Thursday, October 2, 2014
Block 2 Homework and post here
Finish reading the chapter "On the Rainy River" and then post 2 questions pertaining to the chapter that you would like to discuss in class. Do not repeat a classmate's question (you won't receive credit), use page numbers and quotations of passages. Your post is due by 5pm on Sunday night.
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Danielle Kyea
ReplyDelete"but I think he meant to bring me up against the realities, to guide me across the river and to take me to the edge and to stand a kind of vigil as I chose a life for myself" (page 56) Why is Elroy Berdahl being so helpful? Has he been in the similar or the same situation before?
""I would go to war-I would kill and maybe die- because I was embarrassed not to".
(page 59) Does he have to much pride? Does he regret the decision he made?
Claire Decker
ReplyDelete"I remember opening up the letter, scanning the first few lines, feeling the blood go thick behind my eyes. I remember a sound in my head. It wasn't thinking, just a silent howel. A million things all at once-I was too good for this war. Too smart, too compassionate, too everything. It couldn't happen. I was above it."(page 41)
Why was Tim O'Brien so against going to war?
"And right then I submitted. I would go to the war-I would kill and maybe die-because I was embarrassed not to." (page 59)
Was there anything else that changed Tim O'Brien's mind about going to war besides embarrassment?
"Most of this I've told before, or at least hinted at, but what I have never told is the full truth. How I cracked." (page 46)
ReplyDeleteWhy has Tim O' Brian not told anyone about this? What would his family say about how he "cracked"?
"I survived, but its not a happy ending. I was a coward. I went to the war." (page 63)
ReplyDeleteWhy does Tim O'Brien call himself a coward for deciding to go to war? If he thinks he is a coward for going to war what would people say if he disappeared to Canada?
"...and a first lieutenant Jimmy Cross, the last surviving veteran of the American Civil War,..." (Page 58)
ReplyDeleteWhen O'Brien mentions Jimmy Cross in relation to the Vietnam War, is he speaking about a part of himself?
"It struck me then that he must have planned it. I'll never be certain of course, but I think he meant to bring me up against these realities..." (Page 56)
Was Elroy under the impression that O'Brien was going to jump and swim to Canada, or was this a kind of test?
"I remember opening up the letter, scanning the first few lines, feeling the blood go thick behind my eye." (Page41)
ReplyDeleteWhat were Tim o'briens thoughts about war? Why was he so against it, then what made him change his mind?
"That last night we had dinner together, and I went to bed early, and in the morning Elroy fixed breakfast for me. When I told him I'd be leaving, the old man nodded as If he already knew. He looked down at the table and smiled." (Page 60)
What were Elroy's thoughts when Tim told him he was leaving? What was he thinking about when he smiled?
"Actually it was not a lodge at all, just eight or nine tiny yellow cabins clustered on a peninsula that jutted northward into the Rainy River. The place was in sorry shape." (Page 47)
ReplyDeleteWhat is the significance of the "fishing resort" towards Tim by the Rainy River?
"...I remember, he carried a green apple, a small paring knife in the other." (Page 48)
ReplyDeleteWhy does the author (Tim O'Brien) constantly tell us what certain people in the story carry? Is it to develop the characters?
"This is one story I've never told before. Not to anyone. Not to my parents, not to my brother or sister, not even to my wife. To go into it, I've always thought, would only cause embarrassment for all of us, a sudden need to be elsewhere, which is the natural response to a confession. Even now, I'll admit, the story makes me squirm." (Page 39)
ReplyDeleteWhy did he never tell anyone this story, even the people he was so close to? What was so embarrassing about being afraid of going to war?
"What would you do? Would you jump? Would you feel pity for yourself? Would you think about your family and your childhood and your dreams and all you're leaving behind? Would it hurt? Would it feel like dying? Would you cry, as I did? I tried to swallow it back. I tried to smile, except I was crying. Now, perhaps, you can understand why I've never told this story before. It's not just the embarrassment of tears. That's part of it, no doubt, but what embarrasses me much more, and always will, is the paralysis that took my heart. A moral freeze: I couldn't decide, I couldn't act, I couldn't comport myself with even a pretense of modest human dignity. (Page 56-57)
Did he feel as if he was the only one who was upset about being forced to go to war? Did he think that no one would understand why he was so afraid of having to go out and risk his life for the war?
(Note: Sorry this was a little late. I tried posting it and the entire page quit out to tell me to log back into my google account and didn't save/post any of the work)
"...all I wanted was to live the life I was born to - a mainstream life..." (page 51)
ReplyDeleteWhy does he think that his life was meant to be normal?
"And what was so sad, I realized, was that Canada had become a pitiful fantasy. Silly and hopeless" (Page 57)
Will he regret his decision later on? What was the point of him going to the Rainy River if he doesn't end up doing anything there?