The Things They Carried. The writing exercises in this guide provide you with possible essay topics, as do the discussion questions in the Reader’s Guide.
Advanced students can come up with their own essay topics, as long as they are interesting and specific. Other ideas for essays are provided below. For essays, students should organize their ideas around a thesis—that is, an argument or interpretation—about the poem or poems in question. This statement or thesis should be focused, with clear reasons to support its conclusion. The thesis and evidence should be supported by references to the text. What did Tim O'Brien gain by serving in Vietnam?
VIETNAM WAR POETRY. Protest Songs - Best Anti-War Protest Songs. American folk music is rich with political commentary and protest songs.
Because of the folk music revival in the middle of the 20th Century - and the socio-political climate in America in the 1950s and '60s (the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War era, etc.) many people these days conflate American folk music with political commentary. But, if you consider the entire tradition of American folk music, it's clear that folk songs cover topics ranging from historical events to songs about food and cars, sex and money, and of course plenty of heartbreak and death.
Still, the songs that often seem most pervasive are those about overcoming struggle; the moments when the world is quietly hoping for change, but one single folksinger has the nerve to stand on a stage, open their mouth, and sing out against injustice. Political protest songs cover all kinds of issues, of course, from the environment to marriage equality, economic stability and civil rights. "Bring Em Home" - Pete Seeger © Sony. Vietnam War Retrospective: Music.
Though not all of these songs mention Vietnam by name, most of them do.
Those which do not specifically say "Vietnam," do address war either directly ("Give Peace a Chance," "War") or indirectly ("The Story of Isaac"). Despite the attempt at inclusiveness, I know that some songs have been left out -- please accept my apologies if I have omitted a favorite of yours. If the song title is hyperlinked, clicking on it will send you to that song's lyrics.
"Where Have All the Flowers Gone? " PETER, PAUL & MARY (1962) "Masters of War" BOB DYLAN (1963) "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues" BOB DYLAN (1963; commercial release, 1991) "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy" PETE SEEGER (1963) "The Times They Are A-Changin'" BOB DYLAN (1964) "MLF Lullaby" and "Send the Marines" from TOM LEHRER's That Was The Year That Was (1965) "Eve of Destruction" BARRY McGUIRE (1965) List of songs about the Vietnam War. The Things They Carried. 09.01.06: Interpreting Vietnam: War Stories and Film.
Introduction Wars are stories of a kind, sequenced action driven by plot and character however misguided or profoundly mistaken.
Therefore war stories - the personal accounts of soldiers and civilians - are a small part of the overarching, and often all-consuming, narrative of a war itself. It is also important to recognize that war stories occupy a unique position between fiction and history. War stories and history are not the same, though they are deeply related. There is a tension here between what can be told - the story - and what is recorded - which becomes over time the history. The battles, offenses, strategies and lasting effects of war are among the most documented events in human history. So what are war stories then, if not the telling of the untellable?
Though addressing these general questions of war and historicity, this unit of study will focus specifically on the Vietnam War. Rationale Vietnam was the war of my parents’ generation. Objectives Background. The Things They Carried: Readers' Group Companion. Contents: 1.
Introduction2. Questions for Discussion3. About the Author4. Further Reading Introduction They carried malaria tablets, love letters, 28-pound mine detectors, dope, illustrated Bibles, each other. Questions for Discussion The questions that follow are intended to enhance your reading group's discussion of this multi-faceted book, and we hope that they will also help you discover additional lines of inquiry about the equally healing and heartbreaking chapters in The Things They Carried. 1. 2. 3. FRONTLINE/WORLD . Vietnam - Looking for Home . Index page.