The Ambiguity of Truth

O'Brien's work is particularly thought-provoking in the way it makes the reader question the absolutes of reality and truth. He makes a distinction between factual truth and real truth, suggesting that made up stories can be more true than an perfect recounting of events that happened. Something is really true, he argues, if it conjures up the precise set of emotions; a simple retelling of a story, no embellishment, may not be powerful enough to enable the audience to feel the emotions of the situation described, but a fictitious, exaggerated tale could evoke in them a level of emotion similar to that of the actual situation. According to O'Brien, this makes the latter more true that the accurate telling of events.
This idea could be continued to indicate that there is only meaning in our interpretations, that it is the audience who gives any story its meaning by what they take out of it. Things can be true to one person, but completely meaningless to another, for example: O'Brien at a book event tells his stories to a captive but undiscerning audience, members of which later express their lack of understanding to him. His stories are exactly true, accurate in both sequence of events and emotion that he feels. But, to his audience they hold no meaning because they don't convey the emotion he felt. O'Brien refers to this kind of truth and lack of truth in stories and retelling of events. To me, this incites confusion whenever O'Brien claims he is sharing the "truth" because, unlike ever before, I am unsure exactly how to understand that.

War Is Not Natural

   
     A common theme found in two of the war poems we discussed is that war is not a natural thing; both "First Snow in Alsace" and "The Naming of the Parts" juxtaposed the horror of war with the beauty and presence of nature to illustrate this theme.
     "First Snow in Alsace" describes nightfall in a desolated town, which is suddenly blanketed serenely by the first fall of snow. These two contrasting images, the destruction of war and the beauty of nature, each contradict the presence of the other, hinting to the audience that one does not belong. Obviously, nature, the most natural thing, belongs in the world, thus inviting the conclusion that perhaps war does not.
     "The Naming of the Parts" juxtaposes nature and war in a more blurred yet disturbing way. The speaker, or perhaps speakers, inserts observations about the nature surrounding him or her between an enumeration of the parts of a deadly weapon. It is disturbing that there is no clear transition between descriptions of nature and war; on multiple occasions, the writer even switches between descriptions of the two on the same line. This syntax strikes the reader as unusual, that war and nature be lumped together, again asserting that war is not a natural thing.

My Father Leaves for Vietnam

     While superficially it is an emotional story about a boy saying goodbye to his dad, "My Father Leaves for Vietnam" is a unique example of war poetry which sustains a metaphor to represent the ignorance of the population about the Vietnam War.
     In the poem, the father represents all of the men who were drafted into battle during the Vietnam War, and the boy stands in for the general public the soldiers are leaving behind. The child's innocence and lack of understanding of the situation mirror the way there was confusion and ignorance on the part of the people regarding the Vietnam War. Other than the vague, loose aim of halting the spread of communism, there was little discernible reason to the public for engaging in this war. At first, most were on board with America's idealist endeavor, however as the years crawled by with no betterment of the situation, people tired of sending more and more young men to kill and be killed in a foreign jungle for seemingly no reason. This murkiness and lack of clarity are portrayed in the poem by the innocence of youth.
     While not explicitly and ardently anti-war, the poem is commenting on the sadness caused by war, and specifically is likely questioning whether there was any good reason at all for American involvement in Vietnam.

Family in the Poisonwood Bible and As I Lay Dying

Barbara Kingsolver’s the Poisonwood Bible and William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying discuss families in showing that the heads of a families can set a negative, dysfunctional dynamic, and commenting that they need to focus more on the other members of the family than on themselves.

In the Poisonwood Bible, the head of the family is an extremely intense and self assured preacher, Father Price. He believes himself to be righteous and eagerly awaits the eternal reward for his service. However, he does not realize that he is to blame for much of what goes wrong in the story. His pride and arrogance place the family in dangerous situations, and his ongoing abuse of his wife and children negatively impact the confidence and mental health of the characters. This is an extreme, because Father Price forced his family into a situation where they could have been killed, and one was, in the dangerous jungles of the Congo. But he was too concerned with his own mission to see that his family was struggling to survive. Had he only listened, or noticed, his wife and daughters could have told him how miserable they were and how dangerous it really was for them all.

Faulkner’s equivalent is Anse Bundren, physically toothless and hunched over, but also mentally twisted; Anse is quick to blame everything that goes wrong in his life on anything and anyone but himself-he just chalks it all up to his bad luck, and everything being out to get him. He does not take well to suggestions either, and must do everything his own way, often with the help of sympathizing neighbors. His own self absorption impacts his family negatively as well, creating bad situations or members of his family. Anse is too prideful to ask for help. He refused to call a doctor though his wife’s health was quickly deteriorating. He also had his family refuse the hospitality of neighbors who invited them to stay in their house, and opted that they sleep in the barn, next to the mother’s casket, instead. His arrogance placed the family in these situations that would have been easily avoided if he did not let his pride get in the way.

Both authors use arrogant, self absorbed father figures to show how negatively impacted a family can be when it’s head is more focused on itself than the other members of the family.

Dewey Dell

     I never seen a field like this before. And I dont see how anybody can do any picking on it either. They says its for playing not picking but I dont see why anybody would want to play on this field cause its not a good field that nobody wants to pick or play on, not a good field. Im just thinking in my mind about me and Lafe trying to go picking on this field and maybe if it was this field instead of the regular one then maybe the sack wont be full and I wont have to do it. If the sack is full I cannot help it but if it it was this field the sack would never be full and I could help it. But I cannot see one thing that Lafe can pick up from this field and put in my sack. So then I could help it. But I could not help it.

     And now I have to think about what everybody else thinks. Here theres so many people I could just disappear. Theres so many people. Then theres me. Theres so many people and theres me. They are they and I am me and I am Dewey Dell and I am different. And they know I am different but they dont know I am different too. They know I am wearing a dress and they are wearing all the same brand new outfit. They could never do any cooking or picking in as clean a shirt and so I dont know why they wear it. They know I am different. But they dont know I am different too. They dont know I am never alone and they dont know I am worried and they dont even know what that means. I wish I could disappear and be the same and wear the same as them and be the same as them. But they are them and I am me and I am Dewey Dell and I am different.