Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Good Form


Good Form
When you are writing a story, you can change things in the story to present yourself a certain way. You can invent yourself. In Good Form, Tim O’Brien talks about how he writes his stories. He goes on to talk about how he watched a man get killed and how guilty he felt even though he didn’t do anything. He then describes how the man looked, then said he was making all of this up. This is what I don’t really understand. O’Brien contradicts himself a lot throughout the chapter. First, he says he watched the man get killed. He describes all these things about him then says it’s all a lie. Then he describes him again with lots of detail and says he killed him. I have no idea which of the stories in this chapter are true. All of these contradictions make it very hard to analize what O’brien is trying to say. If I had to guess, I would say that he is trying to show that even if the stories aren’t true, you still get a picture of what it is like for a soldier to kill and witness death.
In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien lies a lot to present himself as a good and innocent person. He made up this story about him witnessing the man get killed because he didn’t want to live with killing another person. He also lies to his daughter because he doesn’t want her to look at him as a killer. This is something I noticed often throughout the book.
I connected Good Form to sports. Often in sports, especially when kids play, people try to make it look like it wasn’t their fault when they make a mistake. They try to blame one of their teammates because they don't want to be the one who makes the mistake. This connects to when Tim O’Brien says he witnessed someone get killed but then says he is the one that killed him.
This was a very confusing story that had a lot of twists to it. It took me a couple of times reading it to get an understanding of what I thought it meant.

            

14 comments:

  1. Nice analysis, Spencer! You are correct in assuming the reasoning for O'Brien's contradictions. I don't think O'Brien tries to lie to us as an audience, but rather I feel like he contradicts himself to highlight the line between truth and accuracy.While O'Brien may not have actually ever killed anyone, he means to show the audience what the war was like by telling an accurate story, one that is representative of what went on in the Vietnam War, even if it isn't true and didn't actually happen. That said, you did a great job and I like your connection to the world of sports.

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  2. I liked how you related this to sports. I for sure know what you are meaning when you talk about players blaming other people. This often accidentally occurs during cheer when a mistake is made during stunting. People often blame others for their own faults.

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  3. Great job Spencer!
    I really liked how you compared this chapter to sports. I think everyone can relate to how you talk about putting the blame on each other. Anyone who has ever been on team can see where your coming from.

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  4. This chapter was very confusing for me as well. You did a great job though. Also I agree with the others above me ^^ that relating it to sports was very different from the others. Great job Spencer!!

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  5. Great job! I agree with you that this chapter is especially hard to relate to, but I think you did a good job relating it to how people feel about sports. I totally know what you are talking about.

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  6. Great job! It was a really good idea to compare this chapter to sports, which is something almost everyone can relate to. Also, your analysis of this chapter was very well done!

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  7. This is a very confusing and short chapter. Great job taking on the challenge and tackling it. I completely understand how you related it to sports. Great job!!

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  8. Good job Spencer! I agree that this chapter wasn't exactly totally clear when I first read it, but you did pretty well in giving examples of good form you think about when you hear the phrase, such as the form for when you are playing sports. I think O'Brien doesn't exactly make it clear what did and did not happen because to the reader I think he wants them to be invested in his story either way, and that the real point he is trying to make throughout the book is that events in times of war aren't always clear cut.

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  9. I completely agree with you that this chapter was very confusing, and your effort to break down and analyze the chapter was great. I think it's great to relate blaming events to sports, because in sports, people mess up often, and people have to blame someone. This underlying subconciousness that lies in our minds during events of competition is brought out in war and sports.

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  10. I agree, Spencer. I think that his many contradictions make the book a bit confusing. Also, this idea goes back to the idea of truth and if something did not happen, is it not true, and so on. Great job addressing that topic.

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  11. I like how honest you are in this blog post. Even with your confusion, I agree with your analysis. Great job!

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  12. Good connection to sports! I also agree that Tim contradicts himself a LOT, and I often find myself very confused while reading. This chapter in particular left me puzzled, so awesome job being able to analyze it!

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  13. Quite honestly, I was just as confused as you were when I read this story for the first time. However, your connection makes a lost of sense, and I like how your brought out the fact that O'Brien first says that he saw someone get killed, but then says that he killed them. I am inclined to believe that O'Brien did kill the man because in one of the earlier stories, he describes the feelings he had after killing a man. Great post, Spencer!

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  14. This was definitely a confusing chapter to me, but you had a great analysis of it. There were lots of contradictions throughout this chapter which made it hard to follow. I like how you compared it to sports and how kids blame things they did on other people. I think blame is a big theme throughout this entire book. Good job Spencer!

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