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Contemporary Literature 6 The Things They Carried 215 Views


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Description:

How did the Vietnam War change the public perception of the U.S. government? What themes are explored in The Things They Carried ? Do you know the Muffin Man? That last one isn't covered in this video, we're just interested. 

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:00

Thank you We sneak in contemporary literature the things they

00:08

carried a la shmoop the vietnam war is a really

00:12

important contemporary war because it's a moment where many many

00:17

americans began to distrust the government so the vietnam war

00:23

was a really confusing war A lot of people think

00:26

of it as a as a bad war not that

00:29

war is generally good but this is a war that

00:32

wasn't planned or executed well on dh where it wasn't

00:37

clear for american troops and their allies who they were

00:40

really fighting and why they were fighting and how to

00:42

fight the vietnam war is a moment where guerrilla warfare

00:46

becomes much more important Non military troops so small bands

00:53

of fighters fighting and really unpredictable ways So it was

00:57

just an incredibly difficult war to even compete in Historians

01:02

still grapple with how to register It is either a

01:04

success or a loss but pretty definitely a loss for

01:08

the american people in terms of their confidence in government

01:11

On dso tim o'brien's the things they carried was published

01:15

in nineteen ninety i hesitate to call it a novel

01:18

because it's a group of stories that blur the lines

01:22

between fiction and nonfiction on dh it's a set of

01:25

stories about the war and it's also like mouse just

01:31

a really intense reading experience on dh one where ultimately

01:36

you're you're immersed in this world and you're supposed to

01:40

understand kind of how violent and confusing and devastating it

01:44

wass it is a set of multiple stories narrated by

01:48

multiple characters That's not unusual in literature we can go

01:52

back all the way to the canterbury tales defined like

01:55

a multiple perspectives story But the thing here is that

01:59

sometimes what different character say they contradict each other You're

02:03

never totally sure what is real and what is not

02:06

So it really emphasizes this idea that the facts are

02:11

always uncertain and there's all of this confusion about who

02:14

you can believe in who's telling you the truth How

02:21

did the vietnam war change public perception of the u

02:23

s government What themes Air explored in the things they 00:02:26.758 --> [endTime] carried

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