AP ENGLISH LITERATURE & COMPOSITION Clary Carleton [email protected] Summer Assignment While The Things They Carried is a novel about the Vietnam War, it represents so much more. It is a short-story collection that reads like a memoir, challenging our ideas about truth and fiction. The novel is an example of “meta-fiction” and speaks to the role storytelling plays in our lives. The stories are connected in surprising ways such that multiple, close readings only enhance this literary experience. In AP Literature you are required to read “deliberately and thoroughly, taking time to understand a work’s complexity.” This will involve close reading, whereby you ANNOTATE a text AS YOU READ and REREAD. This is not a natural process for many readers, but it is a habit that strong readers practice. It should be a slow process, so give yourself plenty of time to complete this assignment. A well-annotated piece has margins full of comments, has the text marked up, words circled or boxed, and lines drawn to show connections. If you are borrowing a book from Open, use post-it notes to record your thinking. If you purchase your own book, make it yours by writing in the margins and having a conversation with the author and characters. Focus not just on the content (what is written) but the form (how it is written). To assist you in this process you will first read the article, “How To Mark a Book” and Billy Collins’ poem “Marginalia.” Consider all the ways that you can connect with what you are reading. A basic question to ask is just, “what do you notice?” Merely highlighting or underlining passages is not annotation. Instead consider doing the following: Common Annotation Techniques ● Ask questions when anything is unclear. ● Define unfamiliar words. ● Identify the narrator, the point of view, and the tone. ● Make inferences about characters and their motivation. ● Mark interesting uses of diction, syntax, figurative language, and imagery. ● Consider themes as they emerge. ● Explore the setting and its significance. ● Take note of the form/structure. Is the narrative linear or non-linear with flashbacks? ● Explore why the author used a particular word or phrase. ● Make connections to other parts of the text. ● Make connections to other texts you have read or seen. ● Rewrite, paraphrase, or summarize a particularly difficult passage. ● Identify punctuation marks in order “chuck” your reading and rereading. ● Make connections to your personal experiences. ● Explain the historical and/or social context. ● Offer an interpretation or claim. ● Draw a picture when a visual connection is appropriate or to understand imagery. ● Identify literary techniques and explain connection to meaning. 1 AP ENGLISH LITERATURE & COMPOSITION BACKGROUND TO VIETNAM WAR A long and unsuccessful effort by South Vietnam and the United States to prevent the Communists of North Vietnam from reuniting the country under their leadership. Watch the Ken Burns’ documentary here. Glossary of Common US Military Terms AO Area of Operation KIA Killed in Action LP Listening Patrol LSA cleaner and lubricant for weapons LZ Landing Zone M-60 machine gun M-16 standard military rifle PFC Private First Class RTO Radio and Telephone Operator PRC Portable Radio Communication PsyOps Psychological warfare (Ops = operations) R&R Rest and Relaxation RTO Radio Telephone Operator SOP Standard Operating Procedure USO United Service Organization (volunteer entertainment and morale) VC Viet Cong soldiers fighting the Americans SETTING Author Tim O’Brien was an infantryman (foot soldier) in Vietnam from 1968-1970 in 3rd Platoon, Company A (Alpha). Although O’Brien uses time shifts in the story, the tour of duty of the Alpha Company soldiers in The Things They Carried is thought to be from 1968-1969. Also, you will see that the physical setting of the novel shifts between Vietnam (mostly Quang Ngai province on the central coast) and the United States MAJOR CHARACTERS ● Jimmy Cross: a sensitive Lieutenant who must lead his men through Vietnam ● Kiowa: a devout Baptist, and an American Indian ● Norman Bowker: a quiet, polite soldier ● Rat Kiley: a 19 year old medic ● Tim O’Brien: the narrator and a fictional persona of O’Brien the writer MINOR CHARACTERS ● Martha: the girl Jimmy Cross loves ● Henry Dobbins: a kind, gentle soldier ● Ted Lavender: the first man to die in their company ● Dave Jensen: a young, naive and paranoid soldier ● Mitchell Sanders: a literate soldier with strong convictions ● Lee Strunk: a soldier who faces death ● Azar: a young soldier with no sense of the gravity of death ● Curt Lemon: a soldier and Rat Kiley’s best friend ● Kathleen: Tim’s young daughter ● Elroy Berdahl: owner of the Tip Top Lodge 2 AP ENGLISH LITERATURE & COMPOSITION ● Green Berets: soldiers who set themselves apart from others ● Mark Fossie: a young soldier who brings in girlfriend to Vietnam ● Mary Anne Bell: Mark Fossie’s girlfriend who travels to Vietnam ● Dead man: the man Tim killed--or didn’t kill ● Bobby Jorgenson: the medic who replaces Rat Kiley ● Linda: the first girl Tim ever loved NARRATIVE METHOD: One of the reasons this novel is such an essential text for AP Literature is its Post-Modern storytelling techniques and complex narration. In the title story, the third-person narrator is unidentified, but in other stories he is a fictional character named Tim O’Brien. He describes the soldiers and events in Quang Ngai province. This narrator is omniscient, since he is privy to the interior thoughts and feelings other characters, especially Lt. Jimmy Cross; yet, the narrator is a third-person limited omniscient narrator in that he only reveals partial, fragmented, or incomplete information about the characters and events of the story. However, you will see that in most of the stories, the point of view is first person. Besides O’Brien’s complex and shifting narrative point of view, you will see that the structure of the story is also complex: a fragmented and nonlinear narrative, moving within and between memory and present day. Tracing this unusual storytelling method and understanding why O’Brien chose it is one of the pleasures of studying this novel. LANGUAGE TECHNIQUES ● Figurative Language (simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, oxymoron, synecdoche) ● Imagery (visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile) ● Syntax (catalogue, repetition, anaphora, polysyndeton, asyndeton, parallelism, fragments) ● Irony (paradox, negation, antithesis, verbal/situational irony) NOVEL OPENING QUOTATION: After the book’s Contents, there is a quote from John Ransom’s Andersonville Diary. During the American Civil War (1861-1865), Ransom was a twenty-year-old Union soldier who was captured by the Confederate Army in Tennessee in 1863; the book is a first-hand account of his time in the Confederate prison camp where 13,000 prisoners died. ASSIGNMENT 1. Read and annotate the novel according to the guidelines, readings, and attached rubric. 2. In complete sentences, answer a minimum of 3 questions for each chapter that follows. These should be FULLY developed, addressing all parts of the question and providing clear examples from the text, with page numbers. Responses should be typed, single spaced, and proofread for errors. Be able to defend your answers orally in class. 3 AP ENGLISH LITERATURE & COMPOSITION THE STORIES "The Things They Carried" 1. In what sense does Jimmy love Martha? Why does he construct this elaborate (mostly fictional) relationship with her? What does he get out of it? 2. Why do the soldiers tell jokes about the war, about killing? 3. Discuss the role of shame, embarrassment, and fear in the story. 4. How has Jimmy changed by the end of the story? How will he be a different person from this point on? What has he learned about himself? Or to put it another way, what has he lost and what has he gained? 5. How does O’Brien structure the story about Ted Lavender? Why do you think he does this? 6. What is the point of view of the titular story? How does the affect the reading experience? 7. Select a passage that was especially memorable in terms of language use (e.g., diction, imagery, figurative language, etc.) Copy the passage in its entirety. Explain why you selected and what the effect is. "Love" 1. The first story in The Things They Carried was told in the third person, but now the point of view switches to first person. What effect does this have on you as a reader? 2. What is the setting of this chapter? 3. What does Jimmy Cross confess to Tim O’Brien when he comes to visit him after the war? What is O’Brien’s response? 4. What does the story show about the lives of war veterans? 5. O’Brien reveals that he has guilt that he cannot get over too, but he does not tell us what happened that makes him feel this way. How does this make you feel about O’Brien and his stories when he leaves you with unanswered questions? "Spin" 1. What is the point of view of the story “Spin”? How do you know? Write one line that shows the point of view. 2. Tim O’Brien shares several bad, peaceful, and happy stories in this chapter. Which war story leaves an impression on you? Explain why. 3. According to the narrator, how is a game of checkers different from war? 4. What happens to Kiowa? 5. What happens to Curt Lemon? 6. Why do you think Azar blows up Ted Lavender’s puppy? 7. Using specific details from the story, explain the title, “Spin.” "On the Rainy River" 1. When Tim O’Brien was drafted into the war, how did he feel about the American war in Vietnam? Why did he feel this way? Provide examples.