Quotations
What is Metafiction and how is it seen in the text?
The character is inserted in the text and in a way are commenting on fiction.
The Lieutenant who blamed the death of one of his men on his daydreaming.
Who is Jimmy Cross?
Sank into the muck of the village latrine; five men had to pull his body out.
Bonus: The Lieutenant is doing this action when the men are searching for Kiowa.
Who is Kiowa?
Mentally constructing a Letter
“They used a hard vocabulary to contain the terrible softness.”
They used words like greased, zapped, offed, lit up, to describe the deaths of their friends and other terms that came across as derogatory.
Dehumanization of each other and enemy to survive the horrors of war.
What does the Baby Water Buffalo represent?
How the men are being torn apart by war physically but also mentally
The soldier who makes tasteless jokes and played pranks on the men
Who is Azar?
Azar is an example of the use of language to dehumanize to reduce to feelings of Mortality
O'Brien's reason for not running away to Canada when he had the chance.
What is pride/cowardice?
“A true war story, if truly told, makes the stomach believe.”
People want stories that have heroic endings but they are often not that.
True war stories make the gut believe it is true
There is a recurring use of fog or haze in the story. What is the use of this motif?
The haze of memory as a result of the impact of their experiences.
Speaking of Courage is used Ironically by Tim. Why is it Ironic and what purpose does it serve?
It is Ironic because Norman is not able to speak of how he is lacking courage. This connects to the ideas of how shame influences courage and the impacts of guilt.
"They carried the soldier’s greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing. Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to."
Men do not go to war to be heroic but shame and fear are powerful motivators
Symbolism
The Lives of the Dead is ironic in what ways?
It is Ironic because the dead can't have lives that continue on unless it is in story
I’ll never die. I’m skimming across the surface of my own history, moving fast, riding the melt beneath the blades, doing loops and spins, and when I take a high leap into the dark and come down thirty years later, I realize it is as Tim trying to save Timmy’s life with a story.
Immortalize and comfort in the power of imagination and re-living, and giving life to those that have died.
What does the A&W intercom symbolize?
Dehumanizing of Norman through tech and language
Who is the young man referred to in "The Field"