James Michener's The Bridges At Toko-R

After reading The Perfect Storm, by Sebastian Junger, I have concluded that the book kept my attention throughout, but I believe it could have improved. The storyline is scattered among many different stories, all centered around the meteorological nightmare of October of 1991. The setting, time, and place quickly change from story to story as most end in human lives being slain by the storm. I believe the movie is structured better, as it is centered around only one story, the story of a Gloucester, Massachusetts fishing crew on the Andrea Gail. I do not think the author had the experience of these men, whom he wrote about to remember and respect. In my opinion, this book could have been structured better, in more of an organized manner. Overall, I believe multiple improvements could have been made to this book.

“That’s what stories are for. Stories are for joining the past to the future ... Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story” (36). The Things They Carried is a captivating novel that gives an inside look at the life of a soldier in the Vietnam War through the personal stories of the author, Tim O’Brien . Having been in the middle of war, O’Brien has personal experiences to back up his opinion about the war. In The Things They Carried, O’Brien reveals his view on war through telling his readers how the Vietnam War had no point, was emotionally devastating, and displaying that there is no purpose in war unless the soldiers know what they are fighting for.

Soldier Boys is a novel about two young boys, Spencer and Dieter, who have gone off to fight in World War II. Both boys decide to enlist to prove a point; Spencer joins to show his family that he is no longer a silly teenage boy with a crush and Dieter to prove how great of a German boy and soldier he is to the Fuhrer and Germans all over the world. They soon learn that the war is not about them, but instead the people they have chosen to protect and the beliefs they must stick by. The author, gives great insight to both sides of the same war and the emotions involved, because he writes about why people on either side join, how other soldiers and their actions influence what type of soldier a person becomes, and how the outcome of a single

Colder Than Hell: A Marine Rifle Company at Chosin Reservoir was written and published by Joseph R. Owen in 1996. This book gives us a riveting point-of-view of the early and uncertain days of the Korean War through the eyes of Owen himself, as a platoon leader (PL) in a Marine rifle company. As a PL of a mortar section in Baker-One-Seven-Baker Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment- Owen witnessed his hastily assembled men of a few regulars and reservists (who to mention some that have not gone to boot camp) quickly harden into the superb Baker-One-Seven known today. He makes it known quickly (in the foreword and the preface) that some of the major problems he initially encountered was due to how unprepared his unit was. Owen makes the

Tim O’Brien’s famous novel The Things They Carried really starts when Tim, a recent college graduate with a full scholarship to Harvard, gets a draft notice for the Vietnam War. Throughout chapter four “The Rainy River” Tim ingeniously uses language to describe his pain, flashbacks of his younger self and vivid detail of the setting around him to dramatize his dilemma of either to flee to Canada or stay and fight in the war.

While I was reading the chapter their were times I wondered what I was reading since it would flash back an forth. In the novel since we are barley getting to know the character I was very confused of who was who in the novel. Also another issue that I had while reading the novel was that all the parts were in English so I had to translate what the characters had to say.

Readers, especially those reading historical fiction, always crave to find believable stories and realistic characters. Tim O’Brien gives them this in “The Things They Carried.” Like war, people and their stories are often complex. This novel is a collection stories that include these complex characters and their in depth stories, both of which are essential when telling stories of the Vietnam War. Using techniques common to postmodern writers, literary techniques, and a collection of emotional truths, O’Brien helps readers understand a wide perspective from the war, which ultimately makes the fictional stories he tells more believable.

Company Aytch: Or the Side Show of the Big Show is considered one of the finest memoirs written about the American Civil War. It offers a closer look at the daily life of a Confederate Army soldier and how he viewed the war. Company Aytch is considered a primary historical source, a source that was created at the time of an historical event or by someone who had firsthand knowledge of the event, and as with any historical source either primary or secondary, there are strengths and weaknesses whether it be historical accuracy, writing style, or lack of details. Company Aytch is a very well-done primary historical source as everything is seen through the eyes of Samuel Rush Watkins, the author who was a Private in the Confederate Army. Watkins

In “The Things They Carried,” written by Tim O’Brien, he creates images in the audience 's mind about what veterans truly experience before, during, and after the Vietnam war. Soldiers always have the strange feeling of disconnection but O’Brien brings this to the attention of people throughout his book. On the surface, the book appears to be a simple war novel, but beneath the surface it opens up into all of the struggles that war veterans face such as the disconnection from society. Disconnection occurs as a main theme in the novel and he presents this through multiple stories from different characters. Four specific stories where disconnection shows through the most are in: “How to Tell a True War Story”, “Sweetheart

A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo shows the hard work and difficult tasks the men had to go through to prove themselves and protect their country. The war will change the men’s attitudes and the way they do everything. Men made sacrifices in the Vietnam War most people would never make in a lifetime, they will not just sacrifice but push themselves physically harder than most any other men. The men will also emotionally change from constantly watching other men die, or killing other men. The mens first kill was always the hardest for them, mentally they had so many thoughts of the other mans close ones back home and what they would go through and how it would be all their fault. Men went through so many tasks during the Vietnam War physically and mentally.

In the The Things They Carried, the emotions are more than just a mental problem, they become life changing conflicts. The author of this book is Tim O’Brien. Tim O’Brien is the main character throughout the whole book. In the beginning of the book, The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien goes in depth describing what each of the men carried with them. He started with actual things having to deal with war, then talking about the emotional burdens the men carried. As the novel goes on he begins getting in touch with their emotional and physical feelings. For example, Rat Kiley, he was a well known character in the book. He began having mental breakdowns throughout the book. He had seen his best friend get blown up, and then goes into shutdown mode. Rat keeps to himself not talking as much as he did, and walking away from the other guys. In The Things They Carried. Tim O’Brien illustrates Bob Kiely’s (Rat) physical and emotional burden weighs on him to cope with war.

Cant we all just get along? These two stories “The Sniper” and “Cranes” show the really bad aspects of war and how they can really effect humans. In the story “The Sniper” the theme for the sniper is “War knows no boundaries, age, sex, location, time of day, or family ties. In cranes it talks about how the two friends in the story, one becomes a rebel the other a government worker. “Cranes” was written by Hwang Sunwon and translated by Peter H. Lee. And “The Sniper” was written by Liam O Flaherty. Although the setting of both stories was during the civil war the themes are the same and different.

The book “Miracle at Midway” written by Charles Mercer really fascinated me about the Battle of Midway. Charles Mercer used this book to describe the detailed work American did to beat Japan at Midway. This book was approximately 150 pages and included many pictures that were very familiar to what the reader was imagining in their own head. The author Charles Mercer served as an intelligence officer in the Pacific. He then was called to active duty in the Korean War. After his postwar career he became an editor with a book publishing house in New York.

From 1914 to 1918 World War One occurred due to the murder of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, by a Serbian group named the Black Hand. Additionally, several powerful countries, including Germany, France, and Britain, established a series of alliances that amplifies the size of the war. Likewise, the war expanded by the strong nationalist beliefs of each country, therefore a countless amount of men desired to fight the war, in order to support their country. This sense of nationalism is a theme explored throughout Erich Maria Remarque's novel All Quiet on the Western Front, through the lense of a young German Soldier. The protagonist, Paul, a 19 year old soldier, explores the horrors of war through strong comradeship, the death of companions,

In Catch 22 by Joseph Heller the book is a complex novel. Heller uses many themes, does not have the storyline in chronological order and often uses irony in his descriptions. Many of the themes can be compared to other literature. One of the themes that can be compared is fear in war. As well as the value of a human life during these times of war, but the insanity of war and Heller 's solution to insanity is the idea of "there is always a catch" in life is shown to a dramatic extent. Heller 's novel not only satirizes war, but all of society.