Hearing Wess Hamiliton speak about how he didn't know the people's names of who they served was a serious wake up call on how intense the war was. Troops didn't need to know their previous names because they weren't that same person once they entered Vietnam. I don't think anyone, including the men from the book, knew what they were about to get into once they entered the war. The war seemed to be less thought of in the states and people here didn't know what to think or even how to feel about the war. Going back to the men in our novel however, I don't think they did. For example, in the chapter The Rainy River, Tim O'Brien was so close to fleeing the country and crossing the Canadian border. He was scarred and he didn't want to risk his life. He didn't want to die is a better way to put that last statement.
I think Tim O'Brien added a strong, fearless female character into the book for many reasons. My thinking is both positive and negative. The positive side of my thinking is to show that women can be more than home-makers. We can fight a man's battle and succeed. Women can be fearless and can strong, just like the men in the novel. Now the negative side of my thinking. I think he also put a female character in the novel to show why women weren't wanted/permitted to serve in the war. Mary Anne is a prime example of a person becoming overpowered by the war. She began as such a sweet, kind lady who was so in love. Before she ran off she was killing men, as if she were enjoying it. She even had a necklace with human tongues attached to it. Maybe women of that time were so used to the sterotype of women being home-makers that the thought of them fighting a "man's battle" put them into survival mode and made them/her crazy with fear and rage.
I think Tim was not very honest throughout this novel. A main reason for my thinking behind this is because it would be a non-fiction piece if it were completely true. I think the section on Linda was also false/made up. I remember Wess saying how he would make up stories and tell people them, so they would grasp the severity of the war, even if the event in question didn't specifically happen to them. I think if it is false, it's a good way to help people grasp the idea of what the war really was and why it still effects people today. The war was something to never under estimate. I think Wess really proved that to our class anyway. Especially with Wess's "gunner"or the curl he had behind his left ear. His gunner was always there and never let him down, because if he had then Wess wouldn't be alive or he would be seriously injured.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqypo2STC0o
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