Writing Prompt *6 Three Valid Inferences

• On the Rainy River

- The narrator of this short story is young Tim O' Brien. This stage of hie life is when he is unsure of himself about how he could possibly be a solider in a war he took a stand against (pg 41, first para). He feels like he has accomplished so much in his young life to give it all up for a situation he has no control over (pg 41 last para). As a harmless individual, he figures the draft must be a mistake because he feels he is too good of a person to be a solider to experience the violent killing, or the most important thing he feared, being killed. However, little did he know that this war, is something that is possibly going to change his life and his perspective of things about life. for example how he used to take things for granted before going into the war.

-He found himself as a coward. The old man, Elroy, took him to the border line of America and Canada. He starts to see faces of the different people, some he knew, and some he'd soon know about. He felt like all of them were watching him to make his next move, whether to be a coward that he always is, or to step out of the shell. He called this an embarrassment (pg 59).

-Young O' Brien, put himself on a high petal stool that he could even talk to no one about the experience he had before submitting himself to the war. He carried himself in such a way it was only courage that caused him to share the this part of his with the readers. "Courage, I seemed to think, comes to us in finite quantities, like an inherit ace, and by being frugal...(pg 40)" Before he encountered the courage to speak of his submission to the war, he had pride.

• The Ghost Soldiers

-The narrator in this short story is the older, more mature Tim O' Brien. In this part of his life, he fully committed and has accepted the war for what it is. This is the time when Vietnam seems to be nothing but a real reality check. He is able to showcase his skills as a leader, and he has pushed himself to as an individual.

-In this short story is where his maturity kicked in. For example, when he was shot, he had the determination to get revenge on Bobby Jergenson for his lack of partnership. All that seemed not to matter any longer after meeting with Jergenson, who explained and apologized for hos actions that caused O' Brien to get shot. He stated, "I hated him for making me stop hating him (pg 200)." That comes to show that the war had truly changed Tim O' Brien.

-Overall, compered to when he was younger, he has become one who he never thought he could be. On page 200, he now has the characteristics of a solider where certain feeling are within him. For example on pg 220, he states, "it is hard to admit to myself, but I was capable if evil."

Writing Prompt *1 Silent Agreement of a movie.

There are lots of movies that says "based on a true story" however, the way its being presented might not be of that of a true story. The movie, Titanic is a great example of that. The basics or the moral of the movie is of a true story. Titanic is about a young wealthy young British lady named Rose who is on her way to Newyork, America from England on a Ship called Titanic with her mother. While on the journey, Rose came in contact with a young, not-so-wealthy American man name Jack who is on his way back to his country, America. Both Rose and Jack developed feelings for each other but since Jack is not of a wealthy family, Rose's mother disagrees with Rose getting acquited with a man such as Jack. Not too long, the ship broke in half and began to sank. Beacuse of her love for Jack, Rose decided to stay with Jack and give what it takes to survive rather than go with her mother on a canoe sincing the ship is sinking. At the end of the day, Jack died and Rose lived to tell the story of the ship.
My opinion of the movie is that true, the ship sank in real life, however, I don't believe the love story between Rose and Jack exsited along with it. I feel it was just an additonal made-up story added to make the movie great so to attract the viewers and for the viewers to fully understand the ture part of the story: the sinking of the ship.
The words "based on a true story" enhances my viewing of the movie becasue those five words in quotations allows me to pay extra attention to small details more than Iwould for other ordinary movies.

Writing Prompt 7 New Thoughts About the "Truth"

After reading this story, I came with new thoughts about the truth. The reason is because in general when telling any type of story, people tend to add certain effects so to draw-in the listeners and to make the story more entertaining as much as possible. When I first began to read this book, there were some things I had to question myself about. For example in the short stories, Enemies and Friends. The story stated that Dave broke his own nose simply because he felt bad for what he did to Lee Strunk. That piece of information left a question in my mind because in the real life, I don't think anyone will want to hurt themselves permanently just because they feel guilty for what's been done to the other person. Based on the author's own criteria, no, this novel is not a true war story however, there are events that took place in a true war story that is in the novel.

Writing Prompt 2 Semi-Truth Told in The Things They Carried

The truth in the novel, The Things They Carried, can be easily missed without the intention. This book requires total analyzation because the turth about the war, are only between the lines but without an insite look, one may fail in capturing the truth about true war stories.

For instance, the short story "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong," Rat Kiley was telling a story about Mary Anne transformation's from a sweet girl into a wild naturaled woman, Mitchell Sanders kept interupting him to tell the story in a way that will attract the listeners.
If Sanders was to tell the story, it more than likey that there will be false story just to make it more enthusiastic which may lead one into missing the truth.

Writing Prompt 4 Favorite Story and The Book as a Whole

My favoite short story in The Things They Carried is "The Dentist." The reason the short story fully captured my intrest is beacuse although, it is one of the shortest stories in the novel, it allows the readers to get an overall picture of who the character, Curt Lemon really is before his death. He is known for being the dare devil among soldiers and always trying things that no one in their right mind would consider doing. He has a certain posture about himself that may come across to other soldiers as a "show off". In the short story, The Dentist, the readers as well as the soldiers were able to see the child side of Curt Lemon when he refuses to see the dentist because of the tooth that was troubling him. With Lemon in this story, I am able to relate to him because although he always seemed to "play the tough role" very well around this fella soldiers, as the short story continues, we, as well as the soldiers around him saw that he has his own weaknesses. The type of weaknesses he refuses to let anyone knows about him because that woluld only cause others to look at him a differnet way which may lead to pepole not taking him seriously as a soldier. Maybe that is why he chooses to do things others wouldn't do.
The book as a whole is a pretty edcational piece of work. The reason I say this is beacuse, although the book itself is not a book I will personally pick out of any others, the book allowed me to view the war aspect differrently as far as what is expected from a true war story and the way its being told.