1) The story that meant the most to me so far was "On the Rainy River". Tim was so embarrassed to tell this story. He said that "Even now, I'll admit, the story makes me squirm. For more than twenty years I've had to live with, feeling the shame..."(pg 37) Seeing Tim's emotions about the fact that he was drafted got to me. He talked about how he was too good, too smart, too compassionate, and too everything for the war. He had a full ride scholarship to Harvard for grad school, was president of the student body, was in Phi Beta Kappa and obtained a summa cum laude. He had his whole life ahead of him and now he was going to be shipped off to war. Seeing the amount of fear he experienced really got to me, I could see why he wanted to go to Canada. I tried to put myself into his shoes to see what would it be like if I had to go fight in a war and leave everything behind knowing that I could possibly die, especially at his age.
2) The character that I connect with the most is Tim. Seeing the amount of fear that he experienced in knowing that he was going to be shipped off to war was something that I would express if I were in his shoes. The fact that most of these men were around 19-25 years old really put it into perspective for me. I am 18 years old and if you told me that I would have to go and fight a war right now I know I could not do it. Knowing that there is a great chance that I might be killed in combat is terrifying to me. Not only that but knowing that I would have to take the life of a person is something that I don't think I could bear with if I were in his situation.
3)In the chapter "Spin" Tim talked about how at forty three years old he is still writing these war stories. However he feels as though the stories are important to tell because "Stories are for joining the past to the future...Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing left to remember except the story."(pg 36) If he doesn't end up writing the stories from his experiences in the war we would have never known about his life and the lives/stories of the men he was with.
4) A passage that really struck me while reading "Friends". Once Lee woke up he was pleading to Jensen telling him not to kill him despite the contract they made between each other. Seeing the true fear that Lee expressed when he realized that he doesn't want to die. Jensen replied to him saying "But you got to promise.Swear it to me- swear you won't kill me."(pg 63) For me this showed how Jensen and Lee both realized how valuable their lives are.
Lauren-
ReplyDeleteI agree with you! I really liked your second point because I think that, even though we haven't had to go through that situation, I would be completely terrified too. I too think that I would feel really guilty and wouldn't be able to cope with a situation if I were to take the life of someone else, and seeing Tim go through the situations he goes through really is terrifying, but it also reminds us that he's human, and even though he's in combat, he still has feelings and emotions.