I have assigned a comparative essay for the final exam. As such, today, I discussed and placed on the board an outline to guide Joshua in writing a comparison of two anti-war novels, "A Farewell to Arms" and "The Things they Carried." After I provided suggestions for the introduction, Joshua worked on formulating a thesis based on the essay prompt. We then outlined the body of the essay focusing first on O"Brien's definition of a "true war story" to be followed by an analysis of whether "A Farewell to Arms' fits O'Brien's definition. Last, I proposed a conclusion that addressed whose approach best captures the experience of war, O'Brien's or Hemmingway's.

As Joshua has finished reading the novel, we today began our final analysis first exploring scenes in the novel that are reminiscent of Hemingway's "Farewell to Arms" ,also a war novel. We discussed areas that were both stylistically and thematically quite similar. We then expanded on our study of the author's view on the purpose of "war fiction." I reviewed the prior lessons on "story truth" vs .historical truth" and then we discussed how the novel's ending offers another purpose -to bring the dead to life again through imagination and thus perhaps rescue the writer from loss, pain ,and guilt. We noted how the novel resurrects many of the deceased characters and began a study of whether Hemingway or O'Brien best conveys the war experience.

We studied how the war transforms and alienates the characters in the novel. We first studied how the author narrator returns to Viet Nam for some type of redemption or forgiveness but can find nothing in the landscape that resembles the battlefield of twenty years earlier. We noted how the author recognizes he has become someone different due to the war, a person without hopes or belief in himself. We examined how his daughter is unable to comprehend why he has returned to Viet Nam and we discussed the various ways the author has become estranged perhaps due to the inability of civilians to understand the war. The author can find no bridge to those who were not there. We further discussed how the author loses his sense of belonging to his fellow soldiers after he is wounded . He becomes an outsider and misses the adventure and terror of battle, again raising the theme of alienation and loss.

We examined my comments to Joshua's homework/quiz on paradox and the juxtaposition of imagery. I provided instruction on the need for a topic sentence that previews the essay answer as a tool of organization. I then placed a model topic sentence on the board. I directed Joshua's attention to specific passages in the text and explained how the figurative language creates imagery. We then worked on drafting sentences that explain the paradoxical images of war-the grotesque and the beautiful- and how those paradoxes mirror the paradox of fiction. I then directed Joshua's attention to the descriptions of Curt Lemon's death so that he could incorporate the author's juxtaposition of contrasting images into his response which he will complete tonight.

As last night's reading again shifted from the first person to the third person, we extended our lesson from yesterday discussing how the author uses the third person in order to objectify his wartime experiences and thus enable him to face them. We learn that in contrast to the earlier fictionalized version of the death of Kiowa, it was not N.Bowker who is responsible for the death but the author whom he describes In the story as "the young boy or soldier." But it is not only the author who blames himself; the commander does too which leads the author to explore causation ultimately deciding that in a random war and a random world everybody and nobody is responsible . We discussed human nature's need for clear causation or blame which the author suggests is illusory,.

We continued to study the author's literary style of telling " a true war story" that is fictionalized. On the board , I first reviewed the purpose of the author's style- to make the reader feel what he felt ,not what the author experienced in reality. We then studied the next chapter and explored how the author elaborates on the function of writing- for him to objectify his experiences so that he can face them. This explanation dovetails to our discussion yesterday of why the author switches the point of view to the third person in certain passages. Next, we read together the chapter entitled"Form" wherein the author distinguishes "story truth" from "actual truth or historical truth." We discussed how and why fiction or story truth can capture what historical truth can not. Last, we addressed how the paradoxes of war mirror the paradoxes of fiction. Joshua tonight is rewriting a paragraph identifying the paradoxes of war-beauty and destruction- referenced in the novel

From the paradoxes of fiction to the paradoxes of war, we today explored the author's imagery of war as both devastatingly ugly, yet juxtaposed with the beautiful. We further discussed how last night's reading shifts the point of view from the first to third person and the function of the point of view shift. Additionally, we addressed the irony and implications of the story's plot of a returning veteran who faces a Fourth of July stateside where no-one cares to listen to his "war stories" despite his service . We noted the symbolism in the veteran's driving in circles around a lake and watching fireworks reminiscent of wartime flares and battles. I last provided guidance on how to incorporate today's discussion into tonight's writing assignment.

We examined thematic and stylistic similarities between a chapter in the novel and Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms and Conrad's "Heart of Darkness." First, we discussed how O'Brien and Hemingway both use a simple syntax and detached tone. Thematically, we next studied the story "The Sweetheart of Tra Bong" . We addressed how Hemingway wants the reader to see and to hear the experience of war whereas O 'Brien wants the reader to feel what Viet Nam FELT like, thus the injection of the imaginative elements,. We further delved into how Mary Ann is a character like Kurtz in Heart of Darkness:both become a part of the jungle and abandon the morals and standards of civilian society. We discussed what living on the verge of death does to the soldiers and why that experience ultimately estranges them from civilians who have not experienced war.

While ostensibly a war novel, OBrien's book in great part explores the paradox of fiction i.e. how a fictional lie can be more truthful than the actual event. We studied the chapter entitled"How to Tell a True War Story" and listed the author's criteria for a true story. We explored how ironically imaginative invention portrays war better than the recitation of the actual events . I explained that the author argues that a true war story has no moral, no clear ending ,and can only be felt in the gut. For those who have not experienced war, the author submits that only through inventing certain events can he convey the horror and randomness of his experiences. As the author is a central character in the novel, we noted how it becomes difficult to distinguish fiction from historical truth as the author so vividly depicts a war scene only to acknowedge later that the entire story is invented but therefore true.

We worked on rewriting Joshua's homework analyzing the verbal irony of the author's statement that his decision not to evade the Viet Nam draft was an act of cowardice. We studied the passages that contain an element of fantasy and discussed how the author uses imagination as a vehicle to tell a deeper truth. I discussed in detail the societal zeitgeist of the late 1960s including the youth anti-war movement. I further noted textual passages to incorporate in the homework in order to avoid generalities as well as the meaning and use of verbal irony. After discussing the societal pressure placed on young men subject to the draft, Joshua rewrote his assignment incorporating textual details and a good explanation of verbal irony.