TTC 3rd

In the chapter "The Man I Killed" the author usues repetition alot when describing what injuries the soldier had after O'Brien had killed him. It talks about a butterfly on the dead man's face three times: once when it's "on his chin", another when it's "...making it's way along the young man's forehead", and the last when it had gone. I looked up the symbolic meaning of a butterfly and found it was a meaning of death and a new beginning. Even though nature itself isn't effected by the man's death, his loved ones are and they'll have to start a "new beginning" without him.

O'Brien later starts relating himself to this man he's killed and creating a story from his appearences of who he could have been or become. He first creates his opinion when he he examines his "bony legs, a narrow waist, long shapely fingers. His chest was sunken and poorly muscled-a scholar, maybe." He is comparing and contrasting a large majority of describing the man's life compared to his own: "He would have been taught that to defend the land was a man's highest duty and highest privilage. He had excepted this...he avoided politics and paid attention to the problems of calculas.", and "The war, he knew, would finally take him, but for the time being he would not let himself think about it. He had stopped praying; instead, now, he waited." Did O'Brien actually descover all these things from eventually meeting someone who had known the guy? Did he find his family out of respect? Was he just creating the man's life in his head based off of facts he saw? Or is this even a real part taking place in the story?

TTC-2

The main thing that caught my attention was Marry Anne; the way she changed so dramatically, so completely, almost un-natural. But I think that's why it stood out so much in this section because it ties it all together. The way the author describes war as beautiful and not just some useless fight with no reason. Marry was seen as pure and perfect when she first arrived, but with time she learned the ways of the veitnam war. First just picking up some language, later turning into learning how to accurately shoot a gun, and eventually "She wanted more, she wanted to penetrate deeper into the mystery of herself, and after a time the wanting became needing, which turned into craving." Marry lost controle of herself and her humanity, her purity and innocence. She didn't change herself, in a way, it was the nature that began to overcome her like what the singing rocks did to the scouts when they were out in the jungle for weeks at a time.

Blog 1 TTC

In the first chapter or section we read in "The Things They Carried", a majority of it is about all the items and pounds the soldiers carried on their backs and in their pockets. Then the author starts to describe the psycological things they carried also: the death of a friend, longing for a loved one back home, or maybe they're not all mentally "there" because of past events or the chance they're high on dope. Each burden is different according to the kind of soldier he/she is. Trying to see symbolism in all of this I figured all these things they carry could be compared to sins or things they may regret or go through that destract them from their main goal. The war could be the battle of life; some willfully jump right in and risk it all without fear, some may cower scared about what around the corner, others might be forced into battle without and word from themselves, and then their's the lucky ones that don't have to fight at all and pretty much have it made for them compared to the ounes out on the field.

       The "Sins" each one carries is all dependent on how strong the person is, how prepared one wants to be in a rare situation, how much time one might spend in the past, or how dependent someone might be on another source. Whether it be a friend, a girlfriend's "panties" around the neck, good-luck charm or letters of a loved one in your pocket.