The Dentist

A post story about Curt Lemon from How To Tell A True War Story. I think The Dentist is the kind of story to slow the reader down after the reader has just finished a complex one (How To Tell A True War Story). It's an intermission. After The Dentist, there will be an even more complex story... The Dentist also characterizes a dead character the reader knew nothing about in the previous chapter. The character being Curt Lemon.

While reading The Dentist, I noticed how Curt Lemon "carries" himself. He was the macho guy; "he had the tendancy to play the tough soldier role, always posturing, always puffing himself up, and on occasion he took it way too far." This occasion was one he took too far. When Lemon was challenged of his manhood with the trip to the dentist, Lemon felt "embarrassed" when he passed out in front of the other soldiers. In order to feel "tough", he forces the dentist to pull out a "perfectly good tooth". Curt Lemon only went back to the dentist for himself, seeming desperate to feel tough again.

I’m afraid of the dentist too and the dentist is my aunt. Embarrassing.

The photo is from the scene of "Little Shop of Horrors". Also, set during the Vietnam War period.

How to Tell a True War Story

The story about a series of stories that are confusingly linked in some type of way.

All of the stories tell a true war story from the narrator's point of view. The structure of the stories are wacky and not in chronological placement like the other stories. It's more complex and may confuse the reader if the reader were not paying attention. How to Tell a True War Story is a story on how to create a true war story; the structure of the story is the correct form. The story starts off with the narrator telling a story about Rat Kiley writing a letter to his dead friend's sister. The letter is like memorial, explaining Kiley and his friend and what they did during the war (another bromance). The passage ends, beginning another one racaping the previous story. This passage is like a review; again, explaining the correct way of telling a true war story:

"A true war story is never moral...If a story seems moral, do not believe it..."

This is the story's structure through out the whole chapter. The author's tone may be the effect of it. Telling a true war story seems very important to the narrator. While reading the chapter, it reminds me of a war movie. Like Forest Gump and Bubba in the war- they become friends not knowing their past lives. Then Bubba dies; leaving Forest. Similar to the story, the men seemed optimistic; working on their future as their lives flash before their eyes.

Enemies & Friends

Dave Jenson and Lee Strunk's "Bromance"

*Bromance- a man crush; non-sexual relationship between two or more men.

ex. J.D. and Christopher Turk from the show "Scrubs"

The stories of Dave Jenson and Lee Strunks first coming in contact only to fistfight.

Later, making up.

And, becoming best friends.

Then, Strunk dieing, leaving Jenson alone.

On The Rainy River

Escape. Pity. Embarrassment.

A story about Tim O'Brien's "escape" versus getting drafted to the Vietnam War. The narrator, O'Brien, receives a drafting letter to the war. He leaves his parents heading for Canada. During O'Brien's journey of escaping his government commands, he visits this wise old man named Elroy Berdahl and stays with him for a couple of days doing a little manual labour probably questioning why he is here. The old man is like a new friend to the narrator; like one of those new friends where you just talk and listen to what the other is saying. The man only listens though, showing significant expressions on his face. It's like the old man knew why O'Brien was hiding or escaping from his hometown. He helps him escape, but eventually O'Brien punks out and starts hallucinating.

I felt awkward just reading the description of the old man and Tim O'Brien sitting in a boat with no one else around them; beautiful surroundings of nature and "the rainy river"; O'Brien crying his eyes out; seizing , making a fool of himself while the old man is failing to catch a single fish and imaginary people like President Lincoln watching the whole thing. I could picture it in my head. I felt so sorry for him. He was so close to the other side. It's almost like one of those movies where you wish the person would do what you say (if that makes sense) and everyone would have a happy ending. But, unfortunately, the person fails and you wonder what is going on in that person's head. In O'Brien's case, the people cheering him on into crossing that Canadian border was floating around in his head. And all he could do was cry and think about how embarrasing the moment was for him and Mr. Elroy.

However, if he did manage to cross that boarder between America and Canada, there would be know rest of the story. Tim O'Brien would have probably been married with children; not even having any experience in military. A middle class, boring man. But then I would have thought he was a person that would give up when something got hard. There are a lot of "what if's" in this story...

Love & Spin

Love

The first short story of the novel. It is narrated by Tim O'Brien. The story takes place after the war with Jimmy Cross at O'Brien's house in Massachusetts. They reminisce, looking at pictures from the past war. As they look through the photos, they tell stories about each one. When Martha shows up in the picture, Cross tells O'Brien about their catching up at a class reunion. Martha is still not in love with Cross. She's starting to seem like a memory of Cross...

(I'm suddenly reminded of his knee obsession)

It's sort of ironic because Cross is still talking and obsessing over the same stories about Martha, but, they're not together.

Spin

The second short story of the novel. Spin is a series of mini stories about the highlights of the war. I liked the one about Norman Bowker and Henry Dobbins playing checkers in a foxhole. Other soldiers would watch. It was comforting to them. Simple, unlike the war they were in. The game had two sides- black and red. " The playing field was laid out in a strict grid, no tunnels or mountains or jungles." All soldiers wished the war was like this. "There was a winner and a loser. There were rules"

Compared to the story Love, Spin is the complete opposite. They are both based on memories of the war. Love has a more re leaved, calm tone; Spin, from the stories I have read, has a horrific, pessimistic tone.

The Things They Carried

So far...

Reading this chapter, I have learned so much about the context of the book. Because the novel is so simple to read, including the simple tone, the meaning of the book seems complex and difficult to interpret or right about. Like in the novel, listing the significance of the chapter helps:

• When the narrator describes the characters of the book, he/she lists them like a restaraunt menu. The format expresses the narrator's flat tone, with occasional small sentences, while listing the characters and what they carry.
• I've also noticed, by the names of the soldiers: the reader can tell, based on the soldiers' full names, that the narrator is more formal; rather, in the imagination world, Martha is just a single name; it is more intimate.
• Imagination, all soldiers take part of, can almost ruin someone's life. Especially, during a time and place like the Vietnam War. However, it allows the soldiers to feel free and hopeful. Since all soldiers take part in their imagination, it's almost like a normal life; they can escape, or escape the war by blowing off their toes.
• Acronyms in the novel are used to display weapons the soldiers carry: LAWs. RPGs. C-4. They all remind me of BlackOps- a game I play on the Wii. When i read the book, i often visualize being in it... based on the game.
• Specific things the soldiers carry can signify their past lives, fears, and courageous actions.
• The setting is depressing. The jungle in Vietnam seems like the scariest place in the world. From the story, the narrator describes the jungle: trench foot, occasional monsoons, unexpected booby traps, and a chance of getting "Zapped while zipping" (Ted Lavender)
• I noticed the short, single sentences at the ends of paragraphs signify a shift. The sentence concludes the previous paragraph.

Highlighting The Signification (the parts of the story i liked)

Jimmy Cross has a mild obsession with his past imagination, Martha. He loves her but she doesn't seem to love him back. Based the narrator's description of the Lieutenant, the only things keeping Jimmy from falling apart is thinking about Martha. He imagines her body parts and stores a pebble (motif) in his mouth as a reminder of her. He even gets jealous from what he thinks she might be doing.

"He wondered who had been with her that afternoon. He imagined a pair of shadows moving along the strip of sand where things came together but also separated. It was phantom jealousy..."

Ted Lavender's death was expressed, in the story, as something that happens to soldiers everyday; it's normal. The soldiers acted like this, but the Lieutenant came to realize that the death was his fault. If it weren't for thinking about Martha, he would have paid more attention to his crew. He cried, something the soldiers don't usually do. And, the soldiers would also make jokes and use harsh words or phrases to express something terrible only to cover up their real emotions.

"There it is, they'd say. Over and over- there is is, my friend, there it is- as if repetition itself were an act of poise...meant be cool, let it ride..."