Thursday, April 3, 2008
Week 12 Open Topic
This is the first literature class that I have been in that the students have been encouraged to communicate amongst themselves and share and discuss their own ideas,interpretations and view on the text read in class. I wanted to take this opportunity to share how the books and stories we have read and studied have impacted me. I am a person who generally enjoys reading but has a difficult time reading things assigned. I have had no issues reading the assigned text for this class. I think that the reason for this is that it has really opened my eyes and sparked my interest. My father has an addiction to the history channel and he is partial to documentaries on War, Vietnam/WWI and II. He has always encouraged me to watch them with him to learn but I just could not get into them. I had no interest at all because I didn't feel that I could identify in any way shape or form to what was being discussed. After reading the text in class mostly "The Things They Carried" and "Missing" I have a new found respect and interest in what happened and the different points of view held. "How to Tell a True War Story" really drove into me the reality of the things that happened over there and what has followed to soldiers home. Though many of the stories told by O'Brien seemed very unreal they ate away at me and made me feel. I felt that internal torment when the baby water buffalo was slowly killed, not just pain for the buffalo for why the situation occurred. "Missing" was an excellent follow up to "The Things They Carried" because I saw hope in it. After reading it I realized that even though war is awful and does affect everything in a negative way that things do happen for a reason and that there's a light at the end of the tunnel. The main characters assimilation into his new family and his happiness in his daughter would have never occurred if he had not gone to war. Though he felt slightly alienated in the end what I took away from that story was hope. I have thoroughly enjoyed the texts we have read and hearing what my group members think about them as well. You all have given me insight into things I would not have originally noticed. Thank you!
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4 comments:
I enjoyed the reading for this semester too. I was afraid that I was going to hate the stories because I'm not a huge fan of reading about war. I like to pretend that war doesn't happen...even though I know that's almost impossible. But, this semester's reading has actually opened my eyes to the actual effects of war, whether true or not. Most fiction is based on some sort of truth, so I believe that the stories have some truth to them. Even knowing there is fiction in the story, I still like to pretend it was real, because it makes me appreciate war more.
I'm a little bit different. I'm not such a big reader. Hell the only thing I have ever really kept up with was Harry Potter back when I was younger. Lately I have been to busy with school and extra coricular (not spelled right) activities to follow the rest of the series. But after sitting down and reading these books i have found myself in someways applying my knowledge on my friends and some of the meaning and takeaways from the books and short stories.
I couldn't agree more. This is the first literature class in which I have ever actually been able to keep up with the readings. I, like yourself, have been surprised by my ability to relate to these characters, and develop a context of the nature of war in general, especially Vietnam. I haven't ever known anyone who was actually in combat in any war, but now I feel like I have been able to build an understanding of all the effects of war, both in country and at home.
I also feared reading about love and war...im not a big fan of reading books about war. But this semester having to read these books, they really opened my eyes to what really happens in war. I had never stopped to think about war and what happened there...I just thought that there was a war going on and that is it...I never thought about what the soldiers were going through.
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