Comma Drama

Source: /http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/607/01/

Summarizing A Summer

1. What skills have you learned in this class and how might you apply them to writing in your career or future college courses?

This course has been extremely influential in helping me grow as a writer. Many of the tutorial videos that had to do with proper citations or punctuations showed me how to fix some of those easy to make as well as fix errors that I myself commit all the time. I was able to get a better idea of when to use commas and when they are really just unnecessary.
2. How have the readings in the class affected you?

The readings in this class were really great choices. I must be biased and say “The Things They Carried” is still my favorite. That entire story is just amazing to me, this man is drafted and manages to come back and not only tell his personal stories but give us stories truer than true in an attempt to bring out the emotions him and his men experienced. I love this book and can definitely see myself reading it for a third time after this class.
3. How have you met the learning outcomes for the class (which can be found on the syllabus)?

I feel like our learning outcomes were met in the first two weeks! Seriously though throughout this summer course we have covered so much material, analysis, summarization, interpretation of information, we’ve done grammar, read literature, critiqued each other, and shared our learning through blogs! That’s not even everything, but the learning outcomes were defiantly a success in my opinion, we did work.
4. How has your writing or your writing process changed?

Honestly my process of writing is still pretty much the same. This does not mean I have not learned anything it’s just simply a process that works best for me. For example I get my topic narrowed down; I make a four square and write a question I want to answer in each of them that can tie back to my thesis. Then I research a ton of sources, take the ones I want to use, highlight the info I want and put that info into the four square, and Boom! Essay.
5. What were your challenges in the class?  How were you able to overcome them?

The challenges I faced in this class honestly had more to do with the fact that it was online and I felt like many times I really needed to double check a requirement or something. I managed the work relatively well, it was just the uncertainty and miscommunications every now and then from the fact that it was online and I had no one to out right ask that I struggled with mostly. Also The interpretation of Tim O’Brien’s story was a challenge as well. His story is such a difficult one to right about or describe I wanted to do it justice in my essay number three, but I think it was that pressure to do it well that pushed me to succeed. I quite enjoyed this class material overall!

Annotated Bibliography- Tim O'Brien and his ability to tell 'true' war stories

http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/WritingVietnam/obrienpreface.html

Chen, Tina. ""Unraveling the Deeper Meaning": Exile and the Embodied Poetics of Displacement in Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried"" Yavapai College: Library Services Databases Login. University of Wisconsin Press, 1998. Web. 14 July 2011. <http://www.jstor.org.proxy.yc.edu/stable/1208922?>.

Yet again we are faced with the deciphering of a ‘true’ war story, and what makes it that way. O’Brien states that, “A true war story, if told, makes the stomach believe” (pg1). However, there is also the controversial things he says about how sometimes fiction is truer than the truth. He has a way of provoking his desired emotion from readers partly through the truth and partly through speaking ‘truer than the truth’. In aid to my essay, this article will show me how O’Brien takes his war experience’s and captures their essence through stories that may not match up directly with his events. He is inspired by his history in the war, but he is not bound by it’s events.

Naparsteck, Martin, and Tim O'Brien. "An Interview with Tim O'Brien." Yavapai College: Library Services Databases Login. University of Wisconsin Press, 1991. Web. 14 July 2011. <http://www.jstor.org.proxy.yc.edu/stable/1208335?seq=8>.

Interviews have a way of really bridging the gap between just a story, and the tale of a real man. This particular interview with Tim O’Brien did not focus directly on The Things They Carried, which may be why it held so much meaning. He writes his pieces of literature all in the same way, about war. The lasting effects of Vietnam on O’Briens personality is profound when learning how some of these seemingly non-fictional tales, really are works of partial fiction. This will come in useful as I write about the way O’Briens literature is a direct effect of his troubles throughout the Vietnam War and his participation in that. I will have a guideline as to how he thought and the effects that the war has had on him and the men he incorporates in his stories and also writes about.

Timmerman, John H. "Tim O'Brien and the Art of the True War Story: "Night March" and "Speaking of Courage"" Yavapai College: Library Services Databases Login. Hofstra University, 2000. Web. 14 July 2011. <http://www.jstor.org.proxy.yc.edu/stable/441935?seq=2>.

While this article is not directly about The Things TheyCarried, it is inspired by O’Briens wartime experiences. O’Brien makes it his goal throughout his career to convey what happened in the hearts and minds of soldiers throughout the war. However this often occurs through imaginary means, even if  based off of real events. This task he takes upon himself, bringing to life the experiences they had at war, is a talent he has developed and used as a way to tell his story instead of holding it in and suffering from the things he’s seen. I will use his honesty, and lack thereof method of storytelling to discuss O’Brien’s ability to portray events ‘truer than true’.

For more on Tim O'Brien check out- http://www.123helpme.com/tim-obriens-perspective-and-statements-in-regard-to-storytelling-and-relationship-to-the-truth-in-the-things-they-carried-view.asp?id=162708

How To Tell A True War Story...

http://storageauctionguru.com/war-comes-to-wilton-inspired-by-storage-wars-eager-bidders-come-out-to-seek-hidden-treasure-in-storage-units-up-for-auction-with-video/

“And in the end, of course, a true war story is never about war. It’s about sunlight. It’s about the special way that dawn spreads out on the river when you know you must cross the river and march into the mountains and do things you are afraid to do. It’s about love and memory. It’s about sorrow. It’s about sisters who never write back and people who never listen” (O’Brien pg.85). The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, was a compilation of everything that makes a TRUE war story. Being in Vietnam did not mean that the men were not day dreaming about girls and going home, wishing they didn’t have to take the night watch duty. Yes, they were at war, and no, they weren’t consumed by it. They took things with them to keep their minds off of their surroundings like comic books and bibles. For these men they were still boys, some of them, and their life was being lived in a war but that didn’t stop them from taking M&M’s as a snack. They hiked through the foreign land thinking about the past, the things they missed, what they wanted to do, and I think it is because death was such a real possibility that they were finally ready to live life. Before, in the comfort of their homes, how much appreciation did they truly have for a comic book or chocolate candies? Now it was a saving grace, a reward after a long hike through enemy territory. It’s the memories of the happy and simple even unimportant things that carried them through just in the hope that they could make more of these memories. These were boys becoming men in the face of death, all they had was each other to keep their minds busy, and the hope for something more that a rain resistant poncho and helmet waiting for them. Because when a war story is written, it does not speak about strategic planning and rerouting or ammunition counts, no it speaks of the people involved and what kept them driving forward.  http://articles.sfgate.com/2006-11-12/opinion/17318853_1_marine-amphibious-assault-vehicle-torso- If true war stories interest you, this is the place to go.

Works Cited

O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried: a Work of Fiction. New York: Broadway, 1998.

Hamill And Forché In My Eyes

http://www.freshnessmag.com/2007/06/06/we-are-all-witnesses/

The aspects of Carolyn Forché’s writing that I find most relatable to my poem is that she believes there needs to be a happy medium of the political and personal poems, “Let us call this space ‘the social’” (Forché “Witness”).  She believes that by using the social space we can avoid prejudices through our writing which I fully agree with. This was very similar to my poem “Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting” (Kevin C. Powers) because his poem is written in an extremely politically driven environment but he is speaking through personal feelings on the matter. By combining these two perspectives, the social is found.

Then there is Sam Hamill who believes “We can’t bear very much reality” (Hamill “Necessity”) which seems to speak true through Powers’ poem. In this poem the narrator seems out of touch with the severity of reality which could be a sign that he is tuning out what is really going on because he can no longer absorb it. I think this is the case for many extreme events, the victim becomes so integrated in the environment, it is no longer as real as it once was, it is like it becomes an alternate reality and they are merely witnessing their environment not actually participating in it. However something that I disagree with in Hammil’s writing is that he believes “Knowledge is the loss of innocence” (Hamill “Necessity”), I believe knowledge may be the loss of naivety but innocence is something I believe you lose through actions not learning.

The difference in these authors’ styles is that Hamill states “We think poetry is about emotions. We are dead wrong” (Hamill “Necessity”), whereas Forché believes that poems can be in the ‘personal’ realm which is a very emotionally driven place (Forché “Witness”). However, these authors are both in agreement that there is much political background within poetry, because it is the political decisions that ultimately affect our ways of life. Don't believe it? Check it out http://www.novanewsnow.com/Politics/2007-03-02/article-603796/How-Politics-Affects-Our-Lives/1

Works cited

Forche, Carolyn. "Carolyn Forché on A Poetry of Witness." Welcome to English « Department of English, College of LAS, University of Illinois. Web. 04 July 2011. <http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/forche/witness.htm>.

Hamill, Sam. "The Necessity to Speak." Web. 3 July 2011.

The two poems I chose for this weeks blog post were "Letter Composed During a Lull in Fighting" by Kevin C. Powers, and "Compendium of Lost Objects" by Nicole Cooley. These were extremely interesting poems to me mainly because of the multipke ways to interpret them, but also because of the tone taken during the poem. My favorite of the two in "Letter Composed During a Lull in Fighting." I  think it is because of the location of the narrator (a war zone) and the fact that he is talking like it is just another day at the office. There is no panick in the letter, there is no trauma or stress, he is just writing to tell his love of the way his life is lived in this new place. He compares his love for her to a ten minute nap, and talks about resting his gun on the low ceiling in order to get that nap. However, he deos  not seem to be sad or meloncholy about it, he is just being informative, an intriguing characteristic to me for a man in a war zone. The second poem "Compendium of Lost Objects" was also very interesting to me though. The author is speaking of the things lost, however they are not what we would expect to miss. She speaks of missing glass, or a cot in the dumpster, but she uses word play to tangle the reader. I myself had to read and re-read this poem several times in order to even think I know what is being said, and I am still unsure! I would like to think of this poem like a river, it flowes from one topic to the next, but twists and turns making it hard to read straight through however intriguing the journey is.http://www.wisegeek.com/why-is-poetry-difficult.htm-This helped me understand the reading of a difficult poem.

Summary vs. Analysis