Reaction
Hey E319 Students,
Find other textual examples to support the argument that the man O'Brien killed was Norman Bowker.
What was your reaction to the genre of The Things They Carried?
(Jay Mehta Approved)
posted by Jay Mehta @ 11/17/2011
9 comments
9 Comments:
The fact this entire story was fiction totally blew my mind! I really should have read the front cover but I did not. Whenever O’Brien said “maybe” I would text mark by asking “So did this really happen?”. I was on the right path yet I still was clueless. In a way I am actually sad this all is not true because now it really ruins all the pathos I was feeling. None of the men I felt sorry for were real. Mr. Robin told us today that this was not hidden and he is being completely honest. I am going to have to go back and re-read this just to find more, I guess you can call them, non –hidden facts.
I’m going to just respond with my reaction to being told that The Things They Carried is fiction. It completely shocked me, probably because I have become so emotionally invested in these characters, because the writing seemed so real. I cried when Kiowa died and when Norman Bowker killed himself. To me, the feeling was similar to find out Santa isn’t real. But…worse, because when I found out Santa wasn’t real it really was not that big of a deal. It was crazy, because it said it clearly at the beginning of the novel. But, no one (or a very few people) bothered to look there, missing it completely.
-Mac Kienitz
I was equally shocked at this being an entirely fictional book, but it makes sense now that there are so many allusions to Harold Krebs. I feel like us not realizing that this was fiction, because we were too lazy to read the first few title pages, says a lot about the time period we live in. With modern technology, humans in general have become very immune to just doing the bare minimum. I know for a fact that I am guilty of this on many occasions. From now on, I am going to try my best to read almost every page, even if it seems insignificant at the time, because I do not ever want to feel foolish like I did today, ever again.
-Karyn Baldwin (Per. 3)
Last year, a friend of mine spoiled the genera for me. I was going into the book knowing it was fiction. I, however, did have second thoughts as I began reading more. What threw me for a loop the most was the fact that O'Brien knew so much about each character and he knew so much about the war. I began to question myself "Was *bleep* wrong? Is this really true?" The story kept me skeptic of my friend's claim until I saw the back cover. Right by the price of the book, I saw it. It made me laugh once I saw it because it was staring at us the whole time. Right there, in plain sight, right next to the $14.95 was one word, "fiction". That is what settled it for me. It was still a shock, though, to see how well O'Brien wrote and made us think he was telling a non-fiction story. He certainly had many of us fooled.
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Even days later after hearing about “The Things They Carried” and its new apparent genre, I am not sure what to feel. Obviously, I am shocked due to how convinced I was that the story created by Tim O’Brien had very little or anything to do with the real war. The characters were made up, the terrible and tragic events were only in O’Brien’s creative imagination, and yet I still cannot seem to thoroughly believe this is fiction. The utter magic that took place within this book is something that seems like would take a lifetime to understand completely. For me, the thing I cannot get my mind around is the scene in the book with the water buffalo. For this not to be true, O’Brien had to have stepped into the whole feeling of being at war, what it does to you physically, and how war twists a person’s worst thoughts into reasonable ones. While I understand, now, why and how this story is not non-fiction, there is still this part of me that feels so attached the characters, so far into the setting and plot that I am not willing to let myself believe that one human can make up a story so devastating, so life-like, without it being true in some way.
-Jori Nelson (period 3)
One fateful day, before math class, Jason and I were talking about The Things They Carried and how there was so many mind blowing topics and nonhidden things that we had not seen. We were joking around and decided to read some of the comments that magazines and literary critics have said. After flipping through some pages we came across the title page and saw “A work of fiction by Tim O’Brien”. Jason and I were shocked (or at least he pretended to be...). I did not see this coming and for a while I was very skeptical about what it said on that page. Then Mr. Robin tells us the truth and I was speechless. I did not see that coming.
-Adam Kobiela(3rd)
Going into The Things They Carried, I was aware it was a work of fiction. Before we even started reading it in class, I leafed through it at home just to see what it was like and came upon the few spots that said it was fiction. However, once we started reading, it was almost as if my mind completely rejected the idea that such amazing writing could be fiction and, the more and more I read, the more I forgot that it was. When Mr. Robin brought up the topic again and told us The Things They Carried was completely and utterly fiction, grief and disbelief hit me. My mind just could not comprehend how such a book, with its deep characters and specific details, could not be non-fiction and how O'Brien could write about such things if he never even fought in the Vietnam War. I was in shock as I walked out of class that day, but after having time to think it over, I have decided that although this is a work of fiction, it will still remain one of my favorite books and evoke emotion within me.
- Marzena Socha, period 3
As we started reading the book TTC, I already knew the book was fiction. Students who previously took the class informed me. Beyond the point, I was still very amused at this being fiction because O'Brien really can pull the wool over your eyes. The discription is so vivid and detailed that this fact is hard to believe. The character progression is so well constructed that I had second guesses on that claim. But because the character's actions and thoughts are so well pronounced, that would make you think as well. For example, how could O'Brien discribe the Song Tra Bong so detailed when he never even saw it? He must have searched up much data on the war and location to be successful at this novel.
Sal Period 3
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