The Things They Carried

I have a feeling you would know I’d respond to The Things They Carried for it is quite similar to experiences I have had. The major difference is the actual things that they carried vs what I carried as a grunt in Afghanistan. There were a few that brought back memories like the many times I applied powder to my feet or had extra socks to change them out in the attempt to keep my feet from falling apart. The one thing O’Brien does is he not only tells the reader the things that are being carried but he adds in the weight of what is being carried, giving the reader a sense of the weight that these grunts carried and what they took with them. Also the descriptions of what was carried and the terms used to describe them, like the M-60 being a killer 23 lbs unloaded and then going on to say it was always loaded. It gives the reader not only a sense of the weight but the context of it all, a war where one must always be prepared to fight. In Infantry school they teach you that when you set a perimeter the heavy machine guns are always the first to be cleaned and put back out on the line because they are the most casualty producing weapons. I know that is something that I know from my training but it is also something and anyone could understand of infer from the description that O’Brien gives. When O’Brien goes on to mention the extra things the men carried it really gives the reader the sense of fear that these men have to carry so many weapons and gear and things that can kill and wound the enemy, even to the point of one man having a hatchet. The terminology is also something I liked, not pandering to the civilian audience O’Brien throws military terms, like when he talked about dustoff instead of saying an evacuation helicopter. It keeps the story going with quick explanations and answers which in essence is what combat operations and orders are all about. It is one of my favorite stories and is a great tale of the war in Vietnam.

I'm a Mad Dog

I’m a Mad Dog didn’t offer much in terms of a unique means of telling a story but it had such shock value that I had to write about it. It is one of those stories where at the end you just want to go, “What the fuck?” Just the way it progresses is amazing, this kid goes and steals a gift for his sister and then runs for it and hides out at a train depot, until he decides it is a good idea to steal a car and run for it. That moment right there was just a shock to me, like how could this kid just decide to go all out from shoplifting to grand theft auto? Then just when you think you have somewhat of a handle on things and you just have no idea what this kid is thinking, you get hit with even more, there is a baby in the back seat. Suddenly you find yourself just wanting the kid to turn around and turn himself in, not for his sake but for that of the baby who he has basically kidnapped from his parents. Worry then turns into a sense of anger when this kid not only stops in a snowstorm but gets out of the car and leaves the baby in the car, yea I get it was windy and snowing but leaving the kid is just damn irresponsible. The ride that the author takes the reader on is fast paced and intense and the emotions expressed by the reader are met by the indifference of the character who doesn’t seem to have any feeling about the matter but is just there explaining what is going on. Like the moment when the toucan smashes into the pursuing police car, the speaker is just explaining it with almost a sense of joy and wonderment while I as the reader am appalled and wondering what effect it will have on the officers in the vehicle and if it will lead to injury. It also ends any reason for the speaker to run because he has lost the thing that started him along this journey that ultimately ends him up in jail. All in all the content of the story and the plot made it quite fun and unique to read and more than made up for the lack of uniqueness in the style.

Currents

Out of all the stories we read in the book I’d have to say one of my favorite was Currents, not just because of the content but how the story was told. Putting the beginning at the end of the story and having it progress backwards is a technique that I haven’t seen before. It is clever and definitely adds uniqueness to the story, much like a film where you see the end and then how the people in the story got to that end point. Except unlike those, the progression is just backwards, not jumping all over the place; it gives the reader a new way to process the content which is rather sad and dark. It eliminates the ability for the reader to be shocked in a way that would ruin the moments after the climax. When reading backward through the story (beginning to end) you hit the moment where the body of the boy is found and everything after that becomes almost moot. It doesn’t matter to you that they want the kids to not fear the water, or that Gary is out drinking single malt. That moment, in the first line of the story is one of the more powerful ones in that it sets the tone for the story, maybe not to all but to those who drink it does. A man alone drinking scotch and staring out at the sea has an issue and then following that you realize it was something bad if the kids are afraid to go swim again. It makes the reader more interested in how the events unfurled that ultimately led to the demise of this boy and the attempt afterwards to find him. By just hitting the reader with the sad reality it allows them to continue on, curious as to what got them to that point. The repetition of before that indicates a briefness to things, that the author doesn’t want to dwell on the small things in the story but wants to make a clear and concise chain of events that lead to Gary drinking alone out on the porch. All in all while it is a sad and tragic tale, the way it is written makes the reader curious as to how it got to that point, while not allowing them to make guesses as to what would happen next.

The Palm Tree King

When I read the Palm Tree King I had completely forgot about diction and thought to myself, this seems like someone text messaged or IMed it. The language in it is so unique and once I realized that it was a direct reflection of an accent it became so much more. It adds a certain feel to the work, like the speaker is actually there and you find yourself talking through the poem in a stereotypical Jamaican accent. Using dis’ and an overstated accent on the a of man. Also the plot of the poem is quite compelling and starts all because of a stereotype that a man from the West Indies would automatically know about palm trees. Whereas one might become insulted because of such a statement, the author runs with it and turns it into a joke on the lost and ill-witted tourists who buy into it. Creating humor from something that in general isn’t funny makes the poem special, also how the author comes up with all these different questions for the speaker to pretend like he has the answers to. It creates this relentless feeling, much like a street merchant who is trying to oversell something and that is exactly the feeling I get from the poem. That the speaker is trying to boast confidence and acting like he knows it all before the would be suckers have a chance to question his knowledge on the subject. Also the last stanza is unique, it kind of hints that the speaker is bullshitting because he discusses how the answers he gives rhyme to seem more exotic, it made me wonder why the speaker would do that. Maybe he wants someone to call him out on what he claims to know or maybe it is a sense of being cocky and thinking that these people are not going to figure him out no matter what he says. The diction and the overall story of the poem are both humorous and unique because of how the speaker presents himself and how the tale unfolds with ridiculous questions that the speaker asks and even how he seems to cocky and relentless. It is truly one of my new favorites because of the diction in it.

The Soldier

During my transition back into a normal life I’ve been looking for literature based on soldiers of all nations and those that write about them. The Soldier written by Rupert Brooke is a perfect example of the reverence that some have for fighting men and women from every nation. The description of all that is still real and possible because of a sacrifice is amazing, speaking of the country, in this case England, as almost an entity. It is special because it does not reference any individuals and makes the sacrifice of the soldier seem for a living breathing entity, not for those that live there. My favorite line is “A body of England’s, breathing English air, Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.” It reflects the authors love and passion for his country and the willingness to see it as it is beyond its problems, it is a theme that I respond deeply too because it captures the ideas of the soldier. Seeing the nation not as a group of people but as its own being, it’s how we say we fight for her, as if the nation is a living person that gave birth to us all. The transition in the poem from a very dark and sad first line into a poem that reflects love and creates this beautiful image is surprising and the first time I read it I covered all the lines and moved down them one by one. Doing that gave me a whole new outlook on the poem and it finally dawned on me that the author is writing the character as bonded with England, not as a character but as reuniting with the country that he loves and was spawned from. Not only saying that the country is beautiful but that it creates beauty and then that beauty returns to it and goes to “an English heaven.” It is a poem that expresses love and passion that truly not many understand, to love something so much to be willing to give your life for it with no regrets is truly unique and so is this work.

Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evenin

In high school and middle school I read stopping by the woods on a snowy evening. I always liked the way the poem gave the image of a lone man in a carriage with a single horse. Even though the poem isn’t the most descriptive when it comes to details of the night it is so good at creating the image of the lone figure trotting down the road. The rhyme of the poem follows the same pattern until the last stanza, the repetition of the rhyme and the last sentence adding emphasis to the fact that this man is far from his destination. Also the rhyme in the third line of each line is the main rhyme scheme of the next stanza maybe foretelling what the character has in store for him. The setting of the poem could definitely be seen in two different lights and changes the meaning of the poem dramatically. In one sense it tells of a man who is out on a winter night with things to do and stops to think and ponder and in a sense enjoy the night. The other is a bit more abstract and I may be way off on my interpretation but I also get the sense of a man alone in a rough patch of his life. He is out and knows whose woods he is in but they are nowhere near him and he is just with his horse who seems annoyed for the pause. The last two lines hint in this case that the man in unhappy and has a long ways to go before either he is happy again or until he dies. It is sad and very abstract but in a strange way the way the tone of the poem keeps reinforcing this idea of loneliness and solitude. Another possibility is that he doesn’t have one and is just out, much like my drives sometimes at night just to clear my head and refocus on the moment. It gives the poem a personal meaning, one that most can relate to, whether it be a late night walk or drive.

Well this took a long time to get posted, my blog decided it hated me and wouldnt accept my password anymore.

Back in the first weekend of this month I went back to chicago for some BS army medical tests and a ceremony. I had a night to stop by a high school for a poetry slam between some schools that are very different. The difference between the writings of the rich white kids who live in the west suburbs and those who live in the city itself was just amazing. The topics and also the way they were described. The two that stuck out in my mind were from two opposite worlds and the struggles they both talked about were so conflicting it blew my mind. On the one hand there was a reader talking about the pain and loss of their football team losing their senior game and how they would not get another chance to redeem themselves. There were lots of sounds used to convey the idea of big hits and heavy breathing, being a football player myself I could understand it and relate to it but it still felt trivial compared to many struggles others face. The other reader talked bout the temptation of gang violence and how he listens to beats rockin like glocks kickin back brass justice. All in all the poems were good, the readers were mostly younger but they did quite a good job with what they brought to the table. Most were very animated, some too much but it made for a good chuckle. All in all it was a good experience and finally I got to write my lil piece about it.