So here's what I've been thinking...
I decided to include Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" as a required text for our class so that we could each participate in a larger book discussion as well as take advantage of having the author visit during GetLit! And I thought blogging might give us all a different experience. Remember that postings should be short, conversational, and worthwhile.
So, have to I admit that I've had some reservations; the book has some pretty violent and graphic scenes (I've already listened to it on cd), but my husband assures me that even an eighth grader could manage this.
I don't know; Gary, my husband, is a Viet Nam vet so his perspective may be somewhat colored by his experience.
Yet...don't we all come to a text from our own history? And given that, how can there be unequivocal right and wrong answers about a story unless we trivialize the learning that storytelling brings to us by debasing the knowing to the simplest and most sanitary level of recall?
I sometimes wonder whether two people can ever be reading the same story even as they read the same text...
Thoughts?
I have often wondered that myself. As I ponder this question, it becomes evidently clear that in fact no two people can ever come away with the same definitive interpretations. It is because of our own histories that we are able to enrich the text through personal influences. Our imaginations are unable to be replicated or reproduced in the exact same manner of another. Therefore, two people reading the same story should never have identical interpretations of the text. It is our unique imaginative minds that recreate the story we are reading.
ReplyDeleteIn The Things They Carried, the narrator has portrayed every man differently. He describes their unique characteristics as well as personal narratives from some of the men. Jimmy Cross, for example, is undoubtedly in love with Martha. From what I've read, he will always love her, yet another reader could interpret Jimmy Cross's love for Martha as contempt, disgust or even hate because he burned the photos. It is this ambiguity that makes any story worth reading and discussing. Without this type of confusion, there would be a rightful place for humdrum and monotony in literature.
Wow, that was interesting. So true, sense we all different prior knowledge then everyone else. Can't wait to read the book!
ReplyDeleteI believe that the individual experiences a person has had in their own personal lives does have a big influence on how a text is interpreted. All we have is our own past experiences to pull from when trying to visualize what a person/character is experiencing in a text. I have read the first chapter in The Things They Carried. I have to say that even though I have never been to war, the emotional pull that this story has on me is heavy. I do believe that Jimmy Cross does love Martha. She seems to be the one thing that he can think about that takes his mind away from the war scene in front of him. I cannot even begin to imagine what it must have been like to know that so many lives depended on the decisions he made. The deaths that occurred weigh heavy on him. When he burns Martha's pictures, I believe he does it because he feels that all of his attention needs to be on the lives of his fellow soldiers and not on his desires for her.
ReplyDeleteIt's true! I can be reading the same book as my husband and I'll get all choked up and he can't comprehend why! I think with a really good book every word can be clear but it's between the lines that we interpret differently!
ReplyDeleteI don't think that people can read the same story even if they are reading the same text. Everyone has grown up in a different way and it captures the way they think. If I were to read a book it may seem like a thrill to read to me but boring to another person. It is interesting to think about other points of view and apply it to what you are reading. This way you can open your mind and thoughts to other's views of the story.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good question but easy question to answer. :). That's what makes books so great. Each person can interprate different things out of the book and get thier own ideas of what the book was about or what they learned from the book. Even though they are reading the same text as you doesn't mean they see it the same way as you. Each person thinks differently, their past history is different, etc. so they will have a different view than yourself.
ReplyDeleteI relate this question to the different experiences children having when growing up. At times, siblings remember their parents and youth years differently because their experiences were affected by personalities, settings, events, and perceptions. As we experience life, we build schemas which affect our interpretations and opinions.
ReplyDeleteSo, to pull this together a bit... we all seem to recognize that we come to a story or text from our own unique experiences, our unique and unduplicated lives, but is it necessarily so that the story itself is totally different for each person? Our experience of reading it may differ,but yet we still have a common experience, the author's story, that we share. We can agree on what the words are, what the literary elements are (more or less), and perhaps even come to agreement on the author's purpose.
ReplyDeleteI obviously agree that everyone has their own unique interpretation of a story based on their experiences and perspective. A story becomes very personal if you can relate it to your own life. This also goes to show how beneficial a blog can be. If you can't necessarily relate the book to your own life you can share with someone who can, and that person can possibly give you a new perspective on the content.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that everybody reads the same story. Relating to this book, I could see a reader that has experienced this war and have a completely different view point going into the book from a reader that is a family member of a veteran to this war and has experienced first hand the effects of the soldier, or a young person (say an 8th grader), that does not know the history of this war. View points differ in many different ways.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your posts I wanted to put my 2 cents worth in. Having experienced the war first hand and coming home afterward unable to talk about the things I did there as well as what I saw I was told by the military that I did a good job but to now just go on as if nothing ever happened.
ReplyDeleteThe book “The Things They Carried” opens a door to those thoughts so long ago put away safe and sound deep in my head. Tom’s words find just the right way to stir the cobwebs away. He takes you down a road puts you into the dark hidden camp with the men of his squad to let you see a small vision of what is going on in Viet Nam both the truth, a man killed (with one shot to his head) and the not so true, the girlfriend (secretly entering Viet Nam) to live with her fiancé. A good story there, in Nam was often the best part of one’s day and for sure all it had to be was exciting to make your mind wonder, hell he is so full of it … or is he?