Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Making Connections



Please read the article by New York Times Writer, Tim Arango. After you have read the WHOLE article, please make FOUR connections between this article and your text, The Things They Carried. Make sure to name specific characters, places, scenes, etc. Yes, it is a different war and a different time, but emotions, reactions, impact, etc are often the same. Think about it...


20 comments:

Emma Ethier said...

1. Tim O'Brien will have to live the rest of his life knowing that his freinds have died, and have to handle the stress of war. This is also true for Samar.
2. Both what this girl went through and the stories told in the book are very tramatic, for example the war story about the water buffalo.
3. Samar had to witness her family being killed just like when Bowker had to witness the death of Kiowa because there was nothing he could do to save him.
4. In both the book, and real life, casualties are quite common. Characters in the novel, just like Samar, have to deal with the pain and emotional stress.

Anonymous said...

One's life can be torn apart by war. The eomotional scarring, and the nightmares it creates. Similar things to this articel take place in The Things They Carried. Such as Norman Bowker watching Kiowa slowly sink into the mud. Ted lavender being shot, scarred Jimmy cross for life. Tim O'Brien saw Pvt. Lemon get blown up by a landmine. Having to clean him out of the tree. The last example of this is, how Lee Strunk bleeds out because he got hit by a mine, and Dave Jensen had to see it happen. Like Samar, all these men, had to live with the memories, and pain. They had nightmares. They felt pain. Some died themselves.
Seth Killingbeck

Marisa Dole said...

1.) Samar and many of the characters in the novel witnessed the scence of people that they love being killed in front of them.

2.) Samar and O'Brien will always have to live with the memory of war and how it destroyed them in so many ways. Even long after the war has ended O'Brien still shares the horrible memories with anyone that will listen just so he can feel better.

3.)Samar and Bowker both have to witness people they care about being killed and thier is nothing they can do to save with. This is just like when Bowker had to let Kiowa die.

4.)Samar now has to live her life alone without the people she truely cares about and that is something that Bowker realizes he misses most of all throughtout the novel

Elijah Rostron said...

1. The kids deal with post tramatic stress, just like a soilder would.
2. She has problems in regular society just like a veteran might have trouble doing normal things.
3. She suffers the same pain from losing family members just like Kiowa's family might have had to deal with.

Cassy said...

The similarities between these two war stories is that they both show how bad war is on the people involved in the war. Both sides, it doesnt matter what side, both are effected by the war they both fight. In 'The Thing's They Carried' O'Brian is affected by the war and has flashbacks of his war days. In this article, the girl has a flashback of what the war did to her because of the picture. Just like the dancing girl, she has lost her family because of other people who are fighting.

Nicole Plausse said...

1.both tim and Samar have to live with knowing people died and deal with the stress that come alone with it.
2.both Samar and Bowker had to witness someone die
3.dealing with deal is very tramatic and hard to deal with.
4. anyones life can be torn apart or ruined by war

Julie Towne said...

1.Tim saw Lemon get blown up by a landmine just like Samar saw her parents get shot.

2.Samar's parents have died just like Tim O'Brien's friends have died. They both have to live with the pain forever.

3. Bowker saw Kiowa sink into the mud and die and couldnt do anything about it as well as Samar, she coulnd't help her parents. Before she could react they were dead.

4. The water buffalo was tourtured and helpless just like Samar was left helpless.

Anonymous said...

Samar's experience is very similar to the book "The Things They Carried" becuase she is also in the middle of a war and experiencing the symptoms of PTSD. Also, Samar has flashbacks of the time her parents died jsut like poeple in the book do. ALso many times things like this happen and poeple have to deal with the emotional impact that they leave. Taylor Portanova

Brittany Kenyon said...

In the book "The things they carried" and the article about the Iraq child compare in many ways. In the article the little girl keeps having flashbacks about her parents death, and the book Tim O'Brien keeps having flashbacks about the war he served in.
The soliders were the ones who killed the little girls parents and all of the characters in the book are soldiers. They both do the same thing, although the soldiers from the war did not kill an innocent family.
The little girl talks at talkshows and interview to get her story out there in the public. Tim O'Brien gets his story out in the public by writing the book.
They both share their stories even though they are tragic. This little girl will always remember the day that her parents got killed by the american soldiers. Tim O'Brien will never forget his expierece from being in the war.

Anthony O'Leary said...

1. She heard bullets like Norman Bowker did when he was looking for Kiowa.

2. "The image in frozen in history" like Norman revisited the lake but has lived his life ever since.

3. She felt the pain and still does like Norman.

4. She felt alone, just like Norman did after Kiowa had gone under and did not come back up.

Anonymous said...

The Things They Carried and the article we read are similar in many emotional ways. For instance, when Samar takes a flashback to heating the bullets and the next thing she knows, her parents are dead. Another example in both the book, and the article we read is PTSD. All of the characters face post tramatic stress disorder. Both in the book, and the article each person has to deal with emotional problems, and know they have lost a loved one.

Anonymous said...

Immediately, the first connection between this young girl and "The Things They Carried" was when the ~14 year old girl was dancing while her village (Song Tra Bong) burned to the ground.
Secondly is how Samar had to take many different pills to deal with her case of PTSD, which was her way of dealing with the trauma/stress. The different men in "The Things They Carried" had to do things themselves to deal with the stress, like how Tim O'Brien wrote stories for years after the war.
Thirdly, the part of Iraq that Samar was in during the car bombing had insufficient healthcare possibilities to treat her and her family, like how Lee Strunk had to be medvac'd out of the battlefield in order to be properly treated (although, Samar survived and Lee Strunk died due to exsanguination).
Lastly, Samar's brother Muhammed speaks to himself (an indicator of mental illness due to extreme psychological trauma) is a slightly different form of what happened to Mary Anne after she came to Vietnam and experienced war for what it is, and as a result went completely insane.
-Roland R.

Ashley C said...

1. In both Things They Carried and Samars story both had to sufer seing people dying. Samar saw her parents being shot and Bowker wittnessed Kiowa sinking.

2. Samar and Bowker will have to deal with the post tramatic stress that comes with seeing them die.

3. Samars story can also be related to the story when the people saw the watter buffalo being tortured by Rat Kiley and everyone who watched stood their helplessly like Samar did when she saw her parents shot.

4. Samar can relate to the solders that survived because she will have vivid flashbacks which bring her back to that moment and place just like vetrans.

Anonymous said...

In the New York Times article and in The Things They Carry by Tim O’Brien the two stories have things in common. In both stories the theme is about war; Most characters i reflect about a war. Bowker, in The Things They Carry by Tim O’Brien, reflect about not being able to save his friend Kiowa from drowning in war.

In the New York Times article and in The Things They Carry by Tim O’Brien Bowker and the little girl will always remember the day were their friend and family died in the war. They will always have the memories of the day they died.

Both stories the characters will always have flashbacks and memories of the war they both were in. They will always have to deal with the loss of a friend or family member.

Also, Tim O’Brien and in the article are similar in another way in which the two people had to watch there loved ones getting killed.
Shannon McManus

Unknown said...

1. tim o'brian and samar both loose people that they are close to due to war tragedies
2.bowker saw kiowa being killed samar saw her parents being killed
3.casualties happen in both stories, along with a war andpeople dying
3.samar and the water buffalo both went through tramatic things

MIKE ROCHA!!!!! said...

1.) War obviously has a huge impact on Samar in many ways. One way is that it took away the people she loved. Like how Tim obrien experienced with his dieing friends.

2.) Samar and her brother experienece post tramatic stress syndrome after the events and so dose Normand Bowker when he returns back to the states.

3.) Samar witnessed the killing of her parents like when Bowker had to witness the death of Kiowa in the mud.

4.)also seeing her parents get shot up was probably just as trammatic as seeing the man who was blown up by a land mine and shot up into the trees.

Anonymous said...

1. The image of Samar, then 5 years old, screaming and splattered in blood after American soldiers opened fire on her family reminds me of when they talk about the danceing girl.
2. the girls family died, just like most of obriens friends have died.
3. The girl felt hopeless at the time of her parents death, like bowker did when his friend died in the soup.
4. She emotionaly feels the war is wrong like tim orien did in the beginning

Anonymous said...

BRANDON CHARBONEAU

1. The image of Samar, then 5 years old, screaming and splattered in blood after American soldiers opened fire on her family reminds me of when they talk about the danceing girl.
2. the girls family died, just like most of obriens friends have died.
3. The girl felt hopeless at the time of her parents death, like bowker did when his friend died in the soup.
4. She emotionaly feels the war is wrong like tim orien did in the beginning

bgill said...

1) The main girl Samar in the story about the picture loses her parents in war. In Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, they also lost people who were close to them. Such as how Kiowa's father loses his son Kiowa.

2) They are both very tramatic. As you can see the picture in the story about Samars parents, she is covered in blood and looks like she is screaming. She is very traumatized. Also in the book there the Buffalo scene which is also very disturbing and traumatizing.

3) Seeing people die is another common thing between the two stories. In the things they carried Bowker watches Kiowa sink in to the mud further and further and die. While in the other story Samara watched her parents get shot and was very upset about it because she couldn't do anything.

4) Lastly, in both stories they carry the traumatizing memories from the war. In The Things They Carried, they have all the war problems going on, the deaths, and everything else. They carry those memories with them for the rest of their lives. While in the story with Samar she has to carry the emotional weight of her parents die right in front of her.

Anonymous said...

1. O'Brien and Samar both saw people they care about die right infront of them.
2. They both felt helpless when they couldn't do anything to save the people they love. Samar saw her family die and couldnt do anything, just like when Bowker saw Kiowa die.
3.Both these people will always remember,and relive the pain of their experiences with the war.
4. Lastly,Obrien writes books to share the pain,and hard times he went through. Samar does interviews about what she went through,and there is a picture of her splattered in blood that everyone can see.
Stephanie Paige