Wednesday, February 11, 2009
the man Tim killed
I thought this part really got to the heart of what Tim is talking about when he's explaining how stories are told. He tells us how the man looked, laying there dead, over and over again. This story may be true, that the man was laying there, with a star for an eye, but he tells it so many times and gives details about what the soldiers life might have been like. We know he's making stories up about the man, and even though we know this, we get sucked into the story because of the passionate and emotional events that happened with it.
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We read this book freshman year in a comp course, and the TA leading it kept talking about the specificity of O'Brien's descriptive language, using the "star for an eye" line a lot.
ReplyDeleteGaughan's reading this week talks about this in relation to students' own writing: "The bigger the issue, the smaller you write... You don't write about the horrors of war. No. You write about a kid's burt socks lying on the ground (155)."
Isn't there a poem "The Man I Killed" That could tie in nicely..I forget who wrote it..but it brings in many of the issues of enemy during war.
ReplyDeleteEmily, I like that you brought up the bigger the issue, the smaller you write. It's so true. The "smaller" writing makes it seem so much more intense and emotional. it really focusses in on something that would seem so minor, but when you're in a situation like, you really do see the little things. Like when I was in a bad car accident, I remember being so upset but just staring at my toe cause there was nothing else to do. As I was staring, I was thinking, "I need to repaint my toe nails." Possibly the bodies way of dealing with random crap...
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, about the poem. We read it in class. Here it is :)
The Man he Killed a poem by Thomas Hardy
Had he and I but met
By some old ancient inn,
We should have set us down to wet
Right many a nipperkin!
But ranged as infantry,
And staring face to face,
I shot at him as he at me,
And killed him in his place.
I shot him dead because--
Because he was my foe,
Just so: my foe of course he was;
That's clear enough; although
He thought he'd 'list, perhaps,
Off-hand like--just as I--
Was out of work--had sold his traps--
No other reason why.
Yes; quaint and curious war is!
You shoot a fellow down
You'd treat, if met where any bar is,
Or help to half a crown.