Tacoh No!

"'For you a thousand times over,' I heard myself say." pg 371

D'aww! What a cute ending! Amir has finally learned the meaning of selfless! My mimicking the mantra of Hassan to Hassan's son, it kind of gives the story a full circle effect, which is sooo much better than a cliffha.... Hassan was very foiley to Amir because he gave himself fully and completely out of partly servitude, but I believe mostly out of love for his friend. Now Amir has forgiven himself and loves Sohrab much like a son and is willing to devote himself completely to him like Hassan did to Amir. It's the ciiiiiirccle of liiiiiiiiiiiife, and it moves us allllllll! Another motif that isn't really given by direct quotes is child rape. So that's pretty cool. Hassan really just had a bad luck streak in his family for that, I guess.

It's Poprah. 

This just made me roflcopter.

Have At You!

Yo,

Overall, I found The Things They Carried to be a mighty pleasurable book. I especially enjoyed the poetic ending of tying in the author's storytelling to a girl he loved. A nine-year-old girl whose bones he wanted to jump. Either way, they were in love, so it's okay. That's got to be pleasant for the wife.

I also really enjoyed the smooth, lucid writing which seemed to keep things flowing at a nice pace. If you'd like to read the antithesis, I suggest TSAR.

In both books, however, I feel they both had a motif about religion. In TTTC, religion was present in Kiowa, described as a hardcore, devout Baptist, in the lack of religion in some of the soldiers, the monks that took care of the platoon, and the perceived heathenism of the Vietcong and the wild Vietnamese countryside. I also feel that storytelling took on the role of religion for O'Brien. This book was a way for him to reflect on his life views, and because he says (or rather his daughter says) he's always writing war stories, he is continually reflecting on his life, life in general, and what to do about it. He just needs a storytelling afterlife and he'd be set!

Also the very setup of TTTC conveys the meaning of the lit. term unity perfectly. The series of reflective and anecdotal stories could stand alone, but they are meant to be parts of a whole to convey the truth in storytelling, that is, not the historical facts, but the truth in feeling the Vietnam war in your gut.

Christian out.

Is that what you had said?

MOTIF

"'Oh, rot,' said Brett. 'Maybe it works for some people, though you don't look very religious, Jake.'" pg. 213

Ooh, here's a doozie lit term. Motif. Just a few I've noticed are Brett's catchphrase "oh, rot." It's kind of her multi-purpose saying to mean just about whatever she wants, which illustrates her "change-at-the-drop-of-a-hat/I-do-what-I-want-because-I'm-an-independent-woman" personality. In addition, religion was made to be an ordeal, especially this whole Robert Cohn being Jewish. There were many times when insulting phrases were used and even classified being Jewish as a race in itself. Also, the Catholic Church and her "power" were mentioned several times. Even Jake was asked by Bill if he was really a Catholic. Bill, too, poked at a priest on the train ride filled with American Catholics hogging the dining cars by asking "When do us Protestants get a chance to eat, father?" Brett's character also deals with having a lack of organized religion. Another motif I felt to be prevalent was bathing. Brett always wanted to take a bath and Jake bathed often. This might be another religious reference as a kind of "trying to wash away their sins" type of thing, but then again, motifs are weird and I never seem to pick up on them.

Enjoy this nice, straightforward reptile motif!