Speaking of Courage...

The chapter “Speaking of Courage” in Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” surrounds Norman Bowker and his adjustment back into the American society. Courage is in some ways the opposite of guilt but in other ways works hand in hand. The things that you didn’t do that you regret not doing almost always come back to courage. You didn’t have the courage to do something. Norman Bowker didn’t have the courage to pull Kiowa out of the mud he was being sucked in to. Tim O’Brien didn’t have the courage to jump into the rainy river and swim to Canada, but he wishes he had. He says he wasn’t courageous enough to do it. Courage is a word that we made up to describe what would happen in the absence of our short comings. In the book courage doesn’t exist for the individual outside of regret. When someone does something courageous they never sit back and think “Hey, that was a pretty great thing I just did there. Go me.”  Other people can see someone’s actions as courageous but mostly because they doubt their own ability in being able to handle the situation the same way.

In the chapter courage is also used to mask the absence of courage. Bowker hides a story about his friend’s death in a story about almost winning a silver star, an award for bravery. However, the real courageous thing for Norman to do would be to show his emotional side and openly talk about Kiowa’s death. Instead he hides behind this false macho front. Norman Bowker didn’t even have the courage to approach anyone with this story, no matter what sort of front it was hidden behind. He blamed the fact that he was driving around in a car all day and imagining conversations on people not wanting to talk to him. But he didn’t try. He never approached his father or his ex-girlfriend to try to talk to them. And he had the opportunity at the hamburger joint to share his story but he didn’t.

Courage is a complicated thing, and I don’t think it means what anyone thinks it does.

The Joys of Memoir Writing

I read the memoir "A Guarantee in Life" by Justin S., you can read it here.

The memoir is great, it starts off by clearly stating to the reader what the memoir is supposed to accomplish in a reflection sort of way. He talks about regrets and how everything that those horrible things that happened made you who you are today. He had me right away because that's the sort of mindset I have towards bad things that happen. I think a lot about not having regrets because I have those regretful things to thank for me being who I am, and I can't imagine not existing...because I quite enjoy my existence. Justin (Yeah, we're on a first name basis) did a great job of using imagery and his detailing was just enough to put me right in his shoes. I could feel what he was talking about. When his five year old self got out of the bath tub and put on his pajamas I could feel the way itchy little kid pajamas feel on a freshly bathed body. He was able to tap into my memories to feel his memories. I felt that he could have supplemented his writing with a bit more reflection from his current self back to the memory he is telling. He did a lot of reflection in the beginning and the end but not really  any mixed in. That being said, the reflection that he did put in at the beginning and end was really good and perfectly complimented the story. At the end he talks about his feelings now that he looks back on it and how much he's changed and grown because of his father not being there for him. We also learn that his father becomes a part of his life (however minor that part may be) based on the reflection at the end. The father is expressing regret that he couldn't  have been there for Justin's childhood, tying back perfectly to the beginning of the memoir.

The Vietnam War a brief history

The country of Vietnam was split between the communist north and the anticommunist south and in 1956 the south refused to participate in unification attempts. In 1958 the United States began sending military assistance to Southern Vietnam. By 1968 there were 536,000 Americans in Vietnam which turned many at home against the war.  Richard Nixon withdrew troops from Southern Vietnam to let them fight their own war, which Nixon called Vietnamization (possibly the stupidest name on the planet). He destroyed a communist supply base in Cambodia which violated Cambodia’s neutrality and provoked anti-war protests in the United States. The war stretched on from 1958 through 1973 when the United States withdrew completely. And the 15 years we had troops over there obviously worked really well because in 1975 Southern Vietnam surrendered to the North. So we definitely didn’t waste 15 years making absolutely no progress, that definitely is not what happened…at all.

http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/vietnam/vietnamwar.htm

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/modules/vietnam/index.cfm

"Homeland of the Free"

Langston Hughes is one of the few people who is so widely renowned and deserves every bit of it. He never disappoints. I could read “Let America Be America Again” a million times over and find new meaning each time. My favorite line is “Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath”. It resonates with me for some reason. I feel like patriotism is such a double standard in this country. Calling yourself “conservative” automatically stamps you with an American flag. The right has monopolized patriotism. The tea party is a radical group and they wave around American flags and they’re seen as patriotic. It’s fine for them to criticize President Obama because they’re just exercising their right as citizens. Oh, but if anyone said anything against President Bush they’d be shot down as unpatriotic. I mean, really, how dare anyone criticize a Republican president? Because to be Republican is to be more Patriotic than anyone else in the history of the country…ever! To me, being patriotic is to expect your country to be the best it can be, which can include criticizing a completely out of touch President.

America was built on good ideas but it has never really fully reached those ideals. First the natives were kicked out and then that whole slavery bit, it’s hard to build an equality based country when its foundation is so cracked. America was never America. And I’m not sure it ever will be. Equality is such a hard thing to get to, because part of life is that everyone will never be fully equal. It’s like the first thing we read in English this year, the excerpt from Harrison Bergeron. When do we draw the line on equality? However, when people are hindering other people from doing things, that’s when there’s a need for equality.

Hughes and Fitzgerald have very similar views of the American Dream, that it’s broken. They both go about it slightly different but the fundamentals of the statements they’re making are the same. People at the top are continuously pushing down people beneath them because they can, because it keeps them at the top.

Great Gatsby Scene Rewrite (Gatsby's POV)

I’m rewriting the scene starting around page at 63 where Gatsby comes to Nick’s house to talk to take him to lunch in New York but from Gatsby’s point of view.

 

            Okay, I need to go and talk to Nick. I need to get him to talk to Jordan. Jordan will help him understand all of this. I’ll just go over there and ask him to lunch before he talks to Jordan, yes, that’s what I’ll do. God, he has to say yes. What if he’s loyal to Tom and tells him? Oh God, everything for from the past 5 years is riding on this.

            It’s nine. I hope it’s not too early, what if he decides he doesn’t want to go to lunch? I finally get up the nerve to drive my car the few yards to his house. I look at myself in the mirror.

            “Come on, Gatsby, pull it together.” I honk the horn and within a few seconds Nick pulls open the door, he seems very eager to see me, good thing too.

“Good morning, old sport. You’re having lunch with me today and I thought we’d ride up together.” I say with a cool voice, hiding my anxiety. Everything I want is riding on this singular man, whose eyes seem to be looking past me and at my car.

“It’s pretty, isn’t it, old sport! Haven’t you ever seen it before?” I say showing it off. I’ll admit I’m trying to impress him, but what else am I to do? He needs to say yes.

We head off together towards New York, the car ride is...uncomfortable to say the least. I don’t know what to say to a man who is so important to my fate.  He needs to know who I am, that I’m a good guy, he can’t go around believing all those silly rumors those people spread about me.

            “Look here, old sport, what’s your opinion of me anyhow?” and immediately I regret it, what kind of a question is that? I’m tempted to take it back and tell him he doesn’t need to answer, but part of me wants to know what he has to say. Oh, God he has to say something good. My life depends upon him and he doesn’t even know!

 

The American Dream: on Permanent Holiday

www.huffingtonpost.com/tiziana-dearing/us-wealth-gap_b_1093582.html

I read Where Is the American Dream Today? from the Huffington Post. And my answer is; it's on permanent holiday. Okay, maybe not permanent, but definitely on holiday. There's a Green Day song called Holiday and part of it goes "This is our lives on holiday", and that's exactly how I feel about the American Dream.

According to the article the poverty rate in America is at an all time high (as if that was surprising). It spits out a bunch of data that just reminds us all how much life sucks a ton and that we really have no hope of ever getting out of this. In the recession in the early 90s it took 15 months for the job rate to get back to the rate before the recession, but people that say stuff and we believe it economists predict that it will take 60 months for the job rate to return back to normal this time. And by THAT time those same people say we could very well be in another recession. So really we should be panicking and going around murdering each other, but we can't, we have to keep going about our business, because no matter what it will all be okay, most of the time, unless you're ugly and have no friends (sorry, I'm going on a rant about mixed messages from the media here). Some people are doing something, though. Not murdering, but protesting. Occupy Wall Street is sending a message that all this isn't okay. The article mentions keeping the dream alive, but maybe it needs to die and then regenerate (Like the Doctor. Get it? Anyone? No? Fine.). Occupy is, in a way, trying to reshape the American Dream. The American Dream has gone on holiday but hopefully it'll come back refreshed, rejuvenated, and sporting a rocking tan.