Love and War
War
Fold paper in half – the long way
Write “War” at the top of the paper
Brainstorm a list of concrete or abstract ideas
that revolve around war.
Ready – go – (timed writing)
War
Review list – make any corrections or additions
Share the most specific item
The most interesting
The strangest
The most surprising
Discuss
Love
On the other side of the paper put “Love” at the
top
Brainstorm concrete or abstract ideas (keep
paper folded!)
Ready – go – (timed writing)
Love
Review list – make any corrections or additions
Share the most specific item
The most interesting
The strangest
The most surprising
Discuss
Unfold your paper
Compare your lists of “war” and “love”
How are they different?
Draw conclusions about subjective (based or
influenced by personal feelings, tastes or
opinions) and objective (not influenced by
personal feelings) ways that the 2 ideas differ.
What do these ideas have in common?
Love of War
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4EV7w1Zx
aw
Take notes as you watch the video!
Reaction to the video
How are the ideas presented in the video similar or
different from what you wrote?
How is love defined? Compare to ideas that you
wrote?
How are the ideas of love and war linked?
How does the relationship between the two ideas
compare to the connections you noticed before
watching the video?
“How to Tell a True War Story”
How is “there’s a beauty in war” applicable in this
story? Look for specific passages that
demonstrate the beauty of war.
Where are there examples of the love of soldiers
have for one another and for the Unit?
Last line in the chapter: “ It wasn’t a war story. It
was a love story.” What does the speaker mean?
How does truth play into whether the story is a
war story or a love story?
Tim O’Brien talks about
Things they Carried
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8ivNokqT74
The beginning he reads a letter to his son Timmy
18:00 He begins to talk about The Things They
Carried.
In your own words, how do you explain O’Brien’s
philosophies on story telling, the role of memory, and/or
writing in general?
So—how does one tell a true war story? What are
the difficulties, according to the narrator, in
telling the events of war? What is the narrator
saying about “truth” and how we understand it?
Quote from the text.
List the paradoxes of war that O’Brien covers in
this chapter. What do these paradoxes suggest
about war (or even life) in general?
What does the killing of the buffalo symbolize in
the story? How does it relate to other aspects of
the story/novel?
Truth and Fact in The Things They Carried
O’Brien writes, “You can tell a true war story by the
questions you ask. Somebody tells a story, let's say,
and afterward you ask, "Is it true?" and if the answer
matters, you've got your answer.”
What does O’Brien mean by this?
What is O’Brien’s goal with this book? What does he
want from his reader? What does he hope his
reader gains? What, if anything, have you, as his
reader, gained so far?
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