Share your thoughts about Tim O'Brien's Vietnam War novel The Things They Carried. What is his point? How does his style impact the effectiveness of his narrative? What issues do you have with his stance on war? Explore any aspect of the work that is meaningful to you.
Here is a picture of Tim O'Brien during his service in Vietnam. Go to this site to listen to Tim's speech about his experiences both in war and as a writer: www.stg.brown.edu/projects/WritingVietnam/obrienpreface.html
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Ms. H has invited some of the Talkies to read your blogs and comment if we want. I always enjoy reading student observations and comments.
As I read your blogs, I am reminded of my Polish grandfather who escaped from Poland around the turn of the 20th Century. I do not know why he had to escape. All I know is that he and his brother-in-law attempted to swim some river. The brother-in-law was shot and died in the water. My grandfather made it across the river, and eventually worked his way to Canada, then Pennsylvania, where my father was born in 1910. My grandfather could not have carried much with him. What momentos he took, no one knows. None of his living descendants know what he did to survive.
He had to buy his family out of Poland. We do not know how much he had to pay. He and two of his sons were glassblowers. They built a small glass factory in PA.
Someone left the door open one day, and the factory blew up. They traveled to WVa where the sons worked for Fenton Glass Company, a company that had opened in 1905. Soon that company will close its doors and cease operations.
I hope that all of you will ask your parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles, about their lives and the things they have carried. I wish I had been more inquiring as a child. I feel I have missed so much.
theteach
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