Exploration 3: Brittany Kuykendall

At this point my active reading is going okay. I feel myself improving with each time I read and because of this I can understand what is actually being said and why it is important overall. So far in The Things They Carried, There is a constant irony that keeps occurring through the form of contradiction and paradox. When he says that if you believe the story happen then it probably didn't but if it is too crazy and unbelievable, that is the true part. I never would have caught these small details in the reading if it weren’t for learning how to actively read.

So far, the story that has meant the most for me has been “On the Rainy River.” I marvel at how well this story was able to make me relate to the situation even though I haven’t actually been throug it. The depiction of choosing to fight for your country or fight for your opinion. When O’Brien said “I was ashamed of my conscious, ashamed to be doing the right thing.” (O’Brien 49) You can really tell how hard of a decision this is and if you were in the same situation, would you be able to say you’d do the right thing? That’s a question I gather from this story and how much of an impact it can have on lives.

In my opinion, the character that has stood out the most to me so far is Rat. From his personality to how he tells stories, I am left hanging on to every gruesome word. He doesn’t sugarcoat the truth and that is very interesting to me. He describes events with such detail that you are left almost speechless. I know personally, after reading about how water buffalo as killed and disposed of, I needed to take a moment to collect my mind from the craziness that just unfolded.