Characters in going after cacciato

Literature

This week’s readings

Video: Post-Modernism Flannery O'Connor: Author Bio Flannery O'Connor: "Good Country People" Tim O'Brien: Author interview Tim O'Brien: from "Going After Cacciato" Joyce Carol Oates: Author Bio Joyce Carol Oates: from "Blonde"

Theodore Roethke: "My Papa's Waltz"

Original Forum

Part One: Several of our works this week portray significant or complex relationships between characters. Choose one that stood out to you as particularly moving or engaging. Describe the relationship and explain its personal resonance with you.

Part Two: Research one of this week's authors and tell us what about his or her biography struck you as being reflective of issues in the work. Be sure to cite all biographical information you report.

Part Three: Post-modern work is sometimes ambiguous. In O'Brien's story we meet a soldier who goes AWOL- he leaves his post and a squad of men is sent to find him. How do you think this story ends based on what you see in this short excerpt? What clues can you tease out of the chapter to give an indication of where this story might be headed? O'Brien's work focuses on Cacciato before he becomes AWOL. Therefore, you are tasked with 'guessing' about what happens next after reading this short section. If you prefer, you can focus on why Cacciato says this at the end of the story: "You will. You got a terrific sense of humor"

Student Responses

Kenneth

In “Blonde” by Joyce Carol Oates, the older sister felt betrayed at the birth of her younger brother. She was used to being an only child, with all of the affection and attention spent on her. She was particularly surprised at the arrival of Robin and this probably led to her feelings of betrayal.

I am the oldest of three children. I have two younger brothers with one of them only three years younger than me but the other one is 12 years younger than myself. While I did not feel betrayal or jealousy, there was a definite shift in parental interaction once my youngest brother joined our family. I think my middle brother probably felt the most change as he was eight years old when my youngest brother was born. This is probably the reason that my middle brother has never lived farther than a few miles from our parents.

Part Two:

This was an easy choice for me since I have been a Soldier for 27 years and still counting. Tim O’Brien’s life definitely influences his writing. According to his biography (FamousAuthors.org, 2012), O’Brien earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science in 1968, during the height of the Vietnam War. He was subsequently drafted and served two years, including a tour to Vietnam. According to his biography, his first published work, If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home (did anybody else sing that title in cadence like I did?) was directly influenced by his wartime experience. Most of O’Brien’s work are set in wartime scenarios to include our reading this week, Night March chapter 31.

FamousAuthors.org. (2012). FamousArthurs.org. Retrieved from https://www.famousauthors.org/tim-obrien

Part Three:

Paul Berlin is scared yet finds great humor in the night’s events. He keeps daydreaming of home and his father during rest stops during the night’s march. The boy who keeps waking him up and giving him gum ends up being Cacciato, as we learn at the end of the chapter. I get the sense that Cacciato is already planning his AWOL move during this section of the book. I believe, based on Berlin’s fascination or terror of Billy Boy Watkins’ death that Berlin will likely die in the same manner. The entire chapter focuses on Berlin trying to mentally deal with the death from the prior day. He finds it ironic and fateful that Watkins died from a heart attack brought on by fear.

Kenneth

In “Blonde” by Joyce Carol Oates, the older sister felt betrayed at the birth of her younger brother. She was used to being an only child, with all of the affection and attention spent on her. She was particularly surprised at the arrival of Robin and this probably led to her feelings of betrayal.

I am the oldest of three children. I have two younger brothers with one of them only three years younger than me but the other one is 12 years younger than myself. While I did not feel betrayal or jealousy, there was a definite shift in parental interaction once my youngest brother joined our family. I think my middle brother probably felt the most change as he was eight years old when my youngest brother was born. This is probably the reason that my middle brother has never lived farther than a few miles from our parents.

Part Two:

This was an easy choice for me since I have been a Soldier for 27 years and still counting. Tim O’Brien’s life definitely influences his writing. According to his biography (FamousAuthors.org, 2012), O’Brien earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science in 1968, during the height of the Vietnam War. He was subsequently drafted and served two years, including a tour to Vietnam. According to his biography, his first published work, If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home (did anybody else sing that title in cadence like I did?) was directly influenced by his wartime experience. Most of O’Brien’s work are set in wartime scenarios to include our reading this week, Night March chapter 31.

FamousAuthors.org. (2012). FamousArthurs.org. Retrieved from https://www.famousauthors.org/tim-obrien

Part Three:

Paul Berlin is scared yet finds great humor in the night’s events. He keeps daydreaming of home and his father during rest stops during the night’s march. The boy who keeps waking him up and giving him gum ends up being Cacciato, as we learn at the end of the chapter. I get the sense that Cacciato is already planning his AWOL move during this section of the book. I believe, based on Berlin’s fascination or terror of Billy Boy Watkins’ death that Berlin will likely die in the same manner. The entire chapter focuses on Berlin trying to mentally deal with the death from the prior day. He finds it ironic and fateful that Watkins died from a heart attack brought on by fear.