"Friends" & "How to tell a True War Story"

• Engels
• Higher Education (degree)

Lesson objectives 

You will consider some guiding concepts for the novel

Information about the summative 

considering syntax in a passage 

Starting to focus on "How to Tell a True War Story" 

What big ideas or major topics has
O'Brien tackled in the
novel so far?

How does this image relate to the chapter "Enemies"? Write your answer. 

Silent writing 

Sikander, Samuel & Constance 

"Field Trip"

Cecilia, Merel & Quirine 

"The Ghost Soldiers"

Huub & Charlotte 

"Notes" 

Louie & Manuel 

"Night Life" 

Andriy & Tashifa

"The Lives of the Dead" 

Zoë & Roos 

"In the Field" 

Francesco & Catherina 

"Good Form" 

8th April 

10th April 

• Each pair will be responsible for reading and then “teaching” the chapter assigned. 20 minutes per group. Your presentation of the chapter will include:​
  
• a summary of the chapter (meaning a clear outline of the narrative threads in the story) and the importance of the title to the chapter​.
  
• a discussion the theme, concept or purpose of the chapter​. 
• a discussion of how this chapter relates to the whole novel.
  
• identify at least three literary aspects of the text you found interesting (clearly showing them in examples from the text).​
  
• an activity to connect to the chapter (think creative task, or visual thinking strategy to help the class connect the chapter with a concept or theme or an interesting literary aspect of that chapter) 
  

Teaching chapter presentations on Monday 8th and Wednesday 10th April summative

1. What do Lee Strunk and Dave Jensen fight over? "Friends" & "Enemies"

2. Why does Dave Jensen break his own nose?

3. Describe Lee Strunk’s injury.

4. What does Lee Strunk think Dave Jensen will do after the injury?

4. What does Lee Strunk think Dave Jensen will do after the injury?

" War is hell, but that's not the half of it, because is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love. War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery. War makes you a man; war makes you dead." 

Write a paragraph analysing the syntactical devices used in the passage below in the chapter "How to Tell a True War Story" in The Things they Carried.

Consider these ideas

• make a connection between the polysyndeton used in the first sentence and the author’s portrayal of the weight of war. These elements of war are stacked on each other, making war heavier, more complicated, and more difficult. It cannot be simplified as just “hell.” 
  
• consider the telegraphic ideas separated by semicolons.
  
• These ideas are antithetical or paradoxical. They also show antithesis in ideas. 
  

Antithetical = directly opposed or contrasted; mutually incompatible

Paradoxical = seemingly absurd or self-contradictory but after some consideration may not be so. 

What is the purpose of the chapter "Enemies"? 

What is the purpose of the chapter "Friends"? 

How do these two chapters work together to convey a general message that the author wants the readers to understand? 

What is that message? 

Discuss in your groups

Lesson objectives 

Starting to focus on "How to Tell a True War Story" 

Looking at motifs in "How to Tell a True War Story" 

Considering the narrative chronology and the effects of that

Prefix of the day 

 Ab =  from the Latin preposition which meant "off" or "away". For example in the word absent. The Latin-derived prefix de- has a similar meaning. 

Rate the word 1 to 4

1. I do not know the word, and I have never seen it before. 

2. I've heard or seen the word before, but I'm not sure what it means. 

3. I know the word and can recognise and understand it while reading, but I probably wouldn't feel comfortable using it in writing or speech. 

4. I know the word well and can use it correctly in writing or speech. 

Abdicate

Word of the day

Abdicate (v) - to renounce or relinquish a throne, right, power or responsibility

Ab- prefix. Dicate is the root left. Dic - is a root that means "speak" = "to speak away". It originally meant to disinherit or disown your children. Around the 1600s it began to be used specifically to refer to giving up a throne or public office. 

The queen was persuaded to abdicate in favour of her son.

How does this image relate to the reading you have done? 

Vapours/Fog Motif in “How to Tell a True War Story”

Skim the chapter and write down every reference to vapours and fog.

Put the quotes in your class notebook 

Add a new page titled "Vapours & Fog motif" 

 "And there’s always this fog—like rain, except it’s not raining— everything’s all wet and swirly and tangled up and you can’t see jack, you can’t find your own pecker to piss with. Like you don’t even have a body. Serious spooky. You just go with the vapours—the fog sort of takes you in"

" That’s what it sounds like, this big swank gook cocktail

party somewhere out there in the fog."

 "One of those real thick real misty days—just clouds and fog"

 "For the common soldier, at least, war has the feel—the spiritual

texture-- of a great ghostly fog, thick and permanent."

"The vapours suck you in." 

What concept or idea is this motif supporting? 

Concepts HL Lang Lit 

The Things they Carried

Concept we generated: 

Courage, guilt, friendship, perspective, transformation 

Light and shadow motifs in “How to Tell a True War Story”

Skim the chapter and write down every reference to light and dark. 

" So I glanced behind me and watched Lemon step from the shade into Bright sunlight." 

" the way the sunlight came around him and lifted him up " 

"he must’ve thought it was the sunlight that was killing him." 

"If I could somehow re-create the fatal whiteness of that light, the quick glare" 

" Up in the canopy there were tiny white blossoms, but no sunlight at all, and I remember the shadows spreading out under the trees where Curt Lemon and Rat Kiley were playing catch with smoke grenades." 

" And I remember sitting at my foxhole that night, watching the shadows of Quang Ngai" 

What concept or idea is this motif supporting?

Choose one motif to explore. Answer this question in a PEEL paragraph containing at least three pieces of evidence: 

How has O'Brien used a motif in the chapter "How to Tell a True War Story" to support a central concept that is explored in this chapter? 

Concepts HL Lang Lit 

The Things they Carried

Concepts we generated: 

friendship or relationships, trauma, storytelling, responsibility, guilt

Word of the day

Emulate (vb) - to try to equal by imitating. 

Use emulate in your own sentence that shows your understanding of the word. 

Many teenagers try to emulate their favourite influencers by copying their fashions. 

In pairs, make a list of all the elements of a true war story according to O’Brien in this chapter "How to Tell a True War Story". 

• A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behaviour, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it. 
  
• As a first rule of thumb, therefore, you can tell a true war story by its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil. 
  
• You can tell a true war story if it embarrasses you.
  
• In many cases, a true war story cannot be believed. If you believe it, be skeptical. 
  
• You can tell a true war story by the way it never seems to end. 
• In a true war story, if there’s no moral at all, it’s like the thread that makes the cloth. 
• True war stories do not generalize. They do not indulge in abstraction or analysis. A true war story makes the stomach believe.
  
• A true war story does not depend upon that kind of truth.
  
• You can tell a true war story if you just keep on telling it.
  

What do you think the reasons are that O'Brien has for constantly telling the readers that his stories are true? 

The event of Curt Lemon's death is explored several times throughout this chapter in a non-linear narrative style. 

1. In pairs, sort the description of Lemon's death into a chronological telling of the events. Some events are repeated. 

2. Discuss, what is the effect of the non-linear narrative style? Why did the author choose to write the event in this way? 

Non-linear narration 

Read and listen to this extract from "How to Tell a True War Story". 

Underline or highlight in yellow the facts of the story in one colour. 

Underline or highlight in blue the physical descriptions of the setting. 

Underline or highlight in green the flashback.