AP English

Crane and O’Brien are no different. Each depicts death in his own way just as each soldier deals with death (impending or actual) in his own way.  Chapters 9-10 in RBC are an excellent example of Crane’s technique. Explain his technique and what effect this has on the reader. Be sure to explain both the reader’s experience and the experiences of the other characters. O’Brien employs different strategies for dealing with the very difficult subject. Discuss O’Brien’s technique from at least three different vignettes. As always pair text with commentary.

Right from the get-go O’Brien acknowlegdes a death that has occurred in the troop that his story is about.  In “The Things They Carried”  he says,

“Ted Lavender was shot in the head on his way back from peeing.  He lay with his mouth open.  The teeth were broken.  There was a swollen black bruise under his left eye.  The cheekbone was gone.  Oh shit, Rat Kiley said, the guy’s dead.  The guy’s dead, he kept saying, which seemed profound-the guy’s dead.  I mean really.”

In this, O’Brien states in a matter-of-fact way that a soldier has been shot.  However, the other soldiers also repeat over and over as the quote says.  To supplement this, O’Brien also makes many more references to this incident throughout this vignette.  Also in “The Things They Carried,” after telling us that Sanders cut off a killed VC boy of fifteen or sixteen’s thumb, O’Brien says, “Sanders wrapped the thumb in toilet paper and handed it across to Norman Bowker.  There was no blood.  Smiling, he kicked the boy’s head, watched the flies scatter…”  This shows that the soldiers seem to have accepted death as a common event in the war and especially when it is the enemy, they mock it by kicking the dead boy and cutting his thumb off to take with them. 

In the vingette “Friends” the author refers to death as a relief.  Lee Strunk and Dave Jenson made a pact complete with a signed paper that said if one or the other was injured badly enough to be put in a wheelchair for life, the other would find a way to end it.  When Lee Strunk stepped on a rigged mortar round and had his leg blown off, Jenson ran over to him to help.  As he administered morphine and got him ready for the dustoff chopper, Strunk repeated over and over, “Don’t kill me.”  Despite his pleads, Jenson knew that he must follow the pact.  O’Brien says, “Later we heard that Strunk died somewhere over Chu Lai, which seemed to relieve Dave Jenson of an enormous weight.”  This shows that Dave Jenson, who came to be his friend, was relieved by Strunk’s death, but to go along with this O’Brien does not go into any detail about the death. This shows that O’Brien is attempting to tell the story with as little emotional content as possible; just the story with the facts.

In the vignette “How to Tell a True War Story” O’Brien tells us about how one character in particular deals with his friend’s death.  Rat Kiley had a friend get killed in the war.  O’Brien says, “A friend of his gets killed, so about a week later Rat sits down and writes a letter to the guy’s sister.  Rat tells her what a great brother she had, how together the guy was, a number one pal and comrade.”  He goes on to describe the letter and how touching it was.  In this we can see that one at least one character mourns for his fallen comrade.  O’Brien, however, seems to remain impartial and limits himself to simply telling us about the letter.  It is hard to determine whether O’Brien does not want to acknowledge death or he can’t acknowledge death.

Comrades: Yet another word we use without understanding the etymological significance. Tim has comrades; Henry has comrades. Check out this definition and etymology at Dictionary.com and compare that with Henry’s relationship to his comrades in the first fifteen chapters and O’Brien’s interrelationship of characters (especially in “Friends and Enemies”). Pay particular attention to the way the characters are revealed.

While Lee Strunk and Dave Jenson werent exactly companions or friends, they were part of the same group.  While at war in Vietnam, the two didn’t get along for much of their time at war, but they did learn to work together while fighting the war.  They also learned to trust each other.  During the war the two signed contracts saying that if one was injured badly enough to be put in a wheelchair permanently, the other would find a way to end the pain.  When Strunk stepped on a rigged mortar round and lost his leg, he begged Jenson not to kill him.  Jenson knew that he had to and therefore was very releaved when they received news that Strunk died in Chu Lai after being flown out of Vietnam. 

Both novels attack the idea of traditional heroism. “On the Rainy River” and chapters 5-8 of RBC explore the idea of the traditional hero. How do our main characters stack up against the traditional norms? What is your definition of courage and heroism? What other experiences or literary works have worked to build this definition for you? How do O’Brien and Crane achieve their goals? What literary spin are they putting on the ball of words to get us to swing? Be sure use quotes from the text and commentary to support your ideas.

In “On the Rainy River” O’Brien attacks the traditional ideas of heroism by telling the story of a war hero from Vietnam and then at the end saying, “I was a coward.  I went to the war.”  Through this we know that O’Brien is mocking the public’s perception of a hero as one who sacrifices himself for the good of his country no matter what his individual ideas are.  Prior to this, through many examples, we know that this character is completely opposed to the war and feels that he shouldn’t have to fight in it.  My definition of courage and heroism would deal with standing up for your own beliefs especially if they go against the majority.  This opposes the traditional views of heroism because in most cases it was heroic to fight no matter what.  A work fitting my definition would be To Kill a Mockingbird and especially the main character Atticus Finch. 

“Spin” explores the idea of controlling memory and reality through story.  Write a blog entry explaining this explored in this chapter.  Be sure to explain concepts using detail and commentary.

In the chapter “Spin”, O’Brien tells more of a story of Vietnam than a just-the-facts recount.  Right from the first line O’Brien says, “The war wasn’t all terror and violence.  Sometimes things could almost get sweet.”  This is the author’s opinion because in many people’s accounts of the war, there was no mentioning of any sweet occurrances.  Also, on page 33 he says, “It was a sad scene when the choppers came to take us away.”  This is also his opinion because many would say that it was a very relieving and happy time to get off of the ground and into a safer place.

List and explain 5 tangible things and five intangible things the soldiers from your stories carry.

5 tangible things that the soldiers carried included survival items like C rations, two or three canteens of water, pocket knives, P-38 can openers, and matches.  These items were essential for their survival during the war as far as eating and drinking are concerned.  5 Intangible things included memories, grief, terror, love, and longing.  Memories from home and from the war each weighed on the men as they thought about family or friends back at home along with the horrible events of the war.  Grief was felt by all as they witnessed first hand the horrifying truth about the war with often friends, as in Ted Lavender’s case, being shot right before their eyes.  Terror goes along with this as the soldiers fear the unknown future and what it might hold.  Love and longing are felt by the soldiers as they wish that they were back at home with their friends and family, safe with no stresses, worries, or things to carry.

Answer this question: “What do you carry?” List and explain what you hump around life, both tangible and intangible.

I carry with me the minor stresses of being a student, my books, my friends, my family, sports, and many other things seemingly minor compared to the story.  I worry about late assignments or overwhelming homework, the soldiers worry about living the next day.  I think about my family and when I will see them next while the soldiers worry about if they will see them next.  I consider sports to be something of utmost importance to me while the soldiers consider whether they should live or not.

1. What is the occasion of the poem? What literary device does the poet employ?  Describe what you know of the speaker, the listener, and the “she” referred to in the poem.
   1. A man is courting a woman but she does not appear to be interested.
2. Paraphrase each of the four stanzas. 
   1. Beautiful Rose, go to the woman i love and she will know when I compare her to you, how beautiful I think she is. Tell the young lady who hides from men that if she had been born in a desert where noone could see her, noone would recognize her beauty.  Beauty that is not seen is worth nothing, and therefore tell her to show herself and allow herself to be admired by me.  Then die rose, and show her that all rare and wonderful things die quickly.
3. Describe the prosody, including stanza form, rhyme, meter, and notable metrical substitutions (spondees), as well as the structure of the poem.  How do these choices help to reinforce the poem’s content?
   1. The poem contains 4 stanzas with 5 lines in each. The rhyme pattern is ababb.  The messenger, Rose, is directed to deliver 4 messages, one message for each stanza.

1. Describe the subtle changes in setting and analyze how these shifts reveal Eve’s fall from grace.
   1. The first setting has a light and happy tone to it like lines 5-8.  The setting changes from this when she is innocent, to line 47 in which the word dark conveys a tone of evil.  This is when she is about to eat the fruit which God has forbidden her to eat.
2. How does the poem’s diction contribute to tone and meaning? Consider the use of adjectives, verbs, and participles.  Look for patterns contrasts, and surprising juxtapositions of words.
   1. Eve is characterized with such words as wading, picking, mute, white, slim, and other adjectives with positive connotations.  Satan, or the snake, however is characterized with words such as pretender, tumbling, low, dark, hate, and other negative words.
3. Consider the poet’s use of figurative language.  How does the choice of comparisons influence tone and meaning?
   1. The author says that the snake whispers and his language falls lightly, thus showing us that satan is a great seducer and he appears to be harmless when in reality he will be deadly.
4. Describe the meter, line length, and pattern of enjambment.  What dose the rhythem contribute to the mood of the poem?
   1. The meter is a triple falling meter called dactyllic.  There are two dactyllics in each line.
5. Describe the use of repetition and rhyme.  Look for patterns.  What does the repetition contribute to the mood of the poem?
   1. Words like How in lines 53-55 show the fatality of the situation and the hatred that the others feel for the snake or satan.  They create a mood of fast pace thus contributing at the end to the tone being nervous.

1. Describe the form called rime royal: meter, rhyme scheme, stanza form.
   1. Rime royal is a seven-line stanza of iambic pentameter with a rhyme scheme of ababbcc.
2. What is the structure of the poem?  How do the imagery and argument of each stanza develop and intensify the appeal?
   1. The poem has 3 stanzas of 7 lines each as well as

a 5 line “Envoy to Henry IV”.  The second stanza convey’s the idea that the narrator’s purse is very light and thus lacking money or coins.  In the third stanza a metaphor is used as the narrator says the he is shaved as close as any friar, meaning he is poor. 

3. In exploring the extended metaphor of the poem, consider how diction accounts for the humor of Chaucer’s parody.
   1. The author is comparing the narrator’s purse to his lady love.  He does this through references like “Ye be my life, ye be myn hertes steere.”  As the story progresses, her character is dynamic in that it gains power as the story moves on.
4. How does the envoy continue the tone of the poem even as it addresses a specific person?
   1. Though the envoy addresses a specific person, it is similar to the rest of the poem in that Henry IV is built up.  He was elected, thus showing that the people love him and he is not simply a king or an oppressive leader.

1. Describe a villanelle by explicating the stanza pattern and the rhyme scheme of this poem.  How many different end rhymes are in the poem?  How many times is each sound repeated?  Which words are repeated exactly at the ends of lines, in what pattern?  How does the last stanza use the rhyming words?  Why is this appropriate at the end of the poem?
   1. The poem has 5 tercets following the pattern of a,b,a as well as one quatrain with the pattern a,b,a,a.  The six “b” sounds are the words fine, wine, nine, line, pine, and sign.  The “a” sounds are the words hello, know, no, slow, below, snow, and oh.  At the end of the poem, the ending words hello and know are repeated from the tercets in the poem.  This is appropriate because they are repeated many times throughout the poem, and are used in concluding it. 
2. Isolating the b rhymes (middle of each tercet) gives us this list: fine, wine, nine, line, pine, sign.  What is the significance of each of these words to the whole poem?
   1. The word fine is present in the first tercet of the poem, what would be the introduction in most examples.  It is an answer that many would give when asked “How are you?”  The wine and line would be things used to get to know one another especially on the dating or bar scene.  The pine is used as a way to set the mood and add to the imagery of the surrounding lines.  The sign goes along with the cold adjective in that it is the end of the road for the relationship talked about throughout the poem.  All of these words go in a chronological order stereotyping every relationship.
3. Incremental repetition tends to augment meaning and accumulate significance.  What variations in meaning are present in the following groups of repetitions and what is their effect?

line 1:   same. Hello,

line 6:   same, Hello,

line 12:   same Hello,

line 18:   end. Hello,

line 3:  Good-bye at the end.

line 9:  Good-bye. In the end

line 15:  Good-bye is the end

line 19:  Good-bye is the only

line 3:  every story we know

line 9:  this is a story we know

line 15: every story we know

line 19:  We know, we know.

1. As the title tells us, this poem is written in a form called a sestina, first used by a French troubadour in the twelfth century.  In describing the prosody of Alvarez’s poem, you will be describing a sestina.  Hint: Instead of looking for a rhyme scheme, look for a pattern in the repetition of the last word of each line.  The last three lines of the poem are called the envoy.
   1. The poem contains 6 sestets and 1 three line envoy.  The end word follows this pattern in the sestets while each word is used at least once in the envoy: 
      1. abcdef
      2. fgebdc
      3. cfdabe
      4. ecbfac
      5. deacfb
      6. bdfeca
2. In the first stanza, what is the effect of personification and allusion?  What is the Spanish counterpart to each?  Sum up the meaning of the stanza. 
   1. The personification of English is used as the author generalizes American society.  Her allusion to the Star Spangled Banner is used in the poem to create imagery of dark skinned girls like she is instead of the American flag.
3. What mood or feelings are evoked in stanza two?  How does language create this mood?
   1. A feeling of a soothing nature surrounds the narrator as she thinks about her native language, and a troubling nature as she thinks of her new surroundings of the English language. 
4. What do we learn in stanzas two and three about the difference between the names and vocabulary words?  How does the example of the plant called the morivivir help illustrate this gap?  What does the metaphor of the genii in the bottle tell us about the nature of the language?
   1. The change from names to vocabulary words has a negative tone to it as the narrator hints that her soothing language has been translated into a chore. 
5. In stanzas four and five, why does the speaker invoke Gladys and Rosario from her childhood?  How is her childhood sensitivity to words inextricably bound to Spanish, her first language?  What is significant about the allusion to Adam, the first man?
   1. Both characters were originally brought up in the society using the Spanish language.  As the characters have emigrated from their comfortable language, they lose the intimacy with their language, and the beauty they saw in the world.