Prompt Essay 2: Literary Analysis

English 101

Professor Tompkins

Literary Analysis

April21, 2016

Your second assignment is to write a critical paper based upon your knowledge of and insights into The Things They Carried.

We spent a about the book. Think about those discussions and the presentations you’ve made in preparation for this assignment. You have four prompts to choose from. You are NOT being asked to summarize what happened, nor are you being asked begin the essay by simply serving up a rewritten version of the prompt you’ve chosen. 

Instead, you must think about the book and chose the prompt you feel you’d most like to write about. To complete the assignment satisfactorily, you must offer original insight into the book. You must use examples in order to prove the validity of your thinking. Your paper should be interesting, show imagination, and demonstrate the strength of your writing skills. 

You paper will be 800-1000 words long. You will write it using Microsoft Word or Pages, and you will turn in a printed version AND email the final draft to me. 

Use MLA format, and use Turnitin.com before turning it in.

Choose to respond to one of the four prompts listed below:

    

1. In “How To Tell A True War Story,” O’Brien writes about the role storytelling plays in the lives of these soldiers. Toward the end of the chapter, he refers to Rat Kiley and his letter to Curt Lemon’s sister. He writes, “It wasn’t a war story. It was a love story.”  What does O’Brien mean when says it was a love story, and what does a 19-year-old man know about love?

2. Although the book is about the Vietnam War, the final story focuses not on the war but on an episode from O’Brien’s childhood. Discuss how this story relates to the rest of the book, and why O’Brien ended his story this way?

3. Mary Anne, "The Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong,” is one of the few women featured in the book. Her story – unlike most stories in the book – is clearly not true In fact, this chapter is about more than the reaction to a woman landing in the middle of things, but about storytelling itself. Rat is a passionate storyteller – as his letter to Curt Lemon’s sister shows – and he’s not above stretching the facts to make his point. The story of Mary Anne is so involved, and questionable, and Rat is so passionate about it, that Mitchell Sanders offers a critique along the way, interrupting not to say its untrue, but to refine the telling of it. What can we learn about storytelling from this chapter.

4. Tim O'Brien's writing constantly seeks to give meaning to the events that happened in   Vietnam. During our class discussions, we find ourselves talking about the narrator as O’Brien is telling you his own story. Create a written portrait of Tim O'Brien based on three or four carefully selected passages that describe the narrator's inner thoughts as evidence to support your ideas. What does each reveal about his concerns, hopes, and fears? 

How do certain word choices reveal the way he sees the world?