The Things They Carried Part 4

In “Speaking of courage”, O’Brien narrates how Bowker is thinking about his deceased friend Max Arnold and how the lake in which he was happened to be the scenario of his death. It was something really sad to read as it reminded me of a similar accident that happened in my life. In Bolivia, I have a house located in the outsides of the actual city and the owner’s son was playing in the garden close to the pool. He was about 3 years old and with all the curiosity of a normal baby, he decided to go to the pool. He was really curious and he climbed to the border of the pool in order to see what was inside and the most unthinkable thing happened. The kid fell to the pool and since he was so young he didn’t knew how to swim which resulted in his death. All of us and their parents were really sad and we knew it was a painful loss. It is something that I happen to think every time that I step into a pool and now I am always really careful with younger kids in order to try an avoid any incidents so that there is no more sadness about this type of situations.

With all of the incidents and memories that O’Brien narrates when he mentions the sewage field and also the lake happens to mean that characters are still thinking of the war and not being able to actually escape into a new reality. It would be metaphors that actually remind them of the horrible things they have been exposed to. I can relate to them because those incidents are the ones that change us and also that make us mature. Some of the things that keep coming to my mind would be during school or at the streets when little kids experience hugs with their mothers. That makes me remember my mother and how we used to do that. Something that I have mastered with all the memories that arise to mind is to distract myself and realize that I am actually thinking about that. Every memory is from the past so what I do is tried to realize that and if I can then I say to myself that this is from the past and that I have to start and let go. Then after that I would just then distract myself with any activity.

 
After reading the chapter “Notes”, it was really difficult for me to understand what was going on because it went from past to present. This was something that challenged my reading skills because once I read it again I realized that I had been confusing things which therefore created my confusion. I know that this book has challenging words but that chapter demonstrated me that I still have to do a lot of writing and reading in order to have a better level if I want to go to the US.

In “In The Field”, the author talks how Jimmy Cross felt guilty for the death of Kiowa and the incident that relates to me happens to be the part where Jimmy thinks of a letter to send to Kiowa’s father and tell him how great soldier his son had been. This part I can relate to my life because I recently watched a movie titled, “Saving Private Ryan” which happens to be a war movie. The movie has to do with how 3 brothers are killed in the war and how the US government sends the mother a letter telling her that all 3 of the brothers have died. Then the Chief of Staff at that time happens to learn there is a fourth brother and decides to send out 8 men to find him and bring him to his mother. This relates to the part of the letter because I imagine how the father would felt after receiving this terrible news. I use the picture I have from the movie which helps me in visualizing this actual scene in the book.

Analyzing Chapter “Speaking of Courage” (page 429)

O’Brien says “Now, in the late afternoon, it lay calm and smooth, a good audience for silence, a seven-mile circumference that could be traveled by a slow car in twenty-five minutes”. The important thing here to analyze would be the idea of the lake and how it “lay calm and smooth” because it gives us an idea that the environment demonstrated or showed a peaceful and relaxing feeling. Another thing that helps us proof this idea that we can get from this sentence is that it then says that it was a good audience for a silence which meant that Bowker was in search for something peaceful and he found it in that lake. He then states this sentence “It was not such a good lake for swimming”. The way that this sentence is organized as well as what it is saying happens to tell me that something bad happened in that lake that involved swimming as well as a serious loss. That sentence changes the feeling of the narration because at first it happens to be relaxing and joyful but then this sentence actually changes the mood. The next thing that is really important is this simple sentence, “And the lake had drowned his friend Max Arnold, keeping him out of the war entirely”. This proves the idea that I had of the incident that changed Bowker because he could get peaceful vibrations from that place as any other lake but that lake was special as it was the actual site for the death of his friend. I believe this changed Bowker because any death changes a person because you are no longer able to speak to that person ever again.

Analyzing Chapter “Speaking of Courage” (page 481)

This same passage talks about the idea of Bowker and how he is in the lake peacefully waiting and relaxing himself. O’Brien narrates this message with such a good style because he makes it very clear for the reader because he says that he gets out of the car and wades into the lake without undressing. This fact makes it very clear that he didn’t care about himself but about what had happened with his friend and how he still went into the lake without taking of his clothes. This gives an important message because the fact that he didn’t undress makes it clear that he respected a lot his friend and also the memory of his friend. The next thing talks about the water temperature and how that felt against his skin. The next sentences are the ones that create the end of this chapter with a good description from the author because it is easy to follow what the character was doing inside the lake. He says, “He put his head under. He opened his lips, very slightly, for the taste, then he stood up and folded his arms and watched the fireworks”. This tells me that he has already acknowledged his sadness and that he cannot do anything to go back to that movement. The action of how he stood up demonstrates he was able to understand that he had to continue with his life and not to stay all the time depressed. Finally it ends with a good statement because he was able to understand that it was a great show for a very small town.