Wow - so far your responses have been fabulous! After reading chapters two and three in class, respond to the following:
- Why does O'Brien title Chapter 2 "Love"? Love between whom?
- Name one example of inhumanity in Chapter 3 "Spin." Why is this act inhuman? How do we categorize experiences as humane or inhuman? Who decides?
- Reminder: If someone takes your answer - expand on the answer. Use text based evidence in your responses. Check your grammar and spelling before you post; remember this is an assignment.
23 comments:
O'Brien titles Chapter 2 "Love" because of the love that exists, and doesn't exists between Jimmy Cross and Martha. Jimmy still loves her after all these years, but Martha on the other hand doesn't share the same feelings.
One act of inhumanity in Chapter 3 is when the narrator tells a story of a man who leaves the war and spends time in a peaceful environment; but when he is asked why he came back so quickly he responds,"All tha peace, man, it felt so good it hurt. I want to hurt it back." This action is inhuman because most people would love to be in a state of peace, but this man comes back to the war because he can't be away from it. That's something that is inhuman, wanting to go to war just to go to war.
I like your example James. I didn't think this was one that stood out from the chapter, but you are right - wanting to go to war just to go does seem inhuman. How could you connect this to the war today - anyone have an answer?
--Wiegers
In chapter 2 O'Brien titles chapter 2 "Love" because he shows the love between all of the men. How they have become the new age "Band of Brothers." They carry the mine detector or watch each others backs.
In Chapter 3 the inhuman part is when they Azar kills that puppy. It's ironic because he blames i on imaturity but the government sends these kids into war which is for men of maturity.
People today go to war just go to war because either they feel obligated to do it because their family has a history of being war soldiers. Or they just want to go and kill some terroists and not do it to help to protect this country.
-Tim
The love is between LT. Jimmy Cross and a woman named Martha. They don't exactly share the same feelings though.
one inhuman thing that happened in chapter 3 would be when Azar was talking about how somebody didnt finish off a little boy who had one leg.
Cory C.
Tim -
I like this idea of a new age Band of Brothers in this book. I think that you are right - they do seem to look after each other and we see that when Jimmy Cross burns all of Martha's pictures so that he can focus on his men. However, I wonder if you are overgeneralizing the reasons that people go to war today...
-- Wiegers
I think the author titled this chapter love because it shows love can affect anyone in a very deep way and its effects can change a person inside and out. Love seems to have the ability to put a mark on a persons soul and mind forever. Even after many years LT. Cross still loves a woman who will never love him back.
In chapter three one example of inhumanity is when Ted Lavender found and took care of a puppy. Then a Azar strapped it to a detinator and blew it up. The act is inhuman becaus Azar showed no guilt at all for killing the puppy and he had no reason to do it, his excuse was I am only a boy. This is inhuman because it is done without any remorse or empathy. What makes a expeirence inhuman is when they are done without and regard for another human being.
Amanda
The reason that the title of chapter 2 is "Love" is because of a love between two people. Lt. Jimmy Cross and Martha, even though Martha does not have the same feelings that Lt. Cross has for her. This chapter takes him back to that love that does not even exist between them.
In chapter three one thing that is really inhumane to me is when Mitchell Sanders was picking off his body lice. He put the lice in an envelope and sent it to his draft board in Ohio. I think its inhumane just because he is sending body lice to people. That is just really nasty to me.
-Brittani
Well you have to think about it... Most people do go to war because there family was in the service. Or just like in the Rainy River chapter the town put pressure on O'Brien to go to war.
--Tim
For the example of love, it would have to be the "love" that so many of these men who go away to war have for things and people back on the homefront. In this chapter, it showcases Jimmy Cross' "love" for Martha. He loves the idea of her, yet when he encounters her later on, he can't seem to overcome the idea of her that he has set in her mind. "Jimmy shook his head. 'It doesn't matter,' he finally said. 'I love her.'"(p. 29). He only sees the version of her that he wants to see, just as he did when he was at war.
One example of inhumanity in "Spin" is the mention near the end of the chapter of the young man who was dead. It is inhuman because it a person that was killed. Yet, Kiowa had to justify it to the narrator to make it "right." "No choice, Tim. What else could you do?"(p32). The ruling factor in if someting is considered inhumane or not is based entirely upon perceptions, beliefs, and ideas of the people around us. So here, Kiowa had to use his opions to make Tim feel as if it were humane.
The reason why this chapter is named love is because like everyone else said, This chapter is between Cross and Martha and what Cross wished they had together.
The most inhuman thing is this chapter that I believe stood out more in chapter 3 was when Azar strapped the puppy to the claymore. It stood out more because most people have the same feelings about small animals in the sense that they think that they a cute and anyone that would deliberately kill anything that couldn't defend itself just to do it and gives to excuse of " I'm just a boy" is considered inhuman in my book. - Chris Austin
In the pior blog, the theme was "saviors" which ties into the love between Jimmy Cross and Martha. During the course of the war in Vietnam, the soldiers didn't have much to look forward to, which lead to the outrageous drug use and drug addiction. However, Martha is what kept Jimmy alive, what gave him a purpose to keep on living, which is why, " Love" was the perfect title for chapter two. Love can be an amazing experience between two people, but love can also be a very hurtful and depressing time. But for Jimmy Cross, love was definelty an amazing experience for him.
In chapter three, "Spin" In the first paragraph their is an example of inhumanity right from the start. The thing that really stuck out to me was the first sentence. " The war wasn't all terror and violence, sometimes thing could almost get sweet." (Pg. 31) However, the narrator is basically making fun of a boy that has a plastic leg, and is basically referring to a kid with a plastic leg as, "Sweet!" I personally do not find any humor in this at all, which is why it is inhuman.
Chris Booth
The chapter "Love" in O'Brien's novel is titled such because in the chapter it talks about the love between Jimmy Cross and the idea of what Martha, a young woman from his past, was to him and in his mind. When it came down to it Martha wasn't exactly what Jimmy wanted or thought she was, but he still loved the idea of her and what he made her out to be.
Something that was quite inhuman in chapter 3 was when the little boy shot the little puppy and using the excuse "I'm just a boy." It shows what society has turned into and how many inhuman things we do and get away with it by using cliches such as nobody's perfect or that we didn't know any better. It's thing like these that we shouldn't get away with but we do anyways.
-Ariel :)
I believe he calls this chapter love because that is what it is all about. Love that exsits between soldiers, the love they have for themselves and the strong love that exists within Cross for Martha that she does not return. Love for the country that all the soldiers have whether you see it or not and above all that love for their pride. Pride is the most important thing for soldiers and serving for your country is a type of pride that can never be taken away.
One thing that was inhumane is the killing of the puppy. But in reality that is not inhumane. People that have been to war and seen the things that we civilians have not are not heartless or inhumane. They are just a different kind of human. I know this really does not make sense but it is true. People that have seen those kinds of things are going to have different kinds of pain. Little things that seem inhumane to us really are something that they carry everyday with them. This did not happen in this chapter but one thing that really bothered me was when they got the thumb off of the VC. And then he didnt understand the 'MORAL' and he kicked the dead child in the head. That bothered me because I viewed it as kicking an already dead child but these are the people they are at war with. They view things very different than us.
I do not believe that wanting to go to war is inhumane, so thats my view on your comment to James comment.
~Malori
O'Brien titles the chapter "Love" because of the love Cross has for Martha, not the love between them, because there isn't any. The title also refers to the love between friends. O'Brien agrees not to mention anything about what Cross told him not to mention.
One of the most despicable things done in "Spin" is when Azar strapped the puppy to the claymore, "Azar strapped it to a Claymore antipersonnel mine and squeezed the firing device." (O'Brien 36)
We characterize experiences as humane or inhuman by whether or not the action is moral. Blowing up a puppy is obviously immoral.
Matt G
Chapter two is titled "love", because O'Brian wanted to show the affects love can have on some people, even the ones who go off to war in love. Jimmy goes to the war with Martha on his mind and it cost a man his life. He feels that it was his fault that he died because he was to focus on his love life rather than the war and he explains this to the reporter.
To me it is inhuman for the soldiers to think that the war is sweet. They think like it is some kind of game, when in reality it is life and death. To go into a war with this kind of intent is more than stupid it is inhuman.
Jared
Chapter 2 is titled "Love" because its a combination of the brotherly love between the men and the love that Jimmy holds towards Martha that she does not return.
An act of inhumanity in chapter 3 is the killing the puppy. It is just a puppy, why would anybody kill a small animal.
Jessica
Jared - and everyone else - do you agree with Jared's comment? How many people sign up to "to go to war"? How many people think that war is a "game"?
Yes there are people that sign up to go to war, but there are the others who don't want to go to war so they refuse to and end up being drafted. These people are the ones who just think of it as a game because they don't really care, they are forced to fight a war they didn't want to fight in the first place.
Jared
War is a game to some and to others it is there born duty. This chapter shows the different apoins of what the men saw as their duty to the war. The love pertion is the fact that the war was being shown as a women. In that some were forced into the game, while others see it as a way to give back.
Mandy
The reason O'Brien titled this chapter "love" is because Lt. Cross has love for a girl named Martha who does not share the mutual feelings with him.
One inhumane thing that happened in the chapter was when Azar killed the puppy. He didnt not need to kill it he just did it because he is imature.
Tyler
O'Brien titles chapter 2 "Love" because of Martha and she effects Lavender (hope I got the name right, may be switch around).
The way in which we categorize things at humane or inhuman is all the person judging. Certain people see things different than other people.
Brad C.
The title can mean so much. There are several different loves in the chapter, such as the love among the men, and the women back in the US.
Kat.
Tim titles this one love because it is a motif in the book but besides that the love of war that the men develop cross loves Martha but I think that he still thinks of Nam and what happened there
Steven W Pollard
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