McKenzie Cooke
Accel English 12
A block
Lit Circle Jobs 2.0 – Job #6
1.) O’Brien’s decision to enter the war (pg 59-61)
At the end of the chapter “On the Rainy River,” a section where Tim O’Brien flees home after being drafted into the Vietnam War, Tim makes the decision to enter the war. It is not the fact that O’Brien is going to war that I have a problem with, but it is his reasoning behind going that I oppose. I strongly disagree with why O’Brien decided to enter the war. He ended up going for all of the wrong reasons. Although O’Brien claimed to agree with parts of the war, it was clear that it seemed wrong to him overall. O’Brien thinks he is too good to fight in the war, and wanted to find an easy way out. He ran away from home so that he can get away and figure things out, and because he resented the people of his town for expecting him to fight when they know nothing about the war itself. He ends up letting them win when he heads to Vietnam anyway.
I think O’Brien is a coward for entering the war out of embarrassment. I do not think that one should risk their own life for the sake of quieting down their neighbors’ gossiping. O’Brien should have resisted his draft duty because he did not want to actually fight in the war. He should not have gone back on his beliefs on the behalf of others. I think that this stupid decision helps to show what kind of a person O’Brien was when he was young and innocent; submissive, cowardly, and easily influenced by other people. Soldiers are brave, and I can’t picture a man who acts this thoughtless ever living up to standards like that.
2.) Dave Jensen and Lee Strunk’s peculiar friendship (pg 65-66)
One chapter, the two men fight over Jensen’s missing jackknife, which Strunk stole. The next, the two men befriend each other. They even set up an official document stating that each one of them would be by the others’ side to put them out of their misery if they were to be seriously wounded in the midst of becoming close. I completely agree with this reliance Jensen and Strunk had in each other. I cannot even imagine how alone a soldier feels while away at war. They are away from their families and taken out of their homes and stationed in places extremely unfamiliar. Eventually, I think a soldier could go insane due to how completely alone they feel. Finding friends and forming bonds with fellow soldiers is one of the easiest ways a soldier can stay sane while they witness all of the evils that war brings forth. Jensen and Strunk made the right choice in becoming friends because they could lean on and trust each other. Enough “enemies” already surrounded them. The two men’s friendship must have developed a great deal, for it peaked when Strunk’s leg got blown off and Jensen did not kill him. Their original silly agreement stated that Jensen had to, but he instead did what his friend asked him to do and he just let Strunk be. This shows that their relationship was a real, positive thing.
3.) A true war story is never moral (pg 68, 71)
I don’t believe a true war story could ever be moral for war is not “moral” in itself. Tim O’Brien says that “It [a true war story] does not instruct, nor encourage virture, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing things men have always done.” I agree with Tim O’Brien because I don’t think I have ever really felt uplifted after hearing a war story. Men and women who serve in wars are exposed to things no person should want to see. Although they are fighting for the name of their countries, they cannot help but witness the obscenities and evils war contains.
Tim O’Brien also states “Send guys to war, they come home talking dirty,” which I agree with as well. I would expect nothing more from soldiers at war who witness negativity and ruthlessness day in and day out. As war changes them for the worst, most of their characteristics and outlooks on life that were once normal begin to transform. True war stories are always so dissipated that they become hard to believe by those who are not soldiers themselves, and who have not been subject to the utter brutality of war. Tim O’Brien’s views on the immorality of a true war story are very correct, which shows his ability to still comprehend the reality of war.
4.) Adjectives of war (p 80)
O’Brien generalizes war as hell, mystery, terror, adventure, courage, discovery, holiness, pity, despair, longing, and love. He calls it nasty, fun, thrilling, and drudgery. He says it makes you a man, and also makes you dead. I do not agree that war can be all of these things. Some of these adjectives even seem positive. Maybe the fact that I have never experienced war leads me to my disagreement, but I could never bring myself to believing someone’s words that said war could be beautiful and harmonious at times.
I would describe seeing a scene of “great sheets of metal-fire streaming down from gunship” as tragic, not astonishing. Even though O’Brien justifies himself by saying that while you could hate the view, but your eyes couldn’t, I still disagree with him. I cannot picture my eyes being filled with the horrors of battle, and I cannot picture seeing this battle as serene or beautiful.
5.) Proximity to death brings a corresponding proximity to life (p 81)
Generalizing about war being similar to generalizing about peace seems like a controversial idea. After hearing Tim O’Brien compare war and peace, however, I am a believer in this concept. I have had a few minor “near-death experiences” where I have seen my life flash before my eyes, never mind having incidents like these happen to me every day. I know that after every one of them I have appreciated my life even more than I did before it. So, it is plausible to me that after a battle, one would feel tremendously alive.
I cannot imagine surviving a combat and not being thankful for my life – and for all things living in general. O’Brien says, “You’re never more alive than when you’re almost dead.” I have never been seriously close to death, gripping to life, like majority of soldiers have at once point or another, yet I understand the way O’Brien describes the realization of what is really valuable to you at that point and what things are not. In the end, soldiers are just happy to have survived another day.
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