Links of Random Interest: Fixing The Samsung RF267ABRS Refrigerator Water/Ice Problem

Links of Random Interest: Fixing The Samsung RF267ABRS Refrigerator Water/Ice Problem

Conscription and the Draft

Access the links below to learn background information about the draft and what date you would have been drafted had you been alive during the '60's.

Background
Selective Service Lottery Results

Another blogger's perspective on TTTC

The link below accesses an opinion on the value of Tim O'Brien's novel. Read the text and evaluate the extent to which you agree with its author. Share your perspective with class during our discussion.

On Violence blog

Embedded Research Paper

Embedded Research Paper Outline & Works Cited Draft

Overview:  Your main paper for this block is an embedded research paper, a narrative that incorporates research to create a storyline with characters, setting, and plot based on actual events. Your research will allow you to understand the sequence of events that occurred during the situation, the characters of individuals who played important roles during the situation, and an accurate description of a setting.

Topic:  Consider focusing on a historical event or time period. Think about something that you would have liked to participate in, like a migration, a celebration, an invention, or major political decision. For the space allotted, your writing shouldn’t span more than a couple of days, involve more than two major and two minor characters, and describe more than two settings. A more extensive story covered in 1500 words will lack the detail necessary for a successful paper.

Outline:  Once you have decided on a topic, write descriptions of the following list of items, addressing each element. You may use paragraph or outline format. The purpose is to have a strong concept of your story before you begin writing. This is best accomplished after you’ve completed some initial research. The outline below is due Thursday, May 16th.

• Description of main character

• Sex, age, name 
• Strengths, weaknesses 
• Background
• Motivation in story

• Description of other characters

• Sex, age, name
• Purpose in story

• Description of setting

• Location, date
• Imagery
• What your audience needs to know

• Description of plot

• Where you might begin
• What the climax will be
• What will happen in the conclusion

• Description of purpose

• What will you emphasize about this event? What message do you want to communicate to a reader through the events and characters?

The sources for your research should be recorded in MLA format in a separate document that will become your Works Cited page (use EasyBib to format the sources). The rough draft of references with an explanation of the content you will glean from them is due Wednesday, May 22nd.

• Six sources listed in MLA format

• 3 primary
• 3 secondary

TTTC Reading Assignments

Plan to have each reading assignment and journal entry done on the day listed. You can expect to participate in a discussion group on each day that an assignment is due.

Use the questions below each reading assignment as a starting point for your journal entry. You are not required to answer every question listed and can, in fact, formulate another question that is more thought-provoking to you. What is most important is that your journal entries demonstrate what you thought about the characters, the plot, the setting, the language. Entries that summarize the content of each chapter will NOT earn a passing grade or prepare you for the discussions.

The Things They Carried Journal Questions

Reading Assignment 1 – Page 1-26

“The Things They Carried”

• In the list of all the things the soldiers carried, what item was most surprising? Which item did you find most evocative of the war? Which items were most thought-provoking? Explain the meaning of the title, “The Things They Carried.” What is the first item listed as a carried thing? Why? Think about the metaphors of “weight.” 

Reading Assignment 2 – Page 31-38

“Spin”

• “On occasions the war was like a Ping-Pong ball. You could put fancy spin on it, you could make it dance” (32). What does this mean? What is the “spin” O’Brien is talking about?
• Identify where in this chapter O’Brien spins the story, events, etc. What is he trying to show to the reader?
• What does O’Brien say about stories in the chapter “Spin” (bottom of 34-top of 35, 38)? What does it suggest about story-telling and the stories we will read ahead?

Reading Assignment 3 – Page 39-54

“On the Rainy River”

• In "On The Rainy River," we learn the 21-year-old O'Brien's theory of courage: "Courage, I seemed to think, comes to us in finite quantities, like an inheritance, and by being frugal and stashing it away and letting it earn interest, we steadily increase our moral capital in preparation for that day when the account must be drawn down. It was a comforting theory." What might the 43-year-old O'Brien's theory of courage be? Were you surprised when he described his entry into the Vietnam War as an act of cowardice? Do you agree that a person could enter a war as an act of cowardice?
• "On the Rainy River" is perhaps the moral center of the book. In this section we meet Elroy Berdahl. Do you think he existed in O'Brien's life? What does he represent? What does Elroy Berdahl do that leads O’Brien to call him “the hero of my life”? Why doesn’t Berdahl ask O’Brien why he’s there?

Reading Assignment 4 – Page 55-61

“On the Rainy River”

• What is the role of shame in the lives of these soldiers? Does it drive them to acts of heroism, or stupidity? Or both? What is the relationship between shame and courage, according to O'Brien

Reading Assignment 5 – 62-66

“Enemies”

• What can be learned from this story about soldiers during a war?
• How do guns impact the storyline?
• What does this story suggest about human beings being in situations where they are armed and in foreign lands?

“Friends”

• Poor Strunk can’t catch a break (though he did steal Jensen’s knife).  What is “a wheelchair wound”? (65).  How does Strunk react to his injury?
• Why are “Enemies” and “Friends” back-to-back in this book?
• What are we supposed to learn about humanity from them?

Reading Assignment 6 – Page 67-88

“How to Tell a True War Story"

• Often, in the course of his stories, O'Brien tells us beforehand whether or not the story will have a happy or tragic ending. Why might he do so? How does it affect your attitude towards the narrator?
• According to O'Brien, how do you tell a true war story? What does he mean when he says that true war stories are never about war? What does he mean when he writes of one story, "That's a true story that never happened"?
• 
  

“The Dentist”

• Characterize Curt Lemon and why he behaves the way he does. How does this affect your reading of the previous chapter?

• What is the purpose of placing this chapter directly after “How to Tell a True War Story”?

Reading Assignment 7 – Page 117-118, 124-134

"Stockings"

• Why did Henry Dobbins continue to carry his girlfriend's stocking even after she broke up with him?
• Consider the comparison O'Brien makes between Dobbins and America. Does O'Brien like America? Does he respect it?

“The Man I Killed”

• How did the narrator react to the fact that he killed another human being? What evidence in the story leads you to this conclusion?
• This story describes fairly intimate aspects of the dead man’s life. Where do these details come from? How can Tim O’Brien know them? What is going on here?

“Ambush”

• Tim O’Brien’s daughter, Kathleen, asks if he ever killed a man: “ ‘You keep writing these war stories,’ she said,‘so I guess you must’ve killed somebody.’” Following this, O’Brien relates two possible scenarios of the death described in “The Man I Killed” to explain “This is why I keep writing war stories.” In your opinion, why does O’Brien keep writing war stories?
• Where does truth reside in this book? What is the connection between O’Brien’s actual experiences and the events in this book? Why is O’Brien using lies to get at “the truth”?

Reading Assignment 8 – Page 137-161

“Speaking of Courage”

• Aside from "The Things They Carried," "Speaking of Courage" is the only other story written in third person. Why are these stories set apart in this manner? What does the author achieve by doing so?
• Why is this story called “Speaking of Courage”? Assume the title does NOT hold any irony. In what sense does this story speak of courage?
• Like other male characters in this novel, Norman Bowker develops an active fantasy life. Why do these men develop these fantasy roles? What do they get from telling these fantasy stories to themselves? What does this tell you about O’Brien’s understanding of the way fiction relates to real life?

“Notes”

• What is the effect of "Notes," in which O'Brien explains the story behind "Speaking Of Courage"? Does your appreciation of the story change when you learn which parts are "true" and which are the author's invention?

Reading Assignment 9 – Page 162-180

“In the Field”

• In "In The Field," O'Brien writes, "When a man died, there had to be blame." What does this mandate do to the men of O'Brien's company? Are they justified in thinking themselves at fault? How do they cope with their own feelings of culpability?
• Three stories in succession, “Speaking of Courage,” “Notes,” and “In the Field,” deal with one event: Kiowa’s death. O’Brien similarly shows us incidents from different perspectives throughout the book. Where else does this device occur? How do these different perspectives change your understanding of an incident? Why do you think the author chose to do this?

“Good Form”

• In "Good Form," the narrator says, “I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth.” What does he mean by “story-truth” and “happening-truth”? Why might one be “truer” than the other?

“Field Trip” (Blog/journal for extra credit)

• Why does O’Brien return to the muck field? What is the point of putting Kiowa’s moccasins in the ground (burying them)?
• Explain the significance of the final sentence. Who or what is “all finished”?

Reading Assignment 10

“The Ghost Soldiers”

• The narrator of this story says, “When you’re afraid, really afraid, you see things you never saw before, you pay attention to the world.” What might he mean by this?

“Night Life”

• How did Rat Kiley get out of active duty in the Vietnam? Consider the placement of this story in the novel. What is O’Brien’s purpose in including this story so late in the novel and immediately following “The Ghost Soldiers”?

Reading Assignment 11 – Page 224-end

“The Lives of the Dead”

• Why is O'Brien unable to joke around with the other soldiers? Why does the old man remind him of Linda?
• What is the function of the Linda plot in “The Lives of the Dead”? Consider in particular what it teaches him about death, memory, storytelling.
• What is the “moral” of the dead KIAs? Consider Mitchell Sanders' view.
• In many ways, this book is as much about stories, or the necessity of stories, as it is about the Vietnam War. According to O’Brien, what do stories accomplish? Why does he continue to tell stories about the Vietnam War, about Linda?

Final Journal:  Overall Reflection

• Even though The Things They Carried is set during the Vietnam War, in what ways is it relevant today, with regard to war and politics as well as our personal struggles?
• What did Tim O’Brien gain by serving in Vietnam? What did he lose? Support your opinions with passages from the text.
• If the United States instituted the draft and your number came up, would you choose to serve? Explain in detail why you would make one choice and reject the other. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the choice you would make?
• Assume for a moment, that the writer, Tim O’Brien, created a fictional main character, also called Tim O’Brien, to inhabit this novel. Why would the real Tim O’Brien do that? What would that accomplish in this novel? How would that strengthen a book about “truth”?
• On the copyright page of the novel appears the following: "This is a work of fiction. Except for a few details regarding the author's own life, all the incidents, names, and characters are imaginary." How does this statement affect your reading of the novel?

Reading Journal Overview

The Things They Carried Journal Assignment

Overview:  Tim O’Brien’s honest and perspective-changing novel, The Things They Carried, reads like a memoir about the Vietnam War, although it is in fact a work of fiction.  On the copyright page of the novel appears the following: "This is a work of fiction. Except for a few details regarding the author's own life, all the incidents, names, and characters are imaginary."  Although Tim O’Brien did serve as a foot soldier in the Vietnam War and a character named Tim O’Brien appears in the novel, the author invents soldiers, places, and events to get to the truth of the Vietnam War as he knows it.  A stunningly realistic tribute to the soldiers’ experience of Vietnam, The Things They Carried was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Directions:  Create a blog on Blogger that will become the platform for your reading journal. As you read the novel, your blog/journal will become a record of your thoughts, ideas, impressions, and questions about each reading assignment.  Writing about what you've read has several benefits: it enables you to remember what you've read; it exposes weaknesses in your understanding; it raises questions you might not otherwise think about; it stimulates observations you might not otherwise have made; it helps you keep a record of characters, events, and themes and thereby helps in studying and reviewing material.

Your reading journal will include:

1. One entry for each reading section and additional entries as assigned in class. (See list on next blog post.)
2. A heading for each entry, which includes the reading assignment you’re responding to.
3. Your own reading notes, ideas and questions about each reading assignment.  These notes should contain frequent page-numbered references. General comments that aren’t supported with quotes or retellings of the story that don’t contain questions or comments are not acceptable.
4. Responses to questions and/or writing prompts assigned in class.

Format:

• Length:  each journal entry should be between 250 and 300 words.
• While the journal does not need to be written in a formal style, correcting all mechanical errors before you submit each entry is expected.

Grading:

• Each journal entry will be assessed based on the following criteria:
• Quality of Ideas:  Entry shows evidence of deep engagement with the text. Comments are insightful. (5 points)
• Development of Ideas:  Ideas are fully developed with commentary and supported with concrete details from the text. Response meets length requirement. (10 points)
• Presentation:  Entries are neat, titled, and edited. (5 points)

Welcome to the class blog!

This blog will become a repository for discussion questions and content related to our study of The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. Much of the content will be derived from the NEA's Big Read website.

Bookmark this site, so it will be easy to access each day.