of the things the soldiers carried it got old pretty fast. The only thing that kept my interest was the love story between the soldier and the girl back home. I kept waiting for more, for something more to grab a hold of instead of the author just listing things the men carried.
The second part of the book actually kept my attention. I started to learn about this character who was trying to avoid the draft. I love how personal it is, its very easy to relate to him. There is one part of the chapter that really stood out to me on page 56, from just about mid page all the way down. The author bears all the feelings of this man and its the first time in the book where you truly learn about someone on a deeper level.
Caitlin Averill
Ben Jackson
Now that i am kind of far into the book i can see that the book is maybe getting a little boring. I just think that it is too jumpy like it talks about one thig and then jumps to another its kind of confuseing.
Ben Jackson
I was just wodering if i was the only one that thought that this book is really descriptive but almost too descriptive?
Justin Sargent D2B3 I think the novel started alright - they kept listing things to tell us about but they never gave us the whole story until the next chapter. I like how they are going into the stories of each soldier and the different platoons.
I actually had no idea what was going on when i first started reading or who was talking but as i kept reading i started to understand and maybe even like the style of the story. I think it was harder for me to get into this book because it is a totally different style of writing then the other book im reading which is 1,000 splendind suns. I agree with jeremiah and i hope that the book will get better and as interesting as the other book.
Whitney Poulin
D1B1
Chris Allen D2B4
I agree, the author is a little too descriptive sometimes but in other parts it helps to really visualize what's going on in the book.
I finally found a little interest in the story when Mary Anne was introduced. She seems really unusual. The way she completely transforms in such a short period of time is crazy. This probably happens to a lot of the soldiers that get drafted. They described, though, how none of them thought a woman would ever understand the way things work over in Nam; how it changed you permanently and indescribably. It's funny to see that, at least in this cas, they were all completely wrong.
What I have found so far about this book, It keeps the pace. But at what path? What I mean by this is, the book cant decided if it wants to be a story about the things they carried. or the things that happened in nam' Thought these both pertain to each other,
Who knows maybe tomorrows the day I fall in love with this timeless piece if literature
Probably not.
But at least I'll go cover to cover.
Dennis Hurteau
This book really isnt my genre to be reading. These types of books really throw me off in the begining of what is hapening. The book itself is has lots of action and sadness to the book. The book starts off slow by telling us what they carried and all. That part dragged on forever till you got like 20 pages into the book. Then it got more into a history of the war. Other than that the book is pretty good but not my genre to read on a daily basis.
The book isn’t my type of genre to be reading. The beginning just goes on and on about different things they carried and get boring. After the first 15-20 pages the writer starts to get into history abut the soldiers and what happened to them while serving. The characters in the book seemed that they al had one heck of a story to be told about what happened to them.
The book does have lots of action and history to tell which is knowledge that should be known. Other than that the book is pretty good but not my type of book to be reading.
Les Parker
Harry Knox D2B3
this book is getting a lot better. They are now getting into how the war actually was. they tell how they feel after killing people, and also they are getting to parts on how theyh felt during different things, and how people started to feel.
one guy actually got his girlfriend to come down, and when she finally go there the first couple weeks were good. Then she liked tgo go raoming at night, and sometimes by herself. She finally got under control for a while when her b/f yelled at her, and also used a proposing to get her under cpontrol. but finally she couldnt take it any more, and she had to go. she became very good friends with the native war people, and eventually joined them. her b/f was very devistated.
Harry KNox D2B3
THat guys girlfriend finally came back, but she had changed. she had become a native. one day she actually went out in the jungle, and never came back. even the nauives never knew that she had gone somewhere. they have rumors saying that you can see her at night floating between trees in the shadows. they have very spooky rumors
then he taLKS ABOUT HIS FIRST KILL. he talks about how when he first saw the guy he didnt even know what he was doing he just thought about how its him or me and he through a gernade. he could tell from the look of the guy he wasnt a fighter and his country made him go into the war. he then looks at they guy for a long time studying him, and how he doesnt understaind how he could of killed him. one guy just says its ok but he doesnt want to here it. personally i doint think i would of stood there for that long studying the body wondering why i did it. i would feel i was rtight. i mean it was either him or that guy, and he made the choice. and even if he let that guy go then someone else on his crew would of shot hgim anyways.
so overall i think that this is a good book so far, and it has definatly gotten a lot better than in the beginning. in the beginning it was like the title said. they just talked about the things they carried. but now they get into emotional, and stuff like tat, and how they carry their feelings. i like it a lot better now the book has turned out to be alot better then i thought it was going to be in the beginning
Kamrynn d2b4
How did the guy manage to pull off bringing his girlfreind to nam?
So there was some pretty intresting storys about the girlfreind after she goes into the woods and dosent come back.Storys like you can see her at night in the jungle floating.
Also what does a guys hanging himself in a locker room have to do with a war story?
This book definitly does jump around alot so it can be confusing and it's not that great until after the 20th or so page because before the 20th or so page its pretty much lists of what they carried.Also with all the jumping around the book gets a little confusing sometimes.
Chris Allen D2B4
I agree that the book has gotten better than it started out, but still it doesn't really keep my interest. Occasionally a new story will pop up that seems interesting, like the whole Kiowa situation and how he was killed. No matter what the story is, though, it just gets talked about way too much and way too repetitively. I guess the author is probably trying to emphasize pieces that he feels are tough to understand. However, I was not part of the war so it's impossible for me to understand exactly how things happened. I am beginning to understand as much as I can without actually being there, but that only takes one or two explanations, not three or four. It makes it even worse when sometimes he uses the exact same wording two or three times over again.
Another reason it's difficult to follow the book is because it's so random. It tends to jump around from on point in time to another, not necessarily in any kind of order. It's basically just a bunch of different war stories piled together into one book. Sometimes when the author switches from one story to the next, they don't even have much relation to each other. It seems to me, to almost have no point at all.
To be perfectly honest, with a slow start an not really sure where the book was going. I have finished the book. A few things I want to touch upon, I absolutly loved how the main character fought the innerconflict of everything that he had lost in the war, all the trama, friends. everything that made him who he is today. An he found the courage to go back, with his daughter. An have some kind of closer. Then it bounced back to the past an it made me understand even more why he is the way he is, with is first love, who died of cancer. An turned a friend into an enemy.
The end was really good. It brings us all together for the common good, when there is something above us all. Out of our control.
The things they carried, wasn't so much the materials, ammunition, weapons. It was their pasts, their personality's their Life.
Dennis Hurteau
D1B2
Chris Allen D2B4
Throughout the rest of the book, it's really just the same old stuff. More stories, more finding out the stories aren't real but they're exaggerated to help you enderstand the feeling soldiers experienced. The pain and remembrances that they deal with, and ways that they try to cope with them; it's all the same stuff. Sure I feel bad for those that actually have to deal with this, but it's not something i want to spend my time reading about. Overall, it was a decent book if you're really emotional and thoughtful and such, but I guess it just wasn't my type of book.
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