TTTC on Courage and Guilt

Courage and guilt and a lot of other complex emotions come up in the parts of the text we have just read.  Here is the assignment we will do in order to process our thinking on these issues:
One Pager Project

Poetry and Prose and Projects!

Project Drafts Due on Monday!

We have been writing poetry based on phrases and sentences we found in the story "How to Tell a True War Story."
We will finish up Friday morning and begin reading the story called, "The Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong."
Found Poetry Assignment
Found Poetry Example
FOR MONDAY/TUESDAY

SWEETHEART WRITE: Directions: Read the intro. material and write a substantial paragraph or two as you discuss your ideas about the prompt and include at least two specific references to events from the story to back up your opinion.

INTRO:

Fiction: A Lie that Tells a Truth—Remember: The Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong is not about a girl who comes to visit her boyfriend in Vietnam—it is about what war, especially this particular war, does to people.

The author (Tim) has stated that the effectiveness of a “true war story” has little to do with literal facts and everything to do with producing in the reader a “gut reaction” (69, 78). Tim O’Brien wants to offer the reader an emotional connection with the experience of the soldiers who had to fight in Vietnam.  This is what he calls telling the “truth (78).” 

PROMPT: So, what is the “truth” about war that O’Brien is trying to get across by telling the story about what happens to sweet, innocent Mary Anne?

Beautiful Wreckage and Other Impossible Images

The Truth about war and life and people and love and all of it-- that is what literature is trying to get at. Authors weave fictional stories in order to tell us how life can feel or seem or even be, according to them.  To provide a translation of experience into story-- that is the job of the writer.
 As you read this text, pay special attention to what Tom O'Brien is saying about how stories are constructed and how they function and, yes, why we need them.
Poem that talks about this idea so perfectly:
Beautiful Wreckage  

ASSIGNMENT: Read the story, "How to Tell a True War Story" from the text: The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien.

New Text!

We are now reading The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien, one of the finest contemporary authors you may ever have read. He writes stories about the Vietnam War, but he also talks an awful lot about stories themselves and what they can mean and how they are crafted and how they function in our lives.  It is really terrific stuff.
AP testing has kept us out of the library this week, so we have been reading in class. Here is a link to a copy of the text online so that you can catch up if you have been gone or just need a little more time to read.
The Things They Carried online text.
we have finished the first three stories as of Thursday ("The Things They Carried,", "Love," and "Spin"), and we will talk about the military draft and read "On the Rainy River" on Friday.
Assignments:
1-  The Things They Carried Critical Read.
2- "Rainy River" Write