Tim O'Brien

Blog about "The Things They Carried".  What is the story saying about the theme of war? Include specific quotes to backup your points.  


By reading the title, "The Things They Carried", can give the readers a prediction of what the story is going to be about.  In this story, it is about Lieutenant Jimmy Cross who is serving in the Vietnam War. The theme of this story is the how war takes an emotional toll on these young soldiers and how being away from their love ones carries either a toll or a transformation of their personalities for the better.   The protagonist, Lieutenant Cross,  said that he was 24 years old.  Being this young and having to serve the army carries a lot of responsibilities.  One of the responsibilities to act more mature beyond what is expected of a 24 year old, instead of doing what most college graduates are doing at the same time.  But his oblivious love relationship between Cross and a young female, Martha, help keep him get rid of the responsibilities to act more mature.  By the age of 24 years old, most people are thinking about marriage and sharing a life with someone.  So this relationship is important because Cross thinks that Martha is a glimpse of hope and motivation to stay alive.  He thought that she is waiting for her knight in shining armor to come back from war.  This relationship helps Cross to act more like his age instead of acting twice his age because when he thinks about Martha, he thinks that he can be in a better place instead of having to worry about the risk of dying every single day. Through the story, she sends Cross letters and a good luck charm and how "she ha found the pebble on the Jersey shoreline, precisely where the land touched water at high tide, where things came together but also separated" (345).  So through the war, Cross is carrying letters and a good luck pebble to help get his mind off the situation that he is in.  This relationship helped keep his mind off what the situation is like in Vietnam.  He rather be "walking barefoot along the Jersey shore, with Martha" (345), instead of "[carrying] lice and ringworm and leeches and paddy algae and various rots and molds" (348).  He "loved her more than anything, more than his men, and now Ted Lavender was dead because he loved her so much and could not stop thinking about her" (344). This friendship is important because he feels that he is loved and he thought that a person is waiting for him.  Also, this shows that Cross is mentally strong because even though that he thinks there is someone who is in love with him; he is still more willing to give up his life for the sake of the country.

But near the end of the story, he realize that he Martha does not love him.  This emotional transformation made Cross a stronger person.  I felt that Cross transformed into an adult because before, I felt that Cross needed a lot of affection like a child and he took the letters from Martha as love letters where he can be emotionally attached to someone. I felt that he needed someone to talk to and he felt that Martha would understand his  emotional needs.  In a way, Martha also represented this idea that she represented home because in her letters, she will write about how her life is like in college.  So Cross did not lose the connection to home. Also, his position in the military had a large impact on his emotional development. I feel that having the title of lieutenant by the age of 24 is overwhelming because he is such a young guy with so many responsibilities. But he realize that he can not blame Martha for the lost of Ted Lavender.  She took such a large part of his mental stage during the war that he could never focus on what his job responsibilities are.  He realize that she would never understand because she "had never mentioned the war, except to say, Jimmy, take care of yourself.  She wasn't involved.  she signed the letters Love, but it wasn't love, and all the fine lines and technicalities did not matter" (354).  Cross soon realize that he could not relay on someone else who does not understand the emotional pain of losing a person during war.  Cross realized that he has to rely on personal strength to be able to make it to the end of the story.  He knew that he forgot that he has duties to fulfill and "was now determined to perform his duties firmly and without negligence.  It wouldn't help Lavender, he knew that, but from this point on he would comport himself as an officer... He would accept the blame for what had happened to Ted Lavender.  He would be a man about" (354-55). This shows that he transformed into an adult and is taking responsibilities for his stupidity.

Amy Tan, "A Pair of Tickets"

In your blog entry, after you list the full title and year of the story, write a paragraph about the setting.  Try to explain the time and place as if you were explaining them to someone who had not ready the story.  Then, go online and find images of that time and place that you could us to illustrate the story.  Include at least five images with your blog entry.  For each image, explain how and why it fits with the story.  

The story, “A Pair of Tickets”, written by Amy Tan, is about Tan’s trip to China to discover her self identity.  The setting plays an important role in this story for this story because she realize that a large portion of her family history is in China. Through the story, while Tan is travelling through China to her final destination, she was reflecting how her mother’s past influence Tan’s present life.  The story starts out when Tan is entering the Shezhen, China boarder and how she feels her cultural identity is changing.  She grew up in San Francisco and she knew that her identity as an American, but her mother told her that once she goes to China, she will understand that she is Chinese American. Her mother told her that "once you are born Chinese, you cannot help but feel and think Chinese" (120).  Tan realize her mother was correct because she was reflecting how much her family had to endure and leaving her life in China to go to America.  Her family has so much history in China that Tan even saw her father crying. She knew that her father was home again by "seeing out the train window is a sectioned field of yellow, green, and brown, a narrow canal flanking the tracks, low rising hills, and three people in blue jackets riding an ox-driven cart on this early October morning" (120).  

This is a picture of Shenzhen, China.  When Tan left the "Hong Kong border and enters Shenzhen, China, [she] feel different.  [She] can feel the skin on [her] forehead tingling, [her] blood rushing through a new course, [her] bones aching with old pains.  And [she] think, [her] mother was right, [she is] becoming Chinese" (120). I believe that once she saw or enter this city, she felt different because she realize that she did not accept her heritage.  She told herself at the age of fifteen that she was American.  So coming to China realize that she did not embrace her culture when she was growing up in America.  

I could imagine Tan's father watching the scenery passing while they were in the train while heading to Cuangzhou.  This scenery made her seventy two year old father to have "tears in his eyes, and all he is seeing out the train window is a sectioned field of yellow, green and brown..." (120).  The reason why he started to have tears in his eyes because he realize that he is home. He had finally came back to be reunited with his family instead of the family being divided into two. 

When Tan and her family was staying at the hotel, her father told her a story  about when her mother  and the twins tried to escape the Japanese when they invaded.  This picture reminded me of that scene because this mother like Tan's mother is traveling for some reason. I imagined Tan's mother was carrying a lot of their belongings because the family was trying to escape from the Japanese.   But Tan's mother had to make the ultimate decision to leave her twins because her mother became "delirious with pain and fever. Finally, there was not one more step left her body.  She didn't have the strength to carry those babies any father.  She slumped to the ground.  She knew she would die of her sickness, or perhaps from thirst, from starvation, or from the Japanese" (131). 

There was a time when Tan's mother and Tan were talking about how a bomb fell on their house and how "they are all dead, [her] grandparents, [her] uncles, and their wives and children, all killed in the war, when a bomb fell on [their] house.  So many generation in one instant" (124).  Tan learned that her family always waiting "together, because that's how [their] family was" (124).  She learned that her family is very important because families do thing together and never leave anyone to catch up.  

By the end of the story, Tan finally met her half sisters.  She knew that this was her mother dream of her entire family were united as one, instead of her life being divided into two; one in America and another life in China. "The gray-green surface changes to the bright colors of our three images, sharpening and deepening all at once.  And although we don't speak, I know we all see it: Together we look like our mother.  her same eyes, her same mouth, open in surprise to see, at lat, her long-cherished wish" (135).  

"This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona"

Who is the main character or protagonist of the story?

In the story, “This is what it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona”, the two characters is Victor and Thomas. 

Make a quick list of the character’s physical, mental, moral, or behavior traits.  Which seem especially significant to the action of the story?

The only common trait that both characters have in the story is two men who grew up with one another on one of the Indian reservation in the United States. They were friends until “when they were fifteen and… Victor and Thomas got into a fistfight.  That is, Victor was really drunk and beat up Thomas up for no reason at all” (251).  When the story began, the readers found out that Victor’s father died a few days after he lost his job.  So Victor was desperate for money because he needs to get to Arizona to get the father’s body and the money from the saving account. It seems like how the relationship between Victor and his father was not strong at all because Victor said how he “hadn’t seen his father in a few years, only talked to him on the telephone once or twice…” (247-48). Also, it seems like the motivation of the trip was to claim his father’s savings account and his car.  But the trip to Arizona is significant to the action of the story because this trip reunited two long time friends.  This leads up to Thomas’s personality.  When I was reading the story, Thomas had the personality where he had the lending hand to help people.  For example, it was Thomas who volunteered to help contribute some money to fly to Arizona; who helped drive back to the reservations; and when both characters arrived back to the reservation from Arizona, Victor realized how much of a great friend Thomas is.  With this kind of personality, Thomas contributes to the action of the story because no matter how a friendship is ruin, it only takes one person to forgive the other. 

Does the main character have an antagonist in the story?  How do they differ?

I believe that Victor is the only one who has an antagonist.  The antagonist is Victor’s friendship with Thomas.  Ever since the fight both characters had when they were fifteen years old, they were not friends. Since then, Thomas was the outcast of the reservation because he “Thomas was a storyteller that nobody wanted to listen to” (248).  Also, “nobody talked to Thomas anymore because he told the same damn stories over and over again.  Victor was embarrassed, but he thought that Thomas might be able to help him.  Victor felt a sudden need for tradition” (249).  Victor knew deep inside of him that they are friends, but their community would not approve because the community reject Thomas. 

Does the way the protagonist speaks reveal anything about his or her personality?

When both characters do speak, they do reveal of how they changed, especially by the end of the novel.  At the end of the story, Victor gave his fathers’ ashes to Thomas.  This is significant because earlier in the story, Thomas told Victor a story of a time where he went to Spokane all by himself at the age of 13 because his dream told him to go there for a sign. When he got to Spokane, Victor’s dad saw him there, picked him up, and both went back to the reservation.  But the true meaning of the sign is “take care of each other is what [Thomas] dreams were saying.  Take care of each other” (254).  Thomas was true to this saying because he was taking care of his friend who needed help.  On the other hand, Victor had changed by the end of the story too.  He changed because he actually wanted to hear a story from Thomas.  He realized that he can accept Thomas as the person he is, not the opinion from the town. 

If the story is told in the first person, what is revealed about how the protagonist views his or her surroundings?

Both characters think that their life on the reservation is hard because they do not have the financial securities.  Victor said how “who does have money on a reservation, except the cigarette and fireworks salespeople” (248).  But by the end of the story, both characters had changed their surroundings because they finally had each other.  When both characters arrived back to the reservation, Victor gave his father’s ashes to Thomas to represent the meaning of take care of one another. 

What is the character’s primary motivation?  Does this motivation seem reasonable to you?

In the beginning of the story, Victor’s primary motivation was to get to Arizona to get the remains of his father, the saving account, and the car.  I would think this motivation is reasonable to me because which child would not want to receive the inheritances?  But when Thomas was introduce, Thomas’s motivation was to amend their friendship. As mentioned earlier, Thomas has the personality to forgive and to have the helping hand when someone is in need.  For example, when Victor apologized to Thomas, Thomas forgave him because “[they] were just kids and [he was] drunk” (252).  By the end of the story, Victor believed that “he owned Thomas something, anything” (256).

Does the protagonist fully understand his or her motivations?

I believe that both characters understand their motivations because both motivations are very clear and straight to the point. 

In what ways is the protagonist changed or tested by the events of the story?

I believe that Victor changed by the events by the end of the story.  Through the story, he had memories of him and Thomas when they were younger.  Through these good memories, he was able to know why he appreciates his friendship with Thomas. 

The actor that I will chose for Thomas is Adam Beach.  For Victor, I would chose A Martinez.  

http://www.bluecorncomics.com/abeach.htm

http://static.tvguide.com/MediaBin/Galleries/Imported/BioPix/Ri/2006/2006_12/a-martinez1.jpg

"A Rose for Emily"

Blog about "A Rose for Emily."  What is the point of view of the story? Who is telling this story?  How is this unusual?  Why would Faulkner select this point of view?  How does the point of view fit with the theme of the story?  What specific lines in the story give you clues about who is telling the story? Quote them and include page numbers.  


As I read "A Rose for Emily", the narrator is an observer, "a minor character standing a little to one side, watching a story unfold that mainly involves someone else" (30).  Several reasons why I believed the narrator is considered an observer because through the story, I noticed that he or she did not mention their name.  When the narrator did mentions him or herself in the story, the narrator wrote how he or she was in a group. For example, the story started out when Miss Emily Grierson died, and "our whole town went to her funeral:..." (33).  This means that there was little involvement on the narrator behalf.  The narrator did not have a direct influence on the outcome of the story.  This will lead to another point that I felt. Not only the narrator was an observer, the narrator was a member of the community who knew or grew up with Emily for a very long time. As like Nick Carraway from The Great Gatsby, this narrator knew and heard stories about Miss Grierson, but the narrator did not knew Miss Grierson on the personal level. It seemed like the other characters in the story only knowledge her when the town needed to collect the tax from her.

Also, the narrator represented the one opinion of the entire town. The reason why I believed the narrator represent the entire view of the community on Emily because through the story, it was like a biography about Miss Grierson's life and how she ended up at the end of the story. The narrator told the story as if it was taken place over a certain amount of time. An example is when the mayor, Colonel Sartoris made an deal with Miss Grierson of how she does not have to pay taxes because she had made a loan to the town.  But "only a man of Colonel Sartoris' generation and thought could have invented...When the next generation, with its more modern ideas, became mayors and aldermen, this arrangement created some little dissatisfaction.  On the first of the year they mailed her a tax notice" (34). Again, there was a time period because a generation had pass. This gives me an idea that the narrator was someone who lived with Miss Grierson in the same town for a good amount of time.   Another example of how the narrator knew Emily for a while because he or she said how when Emily became sick for a long time and "when we saw her again, her hair was cut short, making her look like a girl, with a vague resemblance to those angels in color church windows-sort of tragic and serene" (37).

Being an observer as a narrator for a story like this fit with the theme of the story because the town did not really know Miss Grierson that well. This is the reason why Faulkner would use the observer as a narrator because being the observer gave the readers an idea of how much Miss Grierson was the outcast of the town.  Another example when the funeral happened, the women "mostly [came to the funeral] out of curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one save an old manservant-a combined gardener and cook-had seen in at least ten years" (33).  Clearly, if no one had visited her in a decade, that either means that she did not want to communitate with the other members or did not have any friends in town.

"A Good Man is Hard to Find"

Blog about "A Good Man is Hard to Find." Does the plot surprise you? Why or why not?  When you started reading the story, what did you think would happen?  If you have seen any films by the Coen brothers (especially No Country for Old Men), can you see how they were influenced by Flannery O'Connor? 


In this short story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is about a grandmother who foreshadow her and her family death during a family trip to Florida. At first, the grandmother did not want to go to Florida because of the The Misfit, a wanted criminal who was heading towards Florida.  She did not want to "take [her] children in any direction with a criminal like that a loose in it" (356).  But the rest of the family eventually got the Grandmother to come on the trip.  The Grandmother's initial fear sets up the story for the rest of the story because then the readers could predict that The Misfit will run into the family and will have an impact on the family.

As the story progress, the family got into an accident because the car was flipped over when the family was going to some house with a secret panel.  Then a car with three men came and once these men came out of the car, the Grandmother realized that one of them is the The Misfit.  She started to cry because she knew that her first feelings about going on to the trip.  As The Misfit and the Grandmother were talking about The Misfit's family background, he claimed that "God never made a finer woman than my mother and my daddy's heart was pure gold" (364).  This quotation is significant because the readers ask why did this man become a criminal if he talks to greatly about the parents?

The ending surprised me the most because after The Misfit and his gang killed the family, The Misfit announced that the grandmother was his mother.  This was surprising because the grandmother would of recognized her own son when The Misfit stepped out of the car.  What was more shocking how The Misfit even told his mother that she was a fine woman. This makes me wonder why would The Misfit wanted to kill her then.  The killing and the announcement was a great twist to the end of the story.

Nichole Kimbell Introduction

Hi, I am Nichole Kimbell.  I am currently in my second year here at Pasadena City College.  I am planning to transfer next year either in communication disorder or pre-law.  Several colleges that I am planning to transfer to is Cal State Long Beach, Cal State Los Angeles, and University of Arizona. 

When I am not at school, I spent a lot of my free time at work at the YMCA as a swim instructor and lifeguard. I have been working there for two years and it does not feel like I have been there for two years. I really enjoy working with kids because every single kids have their own unique personality that makes work more enjoyable.