The Things They Carried Final Essay

In both the movie Big Fish and the book The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien, the role of truth in orally told stories was a main theme. In the movie, Ed and his son Will are talking and Ed says to Will "I've told you a thousand facts, Will, That's what I do. I tell stories" Will then replies "You tell lies, Dad." So how do we know what is truth if we are not the person telling the story? Especially if the stories are told by word of mouth. We can't.

That brings me to one of the points of contrast between the book and movie. In the book they were truly orally passed down from one to another. At least that's the way O'Brien told it. However, the tricky thing with critiquing this book is that the stories are not true. So how do we know if anything in the book is true. For example, if Lemon had told a story, we know it wouldn't be true. But do we know if that Lemon had actually told the story to his fellow soldiers, or if that was a lie also. So for this essay, we are going to take that the soldiers told the stories as truth. We don't know if when Rat Kiley was telling the story of Mary Anne (Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong) if he had changed some of the "facts" told to him than the story couldn't be far from the truth, but it is true to them. It is true to them because a true war story is not about war, as stated numerous times within this novel, it's about love. So does the fact that the stories in this book are not true make the stories mean less for us or for the soldiers that are hearing it? In Big Fish that was exactly the case. Although the stories were passed down from word to mouth, the stories were being changed, they were completely exaggerated and drawn out. William, as he grew older, obviously did not believe them. Difference from the soldiers. I'm sure that the soldiers knew that some of the stories were fake. Yet they took them to be true. Why? Because it is a love story.

Both stories were love stories. There are many different reasons that Ed Bloom did not tell the truth of his past. Maybe he was ashamed of it, maybe he just wanted to make it interesting for his one and only son. We will never know. That is a secret that died with Ed Bloom. However, what we do know is that he was passionate with his love for his son. The passion was practically punching you through the screen, especially as you watched the last scenes. In certain ways, Big Fish, is a war story. Ed was at war with himself. To not be truthful to the ones you love is a major conflict. Along with that, one of the people that mattered most in his life hadn't talked to him in years because of Ed's stories. Ed became at war with himself. The only way was to have his son tell him a story, so that he would know that his son loved him as much as he loved his son. This is the most touching part of the movie, because it is where I know that it is a true war story, because it is a love story. Just like The Things They Carried is a love story. O'Brien has love for his fellow soldiers. So he tells stories. He tries to make it better for him and his soldiers. So the truth factor doesn't really matter because as long as the deeper meaning is love, everything will fall in place.

Another point of contrast I had was that everything came completely full circle in Big Fish. The way Ed turned into the fish at the end of the movie, how Sandra was the naked mermaid in the lake. Big Fish became a complete story. The Things They Carried was more or less built on cliffhangers. You were left wondering with O'Brien, where Big Fish said, here it is, this is what it is, take it or leave it. Is this intended? If The Things They Carried hadn't left me wondering, I don't think it would have the same meaning to me. If it was extremely outrageous like Big Fish was, I think that it wouldn't have the same purpose of helping the soldiers and their post-war feelings.

The last thing I have, is another comparison. In almost every story, there was a deeper meaning. Wether it was to the person who was telling the story, the person they are telling it to, the person reading (or watching it for that matter) there was at least one story in both the movie and the book. They mean something. It's very hard to explain, because it's different for every person. There is no way to explain it. You have to read the book or watch the story to obtain the meaning I'm talking about.

In the end I think two quotes from the movie summarize the two completely. "In telling the story of my father's life, it's impossible to separate fact from fiction, the man from the myth. The best I can do is tell it the way he told me. It doesn't always make sense and most of it never happened...but that's what kind of story this is." Your never going to get any better. You need to figure out what is myth and what is man for yourself. But with the way these two stories are beautifully told, you know that the stories aren't true, but they are based off of truth which is the love that the author and director gives us. The second quote is this: "A man tells so many stories, that he becomes the stories. They live on after him, and in that way he becomes immortal." When you read this book, or watch the movie, you will see how every character becomes immortal in their own way. They each leave you with something memorable to take with you, and with that they give you the love of the very exaggerated and untruthful war story that you need to take and see the love.

Grapes of Wrath 26-End

First of all, the endinig of this book was not what I expected it to be. I expected it to be like every other book I've read, with a picture perfect ending and everyone happy. I wanted and expected it to be that Noah, Connie, and Casey to come back and they all are going to be a happy, rich family living in the white house with the fence that Ma wanted. Of course, I didn't get that. Which was really suprising to me.

My first blow was when Casey died. Well, at first I thought when we saw him at first, we were going to sort of steal him away and we were going to make our life work with him and no money. However, when he died, I had to put the book down. I wasn't sure if I wanted to finish reading after that. However,I knew I had to.

The next blow was when Ruthie told about Tom, and Ma came to let him go. I thought if worst comes to worst, I would always have Tom Joad in the end. That didn't happen either. By this time I knew that I wasn't going to get my fairytale ending.

The next, and I guess the very last thing that hurt me most was the stillborn baby. I thought that the baby would bring a new life for the Joads. A new, better life. The stillborn was like a blow to any type of hope the family had.

There was one biblical story I found.

Uncle John who sent the stillborn down the river reminded me of the story of Moses. He sent the stillborn down the makeshift "Nile River" to show the people what they did to the Okies and everyone else that had to move during the Dust Bowl. I think the stillborn baby represents the hope that was in Ma. For a good ammount of the book, Ma was woman living in a fairytale. I think that that stillborn baby knocked the hope out of her and the rest of the family. The white house was gone.

-I think that keeping up with the reading was hard. Mostly because, it was hard for me to get into the book, and by the time that happened, I was falling asleep while I was reading the good part. I think that if we had smaller chapters, because there were sometimes we only had like 2 or 3 days to read, it would be easier to keep up. And I think that we could have gotten a deeper meaning of the book. Overall, the ending wasn't what I expected, and I kind of liked it. I really can't explain how I feel about it anymore...

CDF 3-4

One thing that I didn't understand while I was reading this book was why the Vicario twins told everyone that they wanted to kill Santiago. Why wouldn't they keep that to themselves? Also, because everyone knew, including the police, why wouldn't someone have tired to stop this problem before it got to killing Santiago? However, I do understand where they are coming from when they say that they thought the twins were joking. If someone came up to me and said they wanted to cut someone's guts out, I wouldn't really believe them either.

I was thinking that because Santiago and Mrs. Creves had the affair, if everyone in the town had knew about it, that was the reason that Angela had named Santiago as the person who had taken her virginity, because it would have been more believable.

One thing I do not like about this book AT ALL is that it jumps from scene to scene - from past to future and it gets on my nerves and confuses me a lot . I think if its going to be on one topic, stay on that topic for the whole chapter. It gets really confusing.

One thing I do like, however, is that it is so descriptive. When I was reading the part about the autopsy, I could, even if I didn't want to, imagine it in my head. I really like that in books.

However, in this case, the bad outweighs the good for me.

Chapters XXIII-XXX

XXIII Summary

Candide and Martin are still on a boat about to pull up to England, while Martin is telling Candide that England and France are fighting over Canada. While there, Candide and Martin witness a shooting of an admiral because he didn't kill enough people himself. Candide decides that this is enough for him and he bargains with Martin not to stay any longer and go to Venice, and Martin is ready to leave in two days.

XXIV Summary

Candide and Martin pull into Venice. Martin, being a pessimist, is telling Candide that he is too comfortable. He thinks that Cacambo ran off with the money and Cunegonde to have a life without Candide. They see a man and a woman who appear to be "happ" and they bet that the two aren't really happy. Martin ends up winning this bet. 

Can we really truly know if someone is happy?

XXV Summary

Candide and Martin spend time at Pococurante's gondola on the Brenta and have dinner with him. Candide, like usual asks questions, because he is so niave. At the end of the chapter Candide makes the decision that Pococurante is one of the happiest among men, while Martin says that he is only hiding behind his possesions, and he, also isn't happy.

XXVI Summary

Cacambo and Candide bump into each other. Cacambo leads Candide and Martin to a dinner set up with six strangers. The strangers all have slaves come and tell them that they need to leave because their time is up. When Candide hears of this, he thinks someone is playing a joke on him. He tells them that, and the six strangers reveal themselves, each their own king of a country, who was overthrew from their throne and were allowed to travel. All, with the exception of the six stranger, who was a king, but is now treated as common folk.

XXVII Summary

Candide and Cacambo are discussing on the boat about the misfortunes that Cacambo has faced in his search for Cunegonde. She is now washing dishes in Turkey for a prince. Candide pays a ransom for Cacambo to be freed from the dethroned sultan. Then he sees the Baron and Pangloss on the other boat, and askes to be shipped over there.

XXVIII Summary

The Baron and Pangloss start to tell Candide about their troubles. The Baron, after he was stabbed by Candide, was taken to a surgeon and "revived" in a way. There he got into some trouble because he was taking a bath with a Mussulman and it was against the law for a Christian to take a bath with a Mussulaman.  Pangloss, who was supposed to be hanged, was alive because they had done a really bad job hanging him and a surgeon had purchased the body to dissect it. While doing that, he made a major incision which in turn revived Pangloss. 

XXIX Summary

Candide and company finally find Cunegonde and the old woman. Cunegonde is very old and ugly, however she does not know of it because no one has told her. Candide pays the ransom for Cunegonde and the old woman, and reiterates to the Baron that he intends on marrying his sister. However the Baron pretty much said, over my dead body.

XXX Summary

Here, Candide realizes that he didn't love Cunegonde as much as he thought he did. He does not wish to marry her anymore because of how ugly she is. However, he does so anyway in spite of the Baron. In the end, everyone finds a job that is suitable to them. In closing Pangloss and Candide are talking and yet again, Pangloss points out everything is good no matter how much of a horrible situation they are in.

Candide Homework Number 1

Candide is a very older book. With the language they are using I didn't understand much of it. What I did understand was that him and Cunegonde had stolen a kiss when they weren't supposed to. They got caught and Candide was not allowed to see Cunegonde again. Then, Cunegonde's castle was invaded and from what we know right now, Cunegonde and her mother father and brother were all killed. Later on, the old woman took Candide to Cunegonde and reunited them together. She was telling Candide about how she was raped and stabbed, but she had lived as a servant for a while. Cunegonde and the old woman had gotten into a temporary fight and Cunegonde said that the old woman had no idea how Cunegonde felt having to give up her status and family and riches. Then, the old woman had told her life story, which I thought, was worse than Cunegonde's.