Aww.

"This was then the reward of my benevolence" (101). Story of his life. He saves a little girl from drowning, and he gets shot. This was definitely the straw that broke the monster's back and caused him to go on a killing spree. He finally realizes that there is no chance that he can live among humans. No matter how nice he is and how much he does for them, they will only see his body and assume he is there to kill them. I really feel bad for him. He has absolutely no one there for him. He does all that he can for people to like him, but there is no hope. He is like the knew kid in school that looks like he wants to kill you. There is nothing he can do to change how people see him. So he just decides to kill everyone. Why not leave his mark? I guess I can understand that. Except maybe a nice painting would have been a better way to do it.

Hmm...

"Listen to me; and then, if you can, and if you will, destroy the work of your hands" (69). Well this story really took a turn. I think that Mary Shelley is pretty crazy for making a monster talk to his enemy. That's not something that most people are used to. However, I love that the monster isn't just a monster. He is a person. He gets mad that Frankenstein leaves him, and that since of abandonment is a human emotion. I love the twist that this book puts on the ghost story. How often do the monster and the man afraid of him sit down for coffee in a cage? That's some good stuff. Also, I like that Frankenstein is willing to do that. It shows that this is a very complex story. The people actually have feelings, even the monster. Crazy stuff.

"Speaking of Courage."

O'Brien wrote this chapter about a man named Norman Bowker. He wrote a letter to O'Brien about one of his books, complaining that it did not tell the real story. That letter inspired the writing of that chapter. Three years after it was written, Bowker killed himself.
The chapter is about Bowker's thoughts and imaginary conversations that had to do with his cowardly behavior that resulted in the death of a fellow soldier. In the next chapter, on page 154, O'Brien tells us that "he did not freeze up or lose the Silver Star for valor. That part of the story is my own." I don't quite get why O'Brien would add that part to the story. If Bowker was heroic that night, why would O'Brien write otherwise?
I'm going to hypothesize as to why he did so.
When O'Brien said that he didn't freeze up, he also mentioned that he has "avoided thinking about his death and his complicity in it." Bowker talked a lot about how Kiowa's death was his fault, even though it was obvious that it wasn't his fault. O'Brien is going through the same thing. Though O'Brien had no effect on Bowker's inevitable death, he feels like he did. That chapter allowed O'Brien to respect and honor Bowker while expressing his own feelings.

A fellow named Rat Kiley.

He liked to tell stories and rambled with the best of them. O'Brien uses him as the narrator of many of his stories. He has an odd style of telling stories, but that's not what I want to talk about. After O'Brien was shot, he hears a story about how Rat Kiley began to hear things at night. After a while he couldn't take it anymore. On page 212, we are told that "the next morning he shot himself."
This story really hit me hard. Rat Kiley, throughout the majority of the novel, is a very lively, fun character. He came to Vietnam happy and joyful, but the war changed him. He ended up shooting himself in the foot as a miserable, pathetic man. As O'Brien tells us, "nobody blamed him" for what he did (page 212). The war changed him.
I'm not quite sure if this story is true or not, but I am sure that this story is true for someone; that is what O'Brien wanted to tell the reader. The war did bring someone to that tragic act, and he wants us to feel that remorse and sorrow for those who lost their lives (or the lives they knew) to the war.

Song Tra Brong.

Well before I start talking about its relevance, I would just like to say aaaaahahahahahahahaha. I could say that name for days and it would not get any less funny. So anywho, this is a name of the river that a lot of the action in the novel takes place near. It plays a major role above that, though. It seems that the Song Tra Brong is used by O'Brien to explain the course and happenings of the war. It overflowed at the most inopportune times, causing much damage, and it took the lives of many, many people.
"Casualties were flown in by helicopter" to a medical facility near the Song Tra Brong (page 86). It was the place of taking lives on the battle fields, but also the place of saving lives at the medical facility. Every aspect of the war could be found at this river. Though it doesn't seem to be a major character in the novel, it can definitely be seen as one. It changes with the weather just like a character changes. I'm not quite sure if O'Brien wanted it to be a character, but I see it as one.

Big, juicy simile

I love this. I absolutely love this. "Love what?!" you say. Oh, nothing. Just a freaking awesome SIMILE!!!!!
The chapter entitled "stockings" (pages 111 and 112) in pretty much one big simile party. When discussing Henry Dobbins, O'Brien tells us that "in many ways he was like America itself, big and strong, full of good intentions, a roll of fat jiggling at his belly, slow of foot but always plodding along, always there when you needed him, a believer in the virtues of simplicity and directness and hard labor." The rest pf the chapter continues talking about him, but I was quite intrigued by this sentence. O'Brien is able to describe his view on the country and the war by comparing them to his characters. He thinks that the country isn't the most efficient or successful in their wars, but they always go in for the right reasons. The Vietnam War was a very controversial one, so this was a very tactful way to express what he thought about the war. He shows the reader that all of Henry Dobbins actions will parallel with those of the U.S. by starting the chapter with that very clear simile.
I would also like to add that I am trying to see what O'Brien wants us to get from the creepy pantyhose story, but I just can't figure it out. Any help there would be awesome. Maybe it's just a weird story with no hidden message, but I'm not sure.

Looking back...

This book has been a very interesting one. It started off talking about Cohn, and it seemed that he would be the main character. That quickly turned and the novel went from there. The main point of the novel seems to be that of character developments. There wasn't really a main character, but rather a group of main characters. My personal favorite character was Bill. He didn't really fit in, but he didn't try to. He just sat back and watched all of the other characters make a fool out of themselves. He didn't rock the boat, and he knew his place and stayed there. I respect that kind of person. He was who he was and didn't try to change that to feel more comfortable.
My least favorite character was Mike. He had no self-respect whatsoever. He saw that Brett was cheating on him, but instead of saying something to her, he just put down the people that she was with. Instead of facing his problem, he took his anger out on others. I don't respect people like that. I think that my reactions are what Hemingway intended from the novel. He wanted the reader to get angry with the type of person that Hemingway didn't like. He also wanted the reader to like the type of person that Hemingway does. Hemingway successfully shows the reader what type of person he wants them to be and hopes that they will try to change to that type of person.

And he uses tone.

It seems to me that the tone that Hemingway sets in the novel reflects the mood that he was in when he wrote it. I don't know enough about Hemingway to decide his mood, but based on the novel, I'm going to say that he felt detached. Hemingway, throughout the novel, sets the tone of detached through characters and setting. The characters such as Jake, Mike, Bill, and Wilson-Harris all are war veterans who feel detached after the war. They speak and act as if, since the war, they are not normal people in society. I think Hemingway must have felt detached from some part of his life too.
In the final chapter, on page 241, Hemingway puts Jake in a detached area to further the tone. "Off on the right, almost closing the harbor, was a green hill with a castle. The raft rocked with the motion of the water. On the other side of the narrow gap that led into the open sea was another high headland. I thought I would like to swim across the bay but I was afraid of cramp." This final setting to the book really sets a tone of detached, because there is something that Jake wants to do, but because he is so far away, a fear keeps him from accomplishing that task.
Hemingway, by setting this tone, is able to elicit a certain emotional reaction of pity from the reader. The reader feels the same detachment that the characters do, causing them to empathize with them.

About those bulls...

I'm going to explain why I think Hemingway chose to have the characters' final place of meeting to be at a bullfighting fiesta. Many people see bullfighting as the perfect display of respect for animals, as well as an extremely graceful sport. Hemingway uses the bullfights to describe the relationship between the characters by showing how they are not what the bullfight is- graceful and controlled. On page 221, Jake says when talking about Pedro that "in his own bulls he was perfect." This is how Hemingway sees the bullfight. He sees them as perfect and uses this to contrast the characters.
While the characters in the novel have trouble getting what they want, the bullfighters gracefully and honorably kill the bull with relatively little trouble. While the characters are cruel to each other and verbally and physically attack each other when they are weak or vulnerable, the bullfighters put themselves in harm's way to give the bull as fair a chance at winning as they have. And finally, while the characters have no control over their situation or, more importantly, themselves, the bull fighters use skill, tact, and grace to control the bull during the fight. These are all ways that Hemingway shows the reader how bullfighting can be the model for relationships. He was obviously a big fan of bullfights. I'm not exactly to that point yet.

And now, why Pedro?

Pedro obviously isn't a main character. He only appears in a few chapters and doesn't really say much. But as Mike tells us on page 194, "Brett's gone off with that bull-fighter chap." The reason Hemingway has Brett run off with Pedro is to show the reader what type of person he admires in society. Pedro is honest and kind, yet he is very strong and courageous. Hemingway admires this type of person. The reader will most likely root for this character to get Brett over Cohn or Mike and, perhaps, even Jake. However, despite Pedro being the ideal man, Brett chooses to come back to Jake at the end of the novel. This shows that Hemingway realizes that the nice, honest man doesn't always win in the society he lives in. Hemingway is trying to get the reader to think about what sort of characteristics that they value. This creates a timelessness in the novel, because the reader, no matter what era they are from, can read this novel and relate to the issue being dealt with.

Why Bill?

Bill is a pretty baffling character for me. He seems pretty similar to Jake. He was in the war and likes to drink. I think he likes to drink, because he is mentally distressed from the war. His function appears to be a stable person for Jake (and even the reader) to relax with. He seems to be the character that is easiest for a reader to relate to. He likes to fish, he likes to drink, and he is nice to pretty much everyone. But the major thing that I picked up on is that Bill never seems to fit in. He doesn't appear to be a main character, and he isn't involved in all of the love issues that keep the novel going. On page 158, he says to Cohn "we're the foreigners." I think that he is talking about himself when he says this. He is the outsider of the novel, not in the sense of an outlaw, but in the sense of not fitting in.
Hemingway, because the novel is all about characters and their relations, needed to place a relatively normal character that was sort of left out. This allowed for that kind of person to relate to him. Hemingway created yet another character that allowed for the novel to possess a timelessness.

Oh Brett...

I'm having a bit of trouble understanding Brett. She obviously has some feelings for Jake. She visits him at home and is always flirting with him and such. But she also flirts with many other men. She appears to enjoy drinking and dancing with every man with a pulse. I had grown okay with that until I heard that she was engaged. Seriously, Mike?? I do believe that if my fiance "kissed standing at the door" (71) with some fellow that wasn't me, I wouldn't be with her much longer. I haven't heard anything about her having a lot of money, so Mike must be as desperate as can be. But I guess this isn't somewhere I should be poking my nose. Brett isn't going to change her ways, and Mike isn't going anywhere. And I am pretty impressed by how all of these people can cheat on each other left and right and still be best buds. They go out drinking at least twice daily, and seem to have no significant issues with each other. Those are either some very strong friendships, or some very oblivious boyfriends.
I really did think that at this point I would have found a plot of some sort. Mr. Hemingway has yet to make a plot obvious and it is starting to annoy me. I understand that this novel is a classic and all, but I really don't know how people have enjoyed this. I'm just hoping that this plot awakes from its slumber soon.