Thesis blog

My thesis statement for essay #3:

No other war has caused so much variation in opinion and continues to now, thirty years after its completion, which is that of the Vietnam War. One crucial aspect of controversy surrounding the war was that of the draft and the stigma associated towards the 60,000 Americans who fled to Canada to avoid it. Looking back now thirty years later, where they right to flee? Did that war create more harm than good, especially to the American Soldiers that fought there?

Question: Where they right to flee and did that war create more harm than good?

Question: Is it arguable?

 Yes I do believe it is arguable as the topic is one of a lot of tension through out previous decades and to this day 30 years after the war ended people still have very strong opinions on the people who did flee the draft.

Question: Is it Specific?

 The book “The Things They Carried” covered a range of topics and issues concerning the Vietnam War, the draft is just one of those topics covered, it is a very specific in that it covers not the draft as a whole but just the point of fleeing the draft and the consequences of going to war or choosing to dodge the draft years later.

Question: Could I support it with evidence from the text?

Tim Obrien covers the draft and the possibilities of fleeing to Canada in great detail. From his 6 days he spent in a cabin at the boarder of Canada and the strong emotions that it caused for him and how it worked through it to ultimately decide to go home and go to war.

Question: Would my thesis statement be considered a strong thesis statement?

I do believe I have a strong foundation in my thesis statement and pose an opinion and do give a question which I intend to answer and prove with facts through out my paper. The question I pose is specific enough and not vague. The text “The Things They Carried” covers the topic well and has ample evidence to back up my thesis statement, but due to my question being so specific there is also plenty of research material available to use in my paper.

Midterm Portfolio Letter

Laura Darrow

Course Name: ENG 102, Section # 32354

Date: 10/16/2010

Dear Laura,

Subject: Midterm Portfolio Letter

After completing English 101, I was excited about beginning this class. Although the first eight weeks of this class seem to have flown by, when I look back over what I have completed and learned I am surprised at what I have been able to accomplish. The major test I have faced so far would have to be Poetry, besides the word always making me cringe; I struggled at first attempting to wrap my mind around the poems in Poetry of Witness. When you know you have troubles with a particular area it seems to make the whole process even more of a struggle because of the mental blocks you subconsciously put up. After pushing through the blocks and reading more and more poetry and writings on the concept of poetry I was happily surprised with the progress I began to make, it all started to become less of a blur and shock horror I actually got it. Due to this revelation I had I would say the work I completed in the poetry section of this class was by fair my biggest success, I even attempted at writing my own piece of poetry.

The readings as far have been some what out of the norm for me, which I have enjoyed.

Tim O’Brien’s and Sean Huze’s writings I found to be oddly captivating and disturbing at the same time. Being a Psychology student the obvious psychological issue and themes in both stories drew me in immediately, and I have found it enjoyable and a great practice to address them in my writing.

The theory of literary analysis I found particular interesting in that you get to deal more into the mind of the author more so than any other writing I have done to now, thinking out of the box and delving that deeply into a store can give you such a more in depth opinion and outlook on the story you have just read. As for the rest of this semester I hope to keep fine polishing my writing skills and use of  grammar, I am still finding myself getting so into what I am writing and not paying attention to how I am writing it. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the insight you have given me so far in this class, it has been a very rewarding experience.

Sincerely,

Sarah Robinson

Operation Homecoming Analysis

Review of Operation Homecoming- Writing the Wartime Experience.

            The documentary by Richard E. Robbins, Operation Homecoming-Writing the Wartime Experience was moving and inspirational. Tim O’Brien makes an opening statement during the documentary that I found fascinating which was “Some things you should not heal from”, so that made me wonder does the process of writing not so much make what they went through easier to deal for them but more so a way of preserving the memory for future generations.

            Besides the inability to heal from their experiences Tim O’Brien also describes how some words are just not sufficient enough for what they go through. The guilt of shooting the enemy, shooting the innocent are all feelings of emotion common with war so the soldiers have little choice to deal with it during times of battle so they write or burry it deep inside their mind hoping they never have to face it again.

            One story that I found particularly moving was that of Ed Hrivnak of the Air Force his story “War on T.V is Antiseptic”, delved into the medivac missions he undertook. He would pick up the wounded marines and during the flight while he did his best to band-aid their wounds they would confide in him about their fears and he would become more than a medic but a lifeline in which he felt obligated to help them and listen to them.

            From using watching the documentary and reading Sean Huze’s play and reading Tim O’Brien’s book I gained a better understanding on just how much turmoil and psychological damage these soldiers go through., like in a statement from one soldier in Operation Homecoming,” How will tomorrow come if today never ends.” A issue that both this documentary covered and Tim O’Brien’s stories discussed is that America has all but forgotten there is a war going on, TV does not show more than a couple of minutes a day and they do not show the psychological toil that it takes on our soldiers. As a student of psychology myself I realize from reading these stories that human emotions and feelings are the same when in times of war and no matter if it is the Vietnam War or Desert Storm the men who serve will go through and experience similar feelings of loss and pain, it will effect them and it is supposed to.

            No matter the war the soldiers have been trained for one thing, action. They may dread it but they need it so they don’t face the emotions they will feel for being away from home alone in the terrible conditions, so if they are not fighting they can write as a therapeutic release for emotions, as one solider described in the documentary, “I may not be a very good solider, but I may be a good witness.” So thanks to these soldiers and their writing us as a generation along with our future generations we can understand and appreciate just what they went through and at what psychological cost the war came with.

                                                Work Cited

           

            Robbins, Richard E. Operation Homecoming; Writing the Wartime Experience. The Documentary Group.2007.Media

The Ghost Soldiers Analysis

Summary vs. Analysis:  The Ghost Soldiers

            Tim O’Brien’s story The Ghost Soldiers delves into the shooting and ultimate revenge of the character Tim O’Brien in Vietnam. After being shot with the Alpha Company along the Song Tra Bong and receiving sub-par treatment and almost dying of shock due to the new medic Bobby Jorgenson, he is shipped back and stationed at Headquarters Company-S-4. With time to contemplate and stew on what happened, the physical pain, continuing side effects from infection and losing the camaraderie with his troop, he focuses his anger and need for revenge on Bobby Jorgenson.

            The story details the plot of revenge acted out by the character Azar a somewhat over the top and disturbed solider and O’Brien at the Headquarters Company while Bobby Jorgenson was their. It shows the process of anger to forgiveness through psychological torment in both Jorgenson and O’Brien.

            In the story O’Brien makes the following statement:

            “Psychology-that was one thing I knew. You don’t try to scare people in broad daylight. You wait. Because the darkness squeezes you inside yourself, you get cut off from the outside world, the imagination takes over.” (195)

I think psychology played a large role, good or bad for soldiers in Vietnam, but more so for O’Brien. Throughout all his stories he is constantly over analyzing and looking for reason when in reality war is war, what will come of trying to rationalize it? The over thinking of the shooting somewhat altered his conscious state to be unrealistic and boarder line psychotic in behavior, like when he describes the imagination taking over him. The inability to put what happened to him in perspective and just accept that Jorgenson made a mistake he was a rookie and just let it go was not an option to O’Brien anymore and with his psychological attack on Jorgenson he realized just how much he had strayed from reality. “…but the presence of death and danger has a way of bringing you fully awake.” (183)

Review of book: The Psychology of War by Lawrence LeShan