Junior AP Summer Reading Assignment
The Things They Carried—Tim O’Brien Into the Wild—Jon Krakauer
In teaching the book, The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, a series of short stories based on his experiences in the Vietnam War, Jon Koch developed the following journal prompts designed to achieve the following objectives:
ü Discover the complexity and utility of storytelling through O'Brien's implicit and explicit explorations within The Things They Carried.
ü Realize the nature of multiple perspectives and interpretations on a topic that is controversial and very real, war.
ü Become distinctly aware of how our possessions, actions, words, etc. all combine to exhibit who we are to the people around us, and how we are all defining ourselves at every moment; we are all political at all times.
ü Develop some form of working appreciation for what truth in writing/storytelling truly entails.
As you are reading The Thing They Carried, you will be keeping a journal based on the following seven journal prompts. You must complete each prompt (at least half a page) and present your completed journal entries (typed and in MLA format) on the second day of class.
Journal Entry #1: Free-write about how you feel and act when you've done something illegal, something you know you shouldn't have, or something with negative consequences or repercussions. Get to the nitty-gritty details like O'Brien does.
Journal Entry #2: Write about a line of events where a friend and you vacillated between being friends and enemies over a period of time, or because of a certain issue or occurrence. What were your feelings during each stage of the relationship? Did you perform malicious or kind acts according to the status? Were there periods of guilt or swells of pride because of your actions? How did the situation normalize?
Journal Entry #3: Begin a correspondence of whatever nature you choose, only it must be connected to the Vietnam War. Examples are a soldier's letters home, letters to a soldier from home (or both), a soldier's daily journal, a family member's daily journal, a soldier's letters to administration, draft boards, God, girlfriend(s), etc.
Journal Entry #4: Select three of O'Brien's qualifications for a true war story. Formulate a working definition for what O'Brien considers “true” in storytelling. How are truth and factual accuracy related?
Journal Entry #5: On page 134, Henry Dobbins says, “The thing is, I believed in God and all that, but it wasn't the religious part that interested me. Just being nice to people, that's all. Being decent.” Free-write about what being decent means to you. Should we always be decent? Why are there so many people out there not being nice to others? Are there instances where not being decent or nice is acceptable? Are being decent and being nice synonymous?
Journal Entry #6: “Why” is an important question in relation to these chapters. There were countless things in Nam that did not seem to make sense. Was it more advisable to try and find answers for senseless questions, or was it better to say, “This is Nam, man,” and let things be?
Journal Entry #7: For this entry, I'd like you to consider if or when facts become irrelevant in the construction of our own narratives, the stories that we tell to make our lives make sense.
ü What is the relationship between truth and fact?
ü When are facts and truth less important than other things?
ü What is the relationship between truth and fact?
ü Why are facts important and unimportant? What else counts?
ü How much fact do we need to get at the truth?
ü Why is truth and fact sometimes unimportant when compared to the illusions we create in order to live?
ü How do we use truth and fact to help us to live?
ü How might truth hinder us?
Both Jon Krakauer and Tim O’Brien, in the assigned readings, stress the importance of trying to arrive at the truth of what happened to their central characters. While writing Into the Wild Krakauer did a great deal of investigation in his attempt to determine the truth about why Chris McCandless felt the need to escape into the Alaskan wilderness, and why he died in the endeavor. Similarly, although “How to Tell a True War Story,” is actually a work of fiction, Tim O’Brien stresses repeatedly that he is seeking to arrive at the truth about what happened to him and his fellow soldiers during the Vietnam War. Your response should be well thought out and compare and contrast both works. Since most of your journal entries have been about The Things, this entry should focus on Into the Wild. It should address the questions posed in journal entries 7 & 8. Minimum of 2 pages (typed, double-spaced, MLA format.) How do you define and understand the “truth”, in light of the truth that both Krakauer and O’Brien are trying to arrive at in their work? Does it mean the same thing to you as it does to either or both authors? Do you feel that one of them is more successful than the other in his attempt to arrive at the truth? Why or why not?