Tatters

In Response to: The Beat Generation

Those who lived in poverty
tatters and hollow-eyed
sitting up high
Smoking in supernatural darkness
Nitroglycerine shrieks
Whole intellects disgorged
Totall recall
Seven days and seven nights with brilliant eyes
meat for the synagogue
cast on the pavements
Secret creatures lurking among the dancers
writers
readers
Humans
screaming lyrics like the flare of a furnace blast
rumbling and roaring
sung by a blind man
his hand a languid claw
tearing away the multicolored blossoms
into tatters

Laying a Soul to Rest

In Response to: The Things They Carried

What is the symbolism within Tim O'Brien's act of going back to Vietnam and placing Kiowas moccasins at the bottom of the river?

When O'Brien goes back to the field where Kiowa died and he wades into the water, his daughter mentions that he doesn't like being touched by water let alone swim in it so the fact that he waded out into the poop water just to place Kiowas moccasins in the mud where they found his rucksack I believe shows him accepting the fate and forcing himself to face one of his fears to be able to forgive himself. A lot of the people that night blamed themselves for Kiowas death and this was his way of releasing that guilt and symbolically laying Kiowa's soul to rest in a way. And then after doing that, the old farmer raises his shovel above his head while looking at O'Brien and I feel this is the old man and more of like Vietnam and just the whole war forgiving him and also apologizing and putting it in the past. His daughter also says something earlier in the chapter about thinking its weird that he hasn't forgotten the war and still wants to come back which could be O'Brien actually thinking that to himself.

Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong

In Response to: The Things They Carried


What happened to Mary Anne is a perfect example of war changing people. Back during WWII, sexism was prevalent in American culture. Women were expected to stay at home and take up factory jobs while simultaneously taking care of the house and kids. They were expected to stay innocent and oblivious to the real problems and dangers of the time. I think it was very important that Mary Anne was a girl because there was the expectation that once she arrived, she would stay the same innocent sweet girl that she was before. At first, she was merely curious as to what was what and how to do things but when she began learning how to shoot and assemble weapons and started getting serious with helping around the camp with wounds and such, the men were surprised. They expected her to stay a sweet innocent 17 year old. The war began to desensitize her, Rat Kiley claimed he could see her eyes growing duller and duller as the days went on. This eventually led her to pursue missions with the green berets.  When Fossie found out, he freaked. He assumed his girlfriend would remain unchanged and continue to be the sweet high school girl he knew before but when people are put out into foreign places and don't know what to do, their ID comes out and primal instincts kick in. Fossie tries to tie her down with an engagement but not even that could keep her docile because once the war had gotten to her, she was changed. We see that there is no way Mary Anne is coming back to how she was before when Fossie and Kiley stumble in on a strange pagan ritual in the green berets tent and she is there chanting with a necklace of human tongues around her neck and the severed head of a black leopard stuck on a post at the end of the tent. If Rat Kileys story about Mary Anne doesn't prove the point that war changes people, i'm not sure what will.

Those Eyes

In response to: Faces of the Enemy


I wouldn't say necessarily that his eyes were dark gaping holes, because they weren't. They were small, thin, bright eyes still full of life. But I couldn't help but notice that the life in them was filled with fear as my "brother" raised his gun to the mans head. What was he saying? The foreign prayers still echo in my head at night and for some reason, in that moment, I found myself screaming the name of that foreigners god. He thinks the same that all men think with a gun to their head. He was raised to hate me. He was taught that his country is good and my country is evil. I was taught the same thing. I was raised to hate him and taught that his country is evil and my country is good. When I look into those eyes, I see my own staring back at me as the life escapes them.