Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Ambush and Style


Ambush and Style
Sometimes you have to stray from the truth to protect the mental stability of someone younger. In Ambush, Kathleen, who was nine at the time, asked her dad if he had ever killed someone. This was a very touchy subject for Tim. He did not want to tell his nine-year-old daughter that he had killed someone because he did not know what her reaction would be, or what she would think of him after. After hearing the story of the young man Tim killed, I would not have wanted to hear it a nine-years-old either. Finally, near the middle of the first page he made the decision to not tell her because he didn’t want to risk scaring her for the rest of her life. After telling her no, he immediately regretted it because he didn’t want to lie to her, but wanted to give her an explanation for why he kept writing war stories.
This exact moment happened to me with my cousin’s new husband, Gavin. Gavin has been apart of the marines for the past 8 years and has to keep a lot of things classified because he swore on it when he joined the marines. About 5 years ago, my cousin Madison brought him to Christmas after they got engaged in November. I was 9 years old about to turn ten in February, and I was so excited to meet him for the first time. I was a curious little 9-year-old, and when we first met I asked him so many questions. The first question I asked him was where he went to college. His answer was, “I haven’t gone to college yet because I am apart of the Marines.” Right when he said that, I thought of the game Call of Duty that my brother played all the time and the question slipped out. I asked, “Since you are apart of the marines, have you killed anyone before?” Right when I said this I could tell he felt awkward. He made a few quick glances around the room looking into my parents eyes who gave him a like “don’t tell her” signal, and then he immediately responded “of course not.” When he said that I could tell that he wasn’t telling the truth. Later that night I asked my parents if he was lying or not and they told me that I shouldn’t ask him those questions anymore. Christmas went on and a few years went by and I later found out that he had killed someone before, and that it was part of his job. When I found out I asked my parents why they wouldn’t tell me a few years ago and the said it was to keep my mind innocent and that I wasn’t ready at the time to hear something like that.  I guess they were right, but I wish they had told me earlier just like Kathleen probably would have wished, if she knew that her answer to why her dad continued writing war stories was right.
The chapter Style reminds me of the scene in Avatar when Dr. Grace Augustine, after getting hurt, is lying at the Tree of souls with her actual body and her avatar body. In this scene every avatar is singing dancing and praying for her to be able to come back to life in her avatar form with all of her memories and everything. This relates to the chapter Style because in this chapter, Tim and friends enter an ambush sight and see a dark haired girl with brown skin dancing around the destroyed grounds.  They are very confused on why she is dancing till they realize that her whole family was killed except for her. Azar, said that the dance was probably a dance ritual for her family. The word ritual immediately put the avatar scene in my mind because the scenes are so different context and picture wise, but yet so similar in the fact that the girl is doing that dance as a ritual for her family and that the people of avatar are doing a dance as a ritual so Dr. Augustine can come back to life after being killed.  















8 comments:

  1. Sarah Kate, I really liked how you related the book to your own life, because it shows how we can be connected to something that seems so distant. Also, I liked how you addressed the conflict in that Kathleen and you wanted to not be lied to, but at the same time it wasn't good for your innocence.

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  2. Wow, you had an almost identical experience to the one mentioned in the book. Nice job taking advantage of the opportunity to make and share a great personal connection that you had. I agree that while admitting to a child to having killed someone may not be appropriate, the feeling of having been lied to isn't so great either. Not that I don't think that lying may have been the better decision, I just think that being put in a situation like the author and your family member is tough and you have to make a decision between honesty and appropriateness.

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  3. Great job, Sarah Kate. You did a great job connecting stories to each chapter. The way you described asking your cousin's husband if he had killed anyone put the scene into my head; you did a great job using details. You also touched on the concept of having to keep one's mind innocent at a young age. I agree with your point that this is necessary when a person is young and I think you did a good job when you reflected on the moment in retrospect.

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  4. Great personal connection.. it gave me shivers! Although it is sad and scary at times, we wouldn't be here without the soldiers even though it's such a hard choice for them mentally and physically.

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  5. I think it's really cool how you connected this story to your own life, and that you can read the book now and relate to it. I also liked your connection you made to the movie Avatar because it was so original. Great job!

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  6. Great connection! It's so cool that you had a similar experience to Tim O'Brien's daughter Kathleen. The details you used to describe how you asked your cousin if he had killed anyone made it easy to imagine in my head. I think Tim was trying to keep his daughter's innocence for as long as he could; he didn't want her innocence taken away from her like his was for him. I believe that Tim was still innocent when he went to war, and war kind of made him grow up. Great post!

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  7. Wow, the similarity between your personal experience and the one in the book is amazing! Also, the connection between the book and the movie Avatar was really unique because it associates the value that natives give to their land.

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  8. I really like how your experience was so similar to Tim O'Brien's daughter's in the chapter. You probably understood the story better because you know what was going through Kathleen's head. This was a really good connection. Great job Sarah Kate!

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