Monday, September 15th:
1st Period:
THE THINGS THEY CARRIED:
"How to Tell a True War Story"
Pages 79 - 80
"How to Tell a True War Story"
Pages 79 - 80
1.
Do you agree with Tim O’Brien that the abuse of
the baby water buffalo was “essential, something brand-new and profound.”
2.
What does Mitchell Sanders mean when he refers
to Viet Nam as the Garden of Evil, that every sin is fresh and original?
Vocabulary:
Essential: absolutely necessary; integral
Contradictory: a thing which is
the opposite of the other
Grotesque: that which is strange and unsettling; weird in a very
uncomfortable way.
Drudgery: boring and tedious
Continue reading THE THINGS THEY CARRIED
"The Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong"
Pages 112 - 116
Vocabulary:
"The Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong"
Pages 112 - 116
Vocabulary:
Speculates: to guess, to postulate, to create a theory without complete
evidence.
Vouch: to attest to, to say with certainty that something is true, to
stand up for, to act as a character witness for.
Fluke: coincidence, a stroke of luck.
A grain of salt: to accept a story but with a touch of skepticism
Endorphins: “feel good” hormones, which are released by the body when one
exercises, etc.
Question:
Do you believe the story of Mary Ann Bell in "The Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong? Why or
why not?
According to Tim O’Brien, is the story true? Does it matter?
Show the NPR story of Dang Thuy Tram, a real Vietnamese doctor-hero, who
was killed in a firefight by Americans.
Are men and women the same or different when it comes to war?
Discussion
Tuesday, September 16th:
Continue reading THE THINGS THEY CARRIEDTuesday, September 16th:
"How to Tell a True War Story
Pages 81 - 82:
Vocabulary:
napalm, tracer rounds, gape, impassive, symmetries, barrage, aesthetic, implacable
napalm, tracer rounds, gape, impassive, symmetries, barrage, aesthetic, implacable
Writing:
On page 82, write down all the imagery you find on the page, describing the terrible beauty of destructive things.
Questions:
According to Tim O’Brien, when do you feel the most alive? Why, after
participating in the savagery of war, does the soldier yearn for civility and
justice? Find evidence in the text to support your argument.
Vocabulary:
ambiguity: unclear, without clearly defined perimeters; has more than one possible explanation or meaning or interpretation.
Questions:
1. What does O’Brien mean when he writes, “In war, you lose your sense of
the definite, hence, your sense of truth itself, and therefore it safe to say that in a true war story nothing is ever absolutely true."
2. Why does O'Brien become angry at the kindly older woman who tells him he needs to get over the story about Rat Kiley and the baby water buffalo?
3. What does he mean when he says the story is not a war story but a love story?
4. What is the morale of the story?
Period 2:
Continuing reading THE THINGS THEY CARRIED
Period 2:
Continuing reading THE THINGS THEY CARRIED
Read "Stockings", "Church" and "The Man I Killed"
Pages 117 - 128
"Stockings"
"Stockings"
Eccentricity: peculiarities specific to a person.
Examples of eccentricities:
a person must follow a set routine every day or will become
upset.
Or refusing to answer questions.
Maci likes armpits.
Or someone from Texas affecting an English accent.
Vocabulary:
Detonate: to explode, as in a bomb.
Talisman: a symbol which is believed to have magical powers,
or give comfort or protection to. Many times a talisman is a religious symbol.
Read “The Church”;
Discussion: What is ironic about the two Vietnamese priests
cleaning the soldiers’ guns?
Why did the priests like Dobbins so much?
Was Dobbins respectful to the priests?
Why is Dobbins’ last lines ironic,“All you can do is be
nice. Treat them decent, you know…” ironic?
For tomorrow:
Reread the description and actions of Dobbins?
How is Dobbins a symbol of America. How is Dobbins typical
of the American cultural, military and political impact on the rest of the
world?
Read “The Man I Killed”; up to page 128
Bring VOCABULARY WORKSHOP, Unit 3 tomorrow. The vocabulary homework will be due next Tuesday, September 24th.
Wednesday, September 17th:
Assigned Unit 3 in VOCABULARY WORKSHOP; due Tuesday, September 23rd.
Period 1:
Period 1:
THE THINGS THEY CARRIED:
"How to Tell a True War Story"
"How to Tell a True War Story"
Pages 82 - 83:
Vocabulary:
Vocabulary:
go over vocabulary on pages 81 – 82: napalm, tracer rounds, gape, impassive, symmetries, barrage, aesthetic, implacable
Questions:
According to Tim O’Brien, when do you feel the most alive? Why, after participating in the savagery of war, does the soldier yearn for civility and justice? Find evidence in the text to support your argument.
Vocabulary:
ambiguity: unclear, without clearly defined perimeters; has more than one possible explanation or meaning or interpretation.
Questions:
1. What does O’Brien mean when he writes, “In war, you lose your sense of the definite, hence, your sense of truth itself, and therefore it safe to say that in a true war story nothing is ever absolutely true."
2. Why does O'Brien become angry at the kindly older woman who tells him he needs to get over the story about Rat Kiley and the baby water buffalo?
3. What does he mean when he says the story is not a war story but a love story?
4. What is the morale of the story?
Read "The Dentist"
Discussion
Question: Why did Curt Lemon have the dentist pull a perfectly good tooth?
Vocabulary:
Sadist: someone who likes to inflict pain or enjoys the pain of others.
Humiliation: to suffer a profound embarrassment that strikes at the very basis of one's dignity.
Read "The Dentist"
Discussion
Question: Why did Curt Lemon have the dentist pull a perfectly good tooth?
Vocabulary:
Sadist: someone who likes to inflict pain or enjoys the pain of others.
Humiliation: to suffer a profound embarrassment that strikes at the very basis of one's dignity.
2nd Period:
Assigned Unit Three in VOCABULARY WORKSHOP; due Tuesday, September 23rd.
Assigned Unit Three in VOCABULARY WORKSHOP; due Tuesday, September 23rd.
Read THE THINGS THEY CARRIED
Read "The Man I Killed"; page 128
Discussion
“The Man I Killed” Literary Analysis
Reread the chapter and make a list of all the concrete
details Tim O’Brien notices about the young man he shot and killed. You must
have at least ten concrete details.
Example: “….His eye was a star shaped hole.”
1.
He had thin arched eyebrows like a woman.
2.
There was a slight tear on the lobe of one ear.
3.
A gray ammunition belt
4.
His left cheek was peeled in thin ragged strips.
5.
His forehead was lightly freckled with small
dark freckles.
6.
His jaw was in his throat.
7.
His upper lip and throat were gone.
8.
His chest was sunken and poorly muscled.
9.
His neck blood went to a deep purplish black.
10.
He had bony legs.
11.
And long shapely fingers.
Now find ten discrete elements of the backstory Tim O’Brien
created about this young man:
1.
Born in 1946
2.
His father and two uncles and neighbors joined
in the struggles against the French.
3.
He probably wanted to be a teacher of
mathematics.
4.
He was afraid of disgracing himself and
therefore his family and village.
5.
He prayed with his mother that the war would
end.
6.
He fell in love with a seventeen year old girl.
7.
He never wanted to be a soldier.
8.
He pretended to be excited for war.
9.
He attended a university in Saigon in 1964.
10.
He knew the war would take him.
11.
He fell in love with a classmate.
What are the similarities between Tim O’Brien and the young man he
killed?
Vocabulary:
How does the author use repetition to create the narrator’s
emotional state?
September 18th:
1st Period:
Read THE THINGS THEY CARRIED
“The Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong”
“The Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong”
Pages 89 -105
Vocabulary:
Bedlam: named after an infamous insane asylum in which the
insane lived in wretched, abusive conditions. The word bedlam now means a
chaotic situation.
Green Berets: a famous elite fighting force.
Ravine: a natural depression in the earth, usually with a
small creek at the bottom, with the sides of the ravine covered in heavy
foliage, such as bushes and trees.
Gorge: a steep cliff formed by millennia of water erosion
with a deep river at the bottom.
Culottes: wide legged shorts
Find O’Brien’s descriptions of the Green Berets and write
them down.
1.“They were not social animals. Animals but not social.
2. They avoided contact with the medics.
3. Secretive and suspicious, they were loners by nature, the
Greenies would vanish for days, sometimes for weeks, then in the middle of the
night they would suddenly reappear, moving like shadows through the moonlight,
filing in silently from the dense rain forest, off to the west. The medics made
jokes about this, but no one ever asked questions.
What images or thoughts do these descriptions create in the
minds of the readers? The descriptions make the Green Berets seem
other-worldly, supernatural, strange, eerie, mysterious, belonging to another
world, not quite human or even supra-human.
Period 2:
THE THINGS THEY CARRIED;
Read “The Man I Killed”
Pages 124 - 134
Read “The Man I Killed”
Pages 124 - 134
Skim “The Man I killed” for ten repetitive phrases (you only
have to write the phrases once) and then write the number of times they are
repeated next to them.
1. “His one eye is shut and the other one was a star shaped
hole.”(3 - 5)
2. “He’s got child like wrists.”(2)
3. “He loved mathematics.”(4)
4. “His eyebrows were thin and arched like a woman’s.” (2)
5. “He had a gold ring on the third finger of his right
hand.” (3)
6. “His upper lip and teeth were gone.” (2)
7. “Long shapely fingers.” (4)
8. “He had smooth skin.” (2)
9. “He was a slim, dead, almost dainty young man.” (3)
10. “He had clean finger nails.” ( 2)
Tim O’Brien stared obsessively over every detail of the
young man’s face, chest, fingers, legs. The American soldiers’ fire power gave
them god-like powers – they literally had the power of life and death. This was
the first man he had killed and this murder traumatized O’Brien.
Next, find and write down the dialogue that the other
soldiers say to Tim O’Brien. How does the dialogue suggest Tim O’Brien’s emotional state? How does the dialogue
suggest what Tim O’Brien is doing?
Dialogue:
1. Azar: “Oh, man, you ****trashed the *******. You
scrambled his sorry self, look at that, you did, you laid him out like Shredded
****Wheat.”
2. Azar: “Oh, man, you – ******* scrambled his sorry self.”
3. Kiowa to Azar: “Go away.” (2)
4. Kiowa: “Just forget that crud….No sweat, man. What else
could you do?”
5. Kiowa: “I’m serious. Nothing anybody could do. Come on,
stop staring.”
6.“All right, let me ask you a question….you want to trade
places with him? Turn it all upside down – you want that?”
7. “Tim, it’s a war. The guy wasn’t Heidi – he had a weapon,
right? It’s a tough thing, for sure, but you got to cut that staring.”
8.“Maybe you better lie down a minute.”
9.”Take it slow. Just go wherever the spirit takes you.”
10. “Listen to me…you feel terrible, I know that.”
11. “Okay, maybe I don’t know.”
12. “You okay?”
“I’ll tell you the straight truth….the guy was dead the
second he stepped on the trial, understand me…..So listen, you best pull your
****together. Can’t just sit here all day.”
13.“Five minutes, Tim. Five more minutes and we’re moving
out.”
14.“Hey, you’re looking better. All you needed was time –
some R&R.”
15.“Come on man, talk.”
16. “Talk.”
“Stop staring.” (4)
The story ends with Tim O’Brien doing what?
Period 1:
THE THINGS THEY CARRIED
Read "The Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong"
Page: 89
Questions:
1. How does the description of the terrain and the Green Berets set the mood for this story?
2. Find descriptions of Mary Anne Bell at the beginning. What do the descriptions seem to suggest about Mary Anne?
3. How does she begin to change?
4 What are the changes?
5. What is Mark Fossie's reaction to the changes?
6. What is the first sign that something has radically changed with Mary Anne?
7. What does Mark Fossie mean when he whispers "Lost..." on page 105?
8. What do you predict is going to happen to Mary Anne?
Finish reading "The Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong".
2nd Period:
THE THINGS THEY CARRIED
"The Man I Killed"
Page 124
Today an essay on "The Man I Killed"will be assigned.
This essay will be due on Wednesday, September 24th.
It should have the following: 12 font. One and a half space. A script that is legible and easy to read. Should be at least two pages in length and a minimum of six paragraphs.
Title of the essay is: Literary Analysis of "The Man I Killed"
Prompt:
How does Tim O'Brien use dialogue, repetition and imagery to convey the emotional state of the narrator?
You must have the author's name in the opening paragraph. The author's name is Tim O'Brien.
You must include the title of the book, which is THE THINGS THEY CARRIED.
You must include the title of the chapter, which is "The Man I Killed."
Do not use informal tone.
You may use information about the Vietnam War or the effects of killing on the soldiers as part of your introduction.
Please work the prompt into the introductory paragraph. You may use a quotation to introduce your essay.
Please state the three main points which will be discussed in the essay:
1. Tim O'Brien's use of repetition
2. Tim O'Brien's use of dialogue
3. Tim O'Brien's use of imagery
And state how all three are used to show O'Brien's emotional state after killing a young Viet Cong soldier.
The opening should be about a third to a half page long.
The body paragraph:
Each new paragraph should have a "mini-topic" sentence, followed by a minimum of two supporting sentences.
You MUST include evidence (quotations or paraphrasing) to support your thesis.
YOU MUST INTRODUCE THE QUOTATION OR EXPLAIN THE SITUATION SURROUNDING THE PARAPHRASE!!!!!!
After you include the evidence, then you must comment on the evidence or, in other words, show how the evidence supports what you are claiming.
You then write a tidy transitional sentence to move on to the next claim or topic.
The concluding paragraph:
Please do not write "In conclusion".
Briefly recount (no more than one sentence per point) the major points in your essay: O'Brien's use of repetition, dialogue and imagery, and how they showed the narrator's emotional state.
Use the concluding paragraph as a final "wrapping up", which means to simply review the main points supporting your thesis, and to state in one sentence how they support your thesis.
Do not introduce new information,
Do not use quotations, particularly new quotations.
The concluding paragraph should be about a third of a page long.
Suggestions: Have a little vocabulary mini-lesson at beginning of class using vocabulary from assigned unit on Tuesday and Thursday.
Suggestions: Have "Combining Sentences" handouts at beginning of class; assign one or two sentences at beginning of class on Wednesday and Friday.
