journal 14

please answer these questions.

1) “The things they carried” this one is pushing against the norms of everything we’ve looked at when it comes to plot, characterization, and point of view, especially for such a short story. The chronological sequencing is scrambled, with lavender’s demise looping around in and out of the narrative. There’s a lot of indirect presentations of character, through “the things they carried ” rather than just telling us about the characters out right (although some of this is done, too). my question is why tell this war story in this way? Why not have LT. Cross tell it in first person? Or Kiowa? or rat? What’s the effect?

question #2) do you see that this quote, from the Tim O’Brien himself, applies to “the things they carried?”

“A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things they they have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it….. you can tell a true war story by its absolute an uncommon promising alliance to obscenity and evil.”

2) Who is the main character in “Sonny’s blues?” is it sunny, or is it really the unnamed narrator? justify your answer. Consider how the slippery concept of “point of view” might apply to the slippery question.