Well I’m glad we discussed this on Friday so that I have a better understanding of what I think the main theme is. So far from reading the book and from what we have discussed in class I would have to say that the predominant theme is silence. This is an interesting theme for a novel that is about the Vietnam War because it was far from silent on both the frontlines and the home front. This theme is so apparent because of the fact that all of the chapters or short stories correlate to some deeper meaning that has to do with silence. An example would be when the author talks about how "[He] was a coward. [He] went to the war" (61). This ties into silence because he was a coward and didn’t have the courage to get out of going; therefore he was silent in his actions.
Moving away from the “silence” theme, I think there may be another theme that sneaks itself into the book somewhere. This is just a complete guess and I have nothing in the story to base the guess off of yet but I have a feeling that some postmodern ideal will jump into the equation sooner or later because it has so far in every other book that we have read this year.
Just as far as my ideas concerning this book, right now I would say that this is my favorite one that we have read this year because it’s a bunch of war stories about the Vietnam War. Particularly I don’t like reading besides reading my Bible but if I have to read I want to read about something I might actually care about and so far this book is pretty good. I hope it continues to get better as well as our class discussions!
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Alright Wiest good job on your blog this week. I completely agree this is the best book we’ve read so far. One thing I liked was how you talked about the theme of silence. This theme is especially apparent in the How to Tell a True War Story chapter. Some of the things I really like are how O’Brien contradicts himself in an effort to convey the reason why soldiers need to tell their stories. O’Brien says, “And then afterward, when you go to tell about it, there is always that surreal seemingness, which makes the story seem untrue, but which in fact represents the hard and exact truth as it seemed”. “In other cases you can’t even tell a true war story. Sometimes it’s just beyond telling”. O'Brien's point in this story is that the real connection is between war and love. Something you would not exactly hear in your average war story.
ReplyDeleteGod job on your blog this week Wiest. I love how you brought up this idea..."So far from reading the book and from what we have discussed in class I would have to say that the predominant theme is silence. This is an interesting theme for a novel that is about the Vietnam War because it was far from silent on both the frontlines and the home front." This really makes me think about the war and how there really never was any silence until it was over. There was always something for a soldier to be doing and the noise had to be unbareable. That is until the end of war when everyone is home and they are in a safe place writing the stories that they experienced in the "silence" and in the stillness of the area. Good blog wiest and keep it up big boy!
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