Research the My Lai massacre: (go to links)
1. What was it?
2. Who were the main "characters" involved in it?
pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/trenches/my_lai.html
In "The Lake of the Woods," O'Brien does not employ chronological narrative;
Why? How does the structure support the themes of the text?
Post your answers for credit here.
Poetry Workshop:
2nd period--Read poem from poet's book, read your own poem
Assignment for Wednesday: Read to page 146 Ch. 17
1. The My Lai massacre was an unnecessary attack in Vietnam where American soldiers killed over 300 unarmed citizens, including many women, children, and elderly people.
ReplyDelete2. One of the main characters of the My Lai massacre is Seymour Hersh, a journalist who eventually was the one who revealed the horror at My Lai through talking to a Vietnam vet, Ron Ridenhour. Lt. William Calley was also the main perpetrator in the attack on My Lai who was eventually tried and convicted of murder.
Tim O'Brien in "In the Lake of the Woods" does not have a chronological narrator because it, in a way, reflects John's scattered mindset and his way of thinking. Plus with a story out of sequential order, it enhances the mystery aspect of the novel because it doesn't allow one clear answer to all of the theories. Instead, it gives many potential theories of what happened to Kathy.
1. My Lai massacre was a mass “destroying” of the people and village of My Lai in the Vietnam war (the village, was evidently in Vietnam).
ReplyDelete2. The American soldiers were the main players. Also, the journalists who covered the story, and brought it to the public.
3. I believe that O’Brien leads you in, and then gives you more possibilities. He show’s Kathy’s husband’s creepiness, his killing the plants, his father dead, him angry. He leads you to believe that John Wade killed her, and then all of a sudden leads you in a totally different direction. This style or way of writing totally adds to the story. It’s a mystery novel, it’s supposed to leave you wondering and frustrated with finding the answer.
1) The My Lai massacre was (essentially) termination of an entire Vietnamese village during the war. As the U.S. army (Charlie Company) approached, their “search and destroy” mission turned into a constant stream of fire, and 300 civilians were killed.
ReplyDelete2) Lt. William Calley led the team, and later testified that he had orders to take everyone out from his CO Ernest Medina.
O’Brien flashes back and forth throughout the story, even in between chapters. Sometimes he uses dates to name a particular setting (as well as go along with his idea of documentation more strongly employed at chapters entitled “Evidence”). This helps support the themes of confusion, misplacement (physically, mentally), and perhaps thinking, such as soldiers (and others affected by war) overthinking and constantly thinking about where they are, where their home is, and what they are doing.
Mai Lai was the mass murder conducted by a unit of the U.S. Army on March 16th, 1968 of 347 to 504 unarmed citizens in South Vietnam.Many of the victims were sexually abused, beaten, tortured, and some of the bodies were found mutilated.While 26 U.S. soldiers were initially charged with criminal offenses for their actions at My Lai, only William Calley was convicted. He served only three years of an original life sentence, while on house arrest.
ReplyDeleteSome of the main "characters" involved were William L. Calley, Samuel W. Koster, Paul Meadlo, and Captain Medina.
I believe O'Brien does not employ chronological narrative to give the novel a scattered feeling similar to the way John Wade thinks. This structure supports the themes of the novel because it is about a man with post traumatic stress disorder from the Vietnam war and most soldiers become scattered after experiencing war.
1. The My Lai massacre was an attack that American soldiers made against the Vietcong unnecessarily. They killed innocent civilians, including many women and children.
ReplyDelete2. Lt. William Calley, Seymour Hersh, Ron Ridenhour, and all the soldiers of Charlie Company were the main "characters" of the massacre.
O'Brien does not use chronological narrative because it adds more mystery to the text. It allows the reader to access the pasts of John and Kathy and to seemingly follow John's train of thought. This modernist approach to the novel keeps the reader guessing because it leaves gaps in the narrative, with missing pieces about what happened to Kathy.
1. A massacre that occurred during the Vietnam war in which a team of American soldiers brutally killed the “innocent” civilians of My Lai.
ReplyDelete2. William Calley was the leader of the platoon and ordered the village’s massacre.
1. The My Lai massacre was a "search and destroy" mission during the Vietnam War in which frustrated soldiers brutally murdered the innocent including men, women, children and the elderly.
ReplyDelete2. The main "characters" in the My Lai massacre were William Calley, the Lieutenant, Ron Ridenhour, a veteran and Seymour Hersh, the journalist that exposed the massacre to the public.
3. O'Brien doesn't use chronological narrative because it adds to the suspense and mystery of the plot. It supports the theme by giving the reader tons of ideas for what might have happened to Kathy.
Amane Amireh
ReplyDeleteBasically they "searched and destroyed." The US army went into Mai Lay and rounded up a group of the villagers, ordered them into a ditch, and shot them with machine guns. Vietnamese women men and children were all victimized. There were raping and killings and brutality. The Vietnamese were bayoneted as well. The main characters were William Calley, whom testified that he was ordered by Captain Ernest Medina to kill everyone in the village of My Lai, Ron Ridenhour, a Vietnam veteran.
1. When angry and frustrated soldiers entered the Vietnamese village of My Lai and started killing over 300 unarmed civilians including men, women, children, and elderly.
ReplyDelete2. William Calley, journalist Seymour Hersh, and Ron Ridenhour.
3. The structure of the novel does not employ a chronological order because the events that happened throughout John's life is expressed in any order that he places it in the novel. This gives the novel more mystery and suspense.
The My lai massacre was an event in the vietnam war in which American soldiers entered a vietnamese town and murdered innocent civilians.
ReplyDeleteWilliam Calley was the person who called for this assault.
Not saying that these people should be defended because what they did was obviously wrong but people don't seem to realize the stress that soldiers go through. In this case especially because they were fighting a war that most of America doesn't agree with (sound familiar?). When this is coupled with the fact that some of their company was killed in the area, I believe they lost control viewing all Vietnamese as the enemy through frustration.
1. The My Lai Massacre was a massacre in Vietnam during the war. American Soldiers attacked innocent, unarmed people. Women, children and elderly peoples were shot in cold blood. At LEAST 1 woman was raped and killed. It really is a testament to how heartless and crazy soldiers could get....An example of how brutal this war was.
ReplyDelete2. A characters from the book were actually in the massacre. William Calley was a war criminal as a result of this. His ass was nuts too...S'all I'm sayin. Excuse my ghetto...
3. He doesn't really like to put things that happened into the book chronologically because he wants to maintain the mysterious aspects of the novel. He wants it to stay a mystery novel and, in some ways, he wants us to stay confused.
My Lai lay in the South Vietnamese district of Son My, a heavily mined area where the Vietcong were deeply entrenched. Numerous members of Charlie Company had been maimed or killed in the area during the preceding weeks. The agitated troops, under the command of Lt. William Calley, entered the village poised for engagement with their elusive enemy.
ReplyDelete(ADD ON FOR NUMBER TWO!!!)
1. The My Lai massacre was a brutal slaughter of Vietnamese civilians in the village of My Lai by American soldiers during the Vietnam war. The soldiers claimed that they had received a "search and destroy" mission, and went into the village firing. Over 300 unarmed civilians were murdered, and women were raped. They were quite literally mowed down where they stood, or forced into a ditch and shot.
ReplyDelete2. The main character in this massacre was Lt. William Calley, who was the man who ordered his men into the village of My Lai. He was put on trial and sentenced to life in prison, but was later released. He claimed that Captain Ernest Medina had ordered him and his men to kill everyone in the village. This could never be proven.
3. The lack of chronological narrative in In the Lake of the Woods is effective in supporting of the text. John Wade's brain is not working properly. He seems insane at times. This is reinforced by the idea that he cannot seem to think in order, he cannot piece together events in a way that makes sense at all.
1.It was a massacre of the Vietnamese people. Even innocent children, women and elderly were killed some being ordered to go into a ditch to get shot or were bayoneted and atleast one girl was raped and then killed.
ReplyDelete2.The main characters in the massacre were William Calley and Ron Ridenhour.
3.It keeps you wondering and can get you upset. Theres not a chronological narrative which adds suspense along with the missing puzzle pieces of Kathys death
1. The My Lai massacre involved the brutal slaughter of Vietnamese people in the village of My Lai in 1968. This event caused a division of the American people in their opinions of the event their response to what happened.
ReplyDelete2. Lt. William Calley was the leader of the Charlie Company which was responsible for the killing of the Vietnamese citizens. Seymour Hersh was a journalist who published his conversation with Ron Ridenhour, a Vietnamese veteran. Hersh's story was important in informing the U.S citizens and government of the event. About 300 innocent citizens were murdered during this event.
3. "In The Lake of the Woods" was written in a post modernist style because there is not a time unity in the story. The author goes between 'Evidence' sections and the story because the story does not rely on following the chronological events of the different characters, but rather seeing how different events shaped their lives and seeing how different people were involved in the lives of the main characters. The reader is looking for the answer to who killed Kathy, and knowing what happened in order is not necessarily the most important part of finding the answer to this question
1. The My Lai massacre was a 1968 killing spree in the Vietnamese village of My Lai during the Vietnam War. The American men of Charlie Company, 11th Brigade, Americal Division entered the village and killed hundreds of people--men, women, children, and the elderly. When the American public learned of the massacre over a year later, investigations into the conduct of the American military began.
ReplyDelete2. The American troops were under the command of Lt. William Calley. During the massacre,Calley was said to have shot a group of Vietnamese villagers in a ditch. When investigations began in 1969, Calley was charged with murder and sentenced to life in prison (though he was released in 1974). His actions prompted an examination of the emotional and intellectual state of the men being appointed to military office.
In "The Lake of the Woods," O'Brien intertwines several threads of John Wade's life in a seemingly random way. A section about John and Kathy's life in their Minnesota cottage might be followed by another section about John and Kathy in college, or a section listing various pieces of "evidence." The arrangement of events and the delivery of information in this manner is a reflection of John Wade's fragmented and confused mental state, an effect of trauma suffered in Vietnam. John speaks several times about the "mirrors" in his head. The mirrors, too, reinforce the confusion. When two mirrors are placed face to face, they reflect each other infinitely. There is no beginning and no end--just like O'Brien's narrative.
1 - It was essentially a groundless attack on a Vietnamese village, though many soldiers had been attacked in the area. None of the villagers had shown signs of hostility, but the soldiers were ordered to attack the village and killed many women, children, and elderly people.
ReplyDelete2 - One of the "main characters" would be lieutenant William Calley, who had ordered the attack on My Lai. He testified that he had been told to give the order by higher-ranked officers, but later he was found to have been unfit for a command position, both mentally and physically.
3 - Tim O'Brien uses a nonlinear narrative to provide more insight to John Wade's character and to increase the mystery of the plotline. At the beginning, the reader could believe that Wade was innocent, but with more insight to his mental and psychological instability, it's difficult to believe that he didn't murder Kathy.
Amane Amireh
ReplyDeleteOh and about O'Brien, he doesn't use chronological narrative because with out it the story is more mysterious. It makes the readers mind ponder what the next step or chapter will be about. It makes the reader what will happen next. Like Kathy's disappearance and how John will find her or what ever happens.
1. What was it?
ReplyDeletea. The My Lai massacre was an event in the Vietnam war where a unit of the United Sates army invaded the Vietnamese village of My Lai and murdered hundreds of unarmed women, children and elderly persons.
2. Who were the main “characters” involved in it?
a. The main “characters” involved were Seymour Hersh, Lt. William Calley, Ron Ridenhour and the rest of the soldiers.
3. The structure of the novel supports the theme of the text in its de-fragmentation because of the fact that this story is a mystery. Solving a mystery doesn’t exactly happen in a chronological manner. It’s more of a scatter-brained type of process.
1. The My Lai massacre was a "search and destroy" mission to wipe out the village as revenge for the soldiers the U.S. military lost there. It eventually led to armed civilians within the town, including women, elders, and even children. Many of these people were killed.
ReplyDelete2. William Calley was the general of the the army. He led the My Lai massacre, but later was convicted of murder and was jailed for 5 years.
Seymour Hersh, was a publisher of the My Lai Massacre story and surfaced the story to the American public, 2 months after Calley's imprisonment.
Tim O'Brien does not narrate in a timely order to show cause and effect clearly. He starts out the novel by explaining Kathy's disappearance and eventually goes into her history leading up to it. The same goes for her husband (other than the fact he doesn't disappear).
1.The My Lai Massacre was when Lt William Calley ordered a search and destroy mission on an innocent village in Vietnam. Killing nearly 300 civilians.
ReplyDelete2. William Calley was the Lieutenant that ordered the massacre and Seymour Hersh was the journalist that reported to the American public.
my alicia green
ReplyDelete1.there was a massacre in vietcong were innocent poeple were slautered and killed childern, men, and woman
2.the charlie company and there commander william calley