Monday, October 7, 2013

Church

In the chapter Church, Tim O’Brien focuses on two main topics, religion and war. He talks about these two topics through a conversation between Kiowa and Dobbins. During this conversation they are in a Buddhist temple where they will settle camp for a couple of days. This temple is not empty and has two monks living in it. He displays a lot of irony and symbolism throughout the whole story.
     One example of irony that is shown throughout most of the story is how he often talks about how the Buddhist monks are cleaning the weapons as a favor for the soldiers. “He smiled at the older monk, who was now cleaning the machine gun’s trigger assembly.”(O’Brien 121)This image that Tim O’Brien paints in our head is very ironic because the Buddhist belief is all about being nice to others and about karma. And here you have supposedly peaceful monks cleaning the weapons of people that will most likely cause death and suffering.
     Another very ironic point is the reason the Dobbins wants to become a minister. He decides that he wants to become a minister because he wants to be nice to other people, and sick old people. The reason this is so ironic is the fact that he says that he wants to help people from suffering, and he wants to try and make the world a better place, yet right now he is in Vietnam cause pain and causing people to suffer every day. Tim O’Brien uses irony here to express his feelings about war, and about how he thinks that even if people are at war, the people who are fighting aren’t really themselves.
     O’Brien also expresses how the war you are raised and the type of family you have lived with don’t always determine how you must live your adulthood. Although Kiowa was raised to be religious, he doesn’t like the idea of becoming a minister, even though that is one of the things he most knows in life. Just because he was born into a religious family doesn’t mean that his life is now set for him and now he must be religious for the rest of his life. For him religion is as close to his heart as it will ever get. For him, religion isn’t about expressing it in a Church; it is about what you feel inside and about what you believe within. And he believes that even if he were to be a minister, he know that people are going to be the same. But he wants to change this and he thinks that becoming a big part in the Church is not the solution, but believing that there will be change will change the world.
     The symbol that the monks express towards Kiowa and Dobbins of washing their hands is very iconic. This gesture is iconic because in the New Testament, Pontius Pilates does this very gesture when Jesus Christ is sentenced to death. Of cleansing yourself, and almost literally washing the blood off you hands, and realizing that war is not the option, and the causing harm and suffering will just make the world a worse place.

Throughout this whole chapter, O’Brien tries to express his feelings towards the readers about his thoughts on how religion affects people. He shows that he thinks religion is a great part in peoples lives and no matter how you were raised as a child, whether it was more like the life Kiowa grew up in or how Dobbins was raised, it will at some point in your life affect you. He expresses all of this through many symbols and irony.

9 comments:

  1. Good blog Paolo! I agree that this chapter, and this book as a whole, has many ironic parts. Tim O'Brien uses irony in such an artistic way. He blends it in so well with the rest of the text that we as readers barely notice. The only reason we do notice is because we've been spending time studying different types of irony. Nice job finding specific examples from the chapter "Church".

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  2. I like how in this blog post you focused in on one particular literary element. I agree and I think the irony in this story is what makes it interesting.It is obvious yet subtle enough to make you stop and think for a second but not to the point where you realize right away that is ironic. Good job pointing out all the examples and forming it into a really strong analysis.

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  3. You really showed how much irony was in the story we read! I certainly did not think twice about the washing hands symbol, and did not realize there was a deeper meaning, until it was pointed out to me. Thanks for that. Also, I really like how you express that Dobbins is fighting in a war even though he wants to create peace. This sort of signifies the blind attitude soldiers have towards war. This also kind of shows painful war is even if people fighting do not want to hurt people.

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  4. I liked how you talked about a lot of ironic moments, giving examples in the text, and really analyzed them. I also liked how you connected the washing of the hands to the New Testament, because that is something that I would not have thought of, and it was really interesting to think of that playing a role in this story, along with the conversations regarding religion.

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  5. I really liked your connection towards irony, it really explains these chapters well. The irony you wrote about helped me better understand these chapters and made me more interested in them. Great job!

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  6. It was a really good idea to talk about the irony in this story, I hadn't thought of it until reading your post. Also, bringing attention the hand motions made by the monks was great too because O'Brien did not really make it clear what that meant. Great job on this post!

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  7. You did a great job explaining how the irony in "Church" illustrates the effects of religion. While I think this might go against your thesis, I also like how you pointed out how Kiowa is not tied to a career due to his religion. Kiowa is perhaps the most religious member in his unit and would be most knowledgeable as a preacher, but he knows his calling is elsewhere. Kiowa does not let his deep interest in religion influence his career path.

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  8. Your points on irony do a great job of perfectly filling the definition of the word. The point on symbolism is also very well said. in fact, it is almost a biblical allusion. This comparison was really quite interesting and is not something that is brought up a lot. I really liked your analysis of Dobbins due to the fact that his desire to become a minister is the polar opposite of what we expect him to want. Good job!

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  9. I liked how you showed the irony of this chapter, and I agree that the chapter was full of irony. I especially how you talked about how at the start of the chapter they acknowledge that they should never mess with a church, but they do anyways because in the war, the rules no longer matter. Good job!

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