FinalProject 1

So, I have been reading Tim O'Brien's If I Die in a Combat Zone Box Me Up and Ship Me Home. I'm on page 139 of 199. So far it reminds me strongly of the first book I read by O'Brien, The Things We Carried. Both novels are centered around soldiers and their involvement in the Vietnam War. He writes with a specific style, where the chapters are not always linear. Each chapter is relatively short and tells it's own story, sometimes completely independent of the chapters preceding and following it. In both stories, O'Brien mentions a large lake in the middle of the town that a character finds themselves driving around, thinking about the war. Each book also makes note of the fact that the character O'Brien is considering running to Canada to escape the draft. In both cases, O'Brien ends up going to war because of the embarrassment tied with not going. Ezra Pound's poem, "Hugh Selwyn Mauberly", reflects this sentiment nicely. (On page 21 it says the line, "We said the words, and we were soldiers,". I only mention this quote because my movie choice is "We Were Soldier".)

Stuff that might help for when I write my final paper on Vietnam:

Pg. 48: lists the typical weapons for American foot soldiers fighting in Vietnam

Pg. 54: O'Brien discusses human value and the difference between good and bad. "I believe human life is very valuable... the suspect bravery of the mind."

Pg. 56: O'Brien is having a 'debate' with the military's chaplain about the morality of the war. "This war was conceived in man's intellect..."

Pg. 67: O'Brien discusses arriving in Vietnam, "Arriving in Vietnam as a foot soldier... Vietnam into your lungs."

Pg. 76-77: Examples of how the soldiers impersonalize the war/people by using nicknames instead of real names and terms such as 'waste a man' not 'kill a man'.

Pg. 83-84: Soldiers discuss not wanting to get lost or die at night. They talk about the importance of the men in front and behind you. (2 paragraphs) "The man to the front and the man to the rear... You alone are his torch."

Pg. 93: "I neither hated the man nor wanted him dead, but I feared him... I fired."

Pg. 131-133: O'Brien talks about what real courage is and relates it to a dialogue called Laches. "Courage is nothing to laugh at... in spite of fear - wisely."

Pg. 135: O'Brien discusses Plato's take on courage, "For courage, according to Plato... is wisdom and nothing else."