Topic Proposal

    For my topic proposal I will explore the relationship between, The Handmaids Tail and polygamy from centuries ago.  Atwood’s story reminded over and over again of stories I’ve heard and movies I’ve watched about the history of polygamy.  Every woman in the book had their roles, as did the woman in polygamist colonies so many years ago.  In both situations the women always answered to a man.  In Atwood’s book, the wives are head of the household second to the commander. 
    My guiding question for my fourth essay is if so many of the women in The Handmaid’s Tale are opposed to the lifestyle they have been forced into, then why is there not more resistance from the women living in the Republic of Gilead?  Many of the women in the book secretly speak about their aversion to life in Gilead, so why don’t they ban together to fight back?  It seems it would be plausible if the majority of fertile women is large, then the women could fight back and regain at least some of their rights.  The ability to learn and educate themselves would seem reasonable.  Although if they were allowed become educated, then they may protest fully and then the Republic of Gilead would crumble.
    The reason I have chosen the topic of polygamy is because I don’t really know very much about it other than what you see on TV.  Every time I picked up Atwood’s book to read it, it reminded me of polygamy within a page or two.  I’m not sure how it will help me understand Margaret Atwood better, but at least I’ll learn new things about what the book reminded me of.
     Here is a link to Margaret Atwood's web page:  http://www.margaretatwood.ca/

Thesis Statements

 

Identify the weak thesis statement

1.  A)  I’m going to write about Darwin’s concerns with evolution in The Origin of the Species.
     B)  Darwin’s concern with survival of the fittest in The Origin of the Species leads him to neglect a potentially conflicting aspect of his theory of evolution-survival as a matter of interdependence.
A) is a weaker thesis statement because it just tells what the essay will be about.  There is no argument.

2.  A)  An important part of one’s college education is learning to better understand others’ points of view.
     B)  Although an important part of one’s college education is learning to better understand others’ points of view a persistent danger is that the students will simply be required to substitute the teacher’s answers for the ones they grew up uncritically believing.
A) is a weaker thesis statement because its just a fact.  There is nothing to argue, no questions can really be drawn from this statement.

3.  A)  By inventing terms, such as “loose fit” and “relaxed fit”, the jean industry has attempted to normalize, even glorify, its product for an older and fatter generation.
     B)  The jeans industry targets its advertisements to appeal to young adults.
B) is the weaker statement because it is boring in comparison to A).  A) has much more of an argumentative aspect to it.

4.  A)  Othello is a play about love and jealousy.
     B)  Although Othello appears to attack jealousy, it also supports the skepticism of the jealous characters over the naïvete of the lovers.
A) is weaker because its common knowledge. 

5.  A)  The songs of the punk rock group Minor Threat relate to the Feelings of individuals who dare to be different. Their songs are just composed of pure emotion. Pure emotion is very important in music, because it serves as a vehicle to convey the important message of individuality. Minor Threat’s songs are meaningful to me because I can identify with them.
     B)  The punk rock group Minor Threat uses emotional lyrics to appeal to their target audience, which considers itself individualistic and therefore the lyrics must convey a message of individuality.
A) is the weaker of the two statements because it is merely how the writer feels about the band.  There would be no way of proving or disproving someone’s “feeling” about an issue.

The thesis statement for my essay on the biography of Tim O’Brien will be the following:
What would he have become if he had not gone back home?  The answer to that is, he would still be a writer.  A writer of different things, but a writer still.  His novels would be about the trials and tribulations he would have gone through if he had decided not to go back home and enlist as he was order to do.  He may not have become a famous writer and have books that are frequented in classrooms, such as The Things They Carried, but he would still have become a writer.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/545/01/

Tom O'Brien Article Summary

Works Cited

Frost, Adam.  "O'Brien, Tim, 1946-"   Literary Online Biography. Copyright 1996-2010 ProQuest
     LLC.  Web. 20 Oct. 10. 
     http://lion.chadwyck.com.proxy.yc.edu/searchFullrec.do?id=3979&area=authors&forward=author&   trailId=12B3F6EFB7A&activeMultiResults=authors

 

 

Tim O’Brien 1946-

    Tim O’Brien was born on October 1, 1946 in Minnesota.  His father was a insurance salesman and his mother was a teacher.  In 1968 he graduated from Macalester College with a BA in political science.  Shortly after he graduated college he was drafted to fight in the Vietnam War.  O’Brien was against war.  In The Things They Carried, there in a short story about the internal conflict he went through when he was drafted, he didn’t want to go to war.  In the end though, he did.  He served in Vietnam from 1969 through 1970.  After returning from Vietnam, he went to Harvard to work on a graduate course specializing on government and politics.
This article discusses the literary writings done by Tim O’Brien.  According to the article, all but one of O’Brien’s novels were about the Vietnam war.  The one exception was a novel titled Tomcat in Love.  This was a book about a man who was obsessed with blondes and sex.  It was the only novel written by O’Brien that was considered a “flop”.  O’Brien wrote many novels, The Things They Carried, If I Die In A Combat Zone, Going After Cacciato, and In the Lake of the Woods, are the works discussed in this article.  All four of these were acclaimed as outstanding by numerous respected critics such as The New York Times.
    I will use this article to help write a biography of  my own about the life and work of Tim O’Brien.  It will be useful to me because I have to have three sources and his gives me one of them.  It is also useful because prior to reading it, I didn’t know of any other books written by Tim O’Brien.  Knowing this information will give me a place to begin my research on his work.
    The source I used to write this summary is a credible one because I found it in the Yavapai College school library database and the college only uses credible sources.  There is some information in the article that talks about stories from one of the books O’Brien wrote that I am familiar with and the information was accurate, as are the quotes the author used in the article.  O’Brien’s date of birth, colleges he attended, and his draft into the Vietnam War are all easily accessible over the internet.  

Dear Laura

Dear Laura,
   
    So far I have enjoyed this course, far more than previous English classes.  I think this is because there seems to be more freedom in the writing process, which I did  not expect.  In the beginning of the semester, I was worried I wouldn’t do well at all because I tend to have a hard time writing about things unless I am very familiar with or have personal views on the subject, such as a personal essay.  At the beginning of the semester when I saw we had to set up a blog, I wasn’t looking forward to it at all.  I had never set up a blog of any kind and as it turns out, the blogs are one of the things I like best about the class.   
    
    When I bought the books for this class and saw they were about war, I was dreading it.  I’ve never been much of a history buff so you can understand where I was a bit concerned.  However, much to my surprise, I enjoyed the stories I read very much.  They were far easier to read than I thought they would be.  The fact that they touched something in me made it much easier for me to write about them.
   
    I’d have to say my biggest challenge to this point was the analysis.  I’ve never been very good at analyzing text, so this was good practice for me.  Analyzing a text is so different from other types of writing because you have to pick something out of the story to analyze.  That was quite difficult for me, which also surprised me.  I think it was because I agreed with so much of the text, plus how do you argue with what a person feels?  Once I started looking for a way to analyze why something happened or was done instead of looking for a way to contradict it, it became a bit easier to write the analysis.  It still would have been a nicer experience if I could have just analyzed Cinderella.  Okay, you’re right, this isn’t fourth grade.  All well, what are you gonna do?

    In this last half of the semester, I hope to improve my grade and my use of MLA format, or citation rather.  I still have to go back and check continuously to make sure I have cited things correctly, in the right order and so forth.  Repetition is the only way to make it stick, and if it still doesn’t, well there’s always my Little Brown.  Hopefully I won’t need it for citation after this semester.

   

Summary vs. Analysis

Summary:  
    In Tim O’Brien’s story “On the Rainy River”, he tells of how he reacted to being drafted into the Vietnam War.  It was in June of 1968, he’d just graduated from Macalester College at the age of 21 only to find a letter drafting him off to war.  This was a war he did not believe in and did not want to fight.  While working in an Armour meatpacking plant during the summer of 68’, he gave much thought to the draft letter he‘d received.  One day while working, the fear overcame him and he fled towards Canada.  He had no plan other than not going off to war.  He ended up at the Tip Top Lodge, where he stayed for six days.
    During those six days, Tim thought of the many different outcomes he may face depending on his decision.  He was afraid to die for something he didn’t believe in, but he was also afraid to leave behind everything of the life he’d always known.  Elroy Berdahl was the owner of the lodge, but more than that he was a person who was there for Tim in this desperate time in his life.  Elroy passed no judgments, gave no opinions, and asked no questions, he was just there, making all of this reality for Tim.  At the end of six days Tim decided to go home and head off to war.  He stayed alive and came home to write this story of his days on the Rainy River at the Tip Top Lodge.

Analysis:
    The story, “On the Rainy River” is that of a man at a crossroad in his life.  Stay and fight or flee.  O’Brien felt himself better than the war, above it.  “I was too good for this war.  Too smart, too compassionate, too everything.  It couldn’t happen.  I was above it.” (pg 39).  O’Brien thought he was better than the war his country sent for him to fight in.  When he ran towards Canada he proved he was not above it, but below it.  He was no better than any war, simply a scared child, and children do not fight wars for America.  So you see, Tim O’Brien was not too good for this war, but too cowardly.  At least until he decided to come back and do what was right.


Works Cited:
O'Brien, Tim.  The Things They Carried. "On The Rainy River" pages 37-58.  Copyright 1990 by Tim O'Brien 
  

Response to Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried"

  Tim O’Brien’s story “On The Rainy River”, was not at all what I was expecting when I began to read it.  After the first few paragraphs I though it would tell of a young man who didn’t want to go to war for fear of dying, which I think is a good reason not to want to go to war.  Yes, this was part of Tim O’Brien’s reason for not wanting to go to war, but it was more of a personal conflict of staying true to his own personal convictions.  O’Brien did not believe the war he would be sent off to was for worthy causes.  He did not agree with the reasons for the war.  Therefore, his fight was to decide whether he would remain true to his beliefs and run from the war or if he would give in and fight a war he didn’t agree with in order to forego personal humiliation.

    Tim O’Brien drove off to the Rainy River in" a haze of confusion and fear.  When he arrived at the cabins he stayed in for 6 days, he was greeted by an elderly man named Elroy, who O’Brien says saved his life.  Not in the literal sense, but O’Brien was going to leave everything behind and run away.  Elroy was a man who never pressured or pushed at Tim to tell him why he was there and so obviously distraught.  Elroy was just there really, he didn’t actually do anything for Tim.  But maybe that is exactly what he did for Tim, nothing, he just let him be.
    In the end Tim makes the decision to go home and fight that war.  He felt like a coward for doing so because he didn’t believe in the fight.  I think this made him the exact opposite.  Sometimes doing the right thing is what hurts the most and feels the most wrong, but is for the right reason, because it is right.  That is exactly what war is.  Doing the things that hurt you the most, killing people, injuring people, even if it is for self preservation, it still hurts and it feels wrong, and yet it is right.  This man, Tim O’Brien was at war before he even got there.  He went to war the day he received that enlistment letter in the mail.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JNGwiYwRtk

Photo Cited 25 Sep 2010
http://ronaldarichardson.com/2008/01/30/the-things-they-carried/

Video Cited 25 Sept 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JNGwiYwRtk
You Tube


 

Sean Huze's "The Sand Storm"

    Sean Huze’s, “The Sandstorm” is a play written about the Iraqi war.  In it, men from the military talk about their time in Iraq.  These stories are very raw and you can easily sense the pain these men have gone through and for many, are still going through.  They speak of the soldiers they lost and the things they did.  One of the men, Sgt Damond, tells of the time he was stationed outside of Al Kut doing traffic control, you know, checking vehicles for weapons and things like that.  He’d been up for at least 30 hours with around 2 hours sleep prior to that. Sgt Damond said the days ran together, the heat didn’t help matters, and he was sick of doing traffic stops.  It had all he could take just when one of his privates was having trouble with some Iraqi men he was trying to search.  While the private was searching one of the men, the private tossed a wad of the mans money to the ground.  The Iraqi man bent to pick it up and pushed the private away when he tried to make the man stand up.  That’s when Sgt Damond kicked the man in his face, knocking him straight to the ground.  And he continued to beat the crap out of the man, he didn’t notice his private was doing the same to another man.  Sgt Damond knew he’d completely lost control of the situation and had just beat a man with no justifiable reason.  Sgt Damond knew it was completely wrong, and yet he felt nothing as he looked down at his victim.
    There are other similar stories and then of one from PFC Weems who’d found a foot after an explosion and tried to find the Iraqi man it had belonged to because it seemed like the right thing to do.
    One of stories I liked most was that of a platoon dispatched to protect a small community from looters.  These Iraqi people in the community were outrageously kind to the soldiers.  They cooked for them out of gratitude, kept water in their refrigerators for the soldiers to have cold water, and refused any money from the soldiers when they tried to give it.  These people were grateful to the soldiers, even in the wake of watching us blow up parts of their town.  They understood why it was done, held no grudges, and even seemed to agree with it.  Like they didn’t like the way their country was run, or ruled rather, either.  The people in this town put the humanity back in these soldiers who had come to feel little to nothing in the wake of death and destruction.
    At one point in the play, one of the soldiers says that when they come home there’s an unspoken code that you don’t talk about the things that happened when you were at war.  I see the truth in this.  Any soldier I’ve ever met, never talks about what happened over there or the things he/she did.  I think there should be more plays like Sean Huze’s.   Perhaps people in America should  know what the men and women who defend this country must endure so that things like 9/11 don’t happen again.  Perhaps then, just maybe, that mosque in New York, at the sight of the world trade center, wouldn’t have even the slightest chance of being built.  Maybe then people could see it as a complete travesty.


 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKFtNEM23d8