War Novel Response #2

The second third of the novel Johnny Got His Gun, by Dalton Trumbo begins with Joe waking up with most of his wounds nearly healed. He uses his time to sleep and think, when he sleeps he has nightmares about rats eating his open wounds, and when he thinks he thinks about other people who died with injuries not as bad as his, he thinks about how the things he’ll never do again. Then the story flashes back to when he was 15 on a fishing trip with his father. After that, it’s back to Joe with his injuries and he is trying to challenge his brain with multiplication and remembering narratives. While this is happening Joe is starting to try to figure out how to tell time using the time of when the nurses come in to take care of him, eventually, he is able to figure out when sunrise is and is able to feel it. This is his first sense of actual time. Exactly one year after he figures out how to count time, and he has become more self aware, he’s able to guess who his nurses are, at least there basic description and he knows their schedule. Two years later, Joe doesn’t have much happen to him other than one night a nurse had fell in his room, and he had been moved to another room. Then eventually, he gets prepped for visitors, turns out that he had gotten a medal. When this happens he gets mad at the “hypocrisy” of the war generals. 

1. “He would be in this womb forever and ever and ever.” (Trumbo 81). Plot, character, juxtaposition.

This helps me understand that he feels trapped in a way that is both claustrophobic and comforting kind of way. It helps show juxtaposition because he is comparing his situation to being in the womb, comparing two things to better help us understand what he feels like.

1. “You’re less than a dog less than a rat less than a bee or less than a white maggot crawling around on a dungheap. Your dead mister and you died for nothing. ❡You’re dead mister. ❡Dead.” (Trumbo 119). Juxtaposition, character, repetition
2. “... here you are Joe Bonham lying like a side of beef all the rest of your life and for what?” (Trumbo 109). Simile, character, plot

This helps you see how Joe feels about his situation, how he feels that he shouldn’t be alive, that he did nothing to deserve to be alive. This helps showcase simile because it is comparing two very different things using “like” to help th reader understand how he feels.

1. “Well said his father I don’t think we should let a little thing like a fishing pole spoil our last trip together should we?” (Trumbo 108). Plot, character, understatement

This part of the book Kate has been on guard duty for 2 weeks and she says her days feel the same and boring. She still gets to see the same old stuff but doesn’t really do much but watch.

Kate is upset at the fact that she doesn’t see her friends and she's alone. Naema is doing what they were before and her position hasn't changed.

A big conflict going on is Kate getting harassed by a 30 ish year old man and she's only 19. She stands there with her gun and watches doing her job and he stares at her, yells at her, calls her rude names and asks her for things, cat calls her . He has started to cool down but still stares and makes her uncomfortable and she yells at him to stop but all he can come to terms with is laughing. I'm convinced the event that led to this is that she ignored him and is doing her job.

After reading this the overall message I've been getting is war is awful, war is traumatizing. I've noticed that you can’t really see or control what happens next.

(Benedict PG 125) “I could hear the need in his voice , the need to know I was all right” . I saw juxtaposition,character because the 2 characters are going through the same things at the moment and have been experiencing the same things . Also there was character because they were both characters in the chapter at the time , the actions were there and the feelings of needing to know if you and your friend are safe and putting others above yourself.

( Benedict PG127) “Those burning eyes of his won’t leave me alone” i see imagery,pov,hyperbole. The imagery is there because you can just picture the beating eyes of someone looking at you till the point you feel there burning. Pov is in this text because of the way you see someone else, that's the way she sees them is with her mind and her point of view.  I also feel as though hyperbole is in here as well because it seems like it would be a figure of speech and it doesn't seem that possible but it could be true. 

(Benedict PG 134) “Yeah. i know exactly who everybody is now” i see pov,understatement,paradox,character . I see pov because she's trying to share her own state of mind and the way she feels so that's her putting it in her way .Understatement is there because I feel like there is so much more behind this statement.  I feel like it’ll keep going on and on until it gets to the point where there's. a breakage. I'm seeing some paradox in this as well. It seems like she knows what she's saying and is very confident but it could also be a downfall and not be true.

Also some character action showing because it is the character getting into some action which i guess could also be plot.

(Benedict PG138) “Kate be real these chicks built like a wall” all i see in this one is metaphor and pov , because this is something you say and compare 2 different things to and its kinda a joke type of thing.and pov is the way the character is seeing it .

Conrad and Claire go out for dinner, well on their way to dinner Conrad sort of starts to panic things around him start to remind him of war. After that they go to the restaurant and well there Claire tells Conrad she stopped writing because he scared here and she couldn’t wright to someone who scared her. We also learn that little things can make Conrad mad. That night back at Claire’s apartment they get into an argument and Conrad ends up leaving. The next time they talk after that they decide to take things slow. After that they talk every day and Conrad figures out something's to do during the summer. We later learn about the summer house his family rents for two weeks a year. On the way to the summer home Conrad almost gets into a car accident, but everything is ok. The first day they are there they spend it on the beach where Conrad and his siblings accidentally knock over a child and gets yelled at by the parent during the argument Conrad tried to through the fact that he is a marine in there, but that doesn't help. Not much else happens at the summer house except for Claire showing up and telling Conrad to get help. Conrad ends up going to the VA hospital to get some help. After that we find out that Conrad has been staying with Claire, but that doesn't last he ends up going to stay with his sister Jenna. 

“Crowds flowed steadily along the sidewalk, bodies coming close in the gloom, faces appearing to suddenly….. A huge grimy truck, thundering along the avenue, slowed suddenly beside them. The brakes gasped explosively, like gunshot.” (Robinson 136)—imagery, POV, character, 

Imagery helps us understand what is going on with Conrad because Conrad is describing  in detail what is happening around him, you can really understand what war did to effect Conrad 

“I couldn't wright love to someone who scared me”(Robinson 141)- repetition, character 

Repetition helps us understand that her not writing to Conrad is an important thing. This isn't the first time we hear about her not righting  Conrad, but this is the first time we hear why she stopped writing him this also helped us understand that Conrad going to war has effected their relationship.

“Conrad thought of driving with him, turning out onto the strip. Cars coming in constantly from the right, traffic lights every few hundred feet. No maneuvering room.” (Robinson 160)- understatement, character, POV 

“The idea of graduate school made something rise up in his chest again. It was infuriating” (Robinson 161)—understatement, POV 

The overall message in the book at this time is war effects how people do everyday things

Summary- Jason gets a necklace from his mom and changes it to make it so he can wear it everywhere. Jason gets a taste of death and witnesses it. Jason begins to realize death is much harder than he thought. He sympathizes with the mom of a baby they were on a mission to rescue. He then realizes how emotionally damaging it is to witness death even by someone you don't know can seriously mess with you're mental state and mentality in general. Jason also shares in this third of the novel that war is something that people in the military almost collectively do not talk about. They don't talk about war and the things that they've been and have happened to them. 

1. “In Iraq, Jason was involved in clearing a house where a woman was found holding a baby. The woman was seriously injured--not by their guys, but by whom was unclear. Had they not arrived in time, and had she died, what would've happened to that baby? Jason couldn't shake that question from his mind either.    “ (Carpenter 147) Terms- character, plot, 
2. “None of these stories would appear in print, nor would Jason share details of them with anyone. Some of the guys, he knew, talked to their priests about things that they did and saw, but most talked only among themselves.   “ (Carpenter 148) Terms- character
3. “It wasn't until days later than, sitting at a meal, staring into his soup, another guy who had been there said to Jason, “Those bodies were --.” and Jason said, “Yes” they were both thinking the same thing, which was that they couldn't stop thinking about them. But they would. Nightmares, for most men, could be willed away with discipline just and well and they could be with therapy.“ (Carpenter 149) Terms- character, understatement
4. “Mine's not really family,” says Jason, shyly. “I mean it's just my mom. She's all I've got…Jason changes out the chain on the necklace his mother gave him each time he leaves the U.S. He prefers to loop the small locket through a strip of leather when he's working…he always returns the locket to his neck. It's less likely to slip off from their, tucked into his vest, and he likes the idea that there it is closer to his heart.“ (Carpenter 105 & 106) Terms- character, understatement, prospective 
   1. Two quotes that better helped me understand the story are “Mine's not really family,” says Jason, shyly. “I mean it's just my mom. She's all I've got…Jason changes out the chain on the necklace his mother gave him each time he leaves the U.S. He prefers to loop the small locket through a strip of leather when he's working…he always returns the locket to his neck. It's less likely to slip off from their, tucked into his vest, and he likes the idea that there it is closer to his heart.“ (Carpenter 105 & 106) This helped me better understand that although his mother struggles emotionally with having her son away, he also can be emotionally aware that he misses his mom too and that he likes the necklace she gave him because it reminds him of her so he keeps it safe and protected. This quote showcases character because we are seeing how Jason and his being is affected and bring changed by not being with his mother. 
   2. “In Iraq, Jason was involved in clearing a house where a woman was found holding a baby. The woman was seriously injured--not by their guys, but by whom was unclear. Had they not arrived in time, and had she died, what would've happened to that baby? Jason couldn't shake that question from his mind either.“ (Carpenter 147) This helped me better understand how Jason is mentally and emotionally impacted by the things he sees at war and working in the military. He explains how he couldn't shake the question of what would have happened to the baby had they not come when they did and almost tells us that it's like haunting him. This showcases plot because this same concept is reappearing often in different scenarios throughout the novel. 
   3. A message I have about war so far is war can be very emotionally heavy on both sides of the separation, not just the family members.

Summary- Billy is in his zoo enclosure reading Valley of the Dolls they go to watch the play Cinderella he starts laughing hysterically, where he is taken to the camp's “Hospital” where he is drugged and wakes up in 1948 in a mental ward in Veterans’ hospital in New York. After spending the night on morphine he wakes up in his prison bed on the day the Americans are being transported to Dresden.

“Their bellies were like washboards. The muscles of their calves and upper arms were like cannonballs” (Vonnegut 94) Simile, Hyperbole

“Billy wondered if there was a telephone somewhere. He wanted to call his mother, to tell her he was alive and well” (Vonnegut 97) Simile, understatement 

This quote helped me better understand the story because He wants to tell his mom he’s ok but after everything he's been through inside he's really not ok he just wants to tell his mom he is alive and breathing so, she's not worried about him. 

“The water was dead. So it goes. Air was trying to get out of that dead water. Bubbles were clinging to the walls of the glass, too weak to climb out.” (Vonnegut 101) personification 

“‘It isn’t much fun if you have to pinch every penny till it screams” (Vonnegut 104) metaphor, personification 

This quote helped me to better understand war because after war lots of people are left to hold on to their money as long as they can so they can afford to live. And many are left homeless whether it's the people in the country or the people fighting for the country. 

The overall message in this part of the book is that everyone is just fighting to survive 

In the second part of A Farewell to Arms Henry is in the hospital in Milan and a barber arrives to shave Henry, but the man is being very rude, the porter explains that he had thought Henry was an Austrian soldier who nearly cut his throat, after the barber and porter leave, Catherine enters the room, this is when Henry realizes his love for her so he pulls her into bed with him and they make love.

I went to the window and looked out, then pulled a cord that shut the thick plush curtains. Catherine was sitting on the bed, looking at the cut glass chandelier. She had taken her hat off and her hair shone under the light. She saw herself in one of the mirrors and put her hands to her hair. I saw her in three other mirrors. She did not look happy. She let her cape fall on the bed. . . . “I never felt like a whore before,” she said. I went over to the window and pulled the curtain aside and looked out. I had not thought it would be like this. (Hemingway 163)  This quote shows hyperbole and character because it has deep character development for Catherine, alone in her bed she exaggerates and says “I've never felt like a whore before”

"All right. I'm afraid of the rain because sometimes I see myself dead in it.” “no” “And sometimes I see you dead in it.”(Hemingway 135) This quote shows symbolism because Catherine is expressing that she sees the rain as an omen or symbol of death. 

We moved slowly but steadily in the rain, the radiator cap of our car almost against the tailboard of a truck that was loaded high, the load covered with wet canvas. Then the truck stopped. The whole column was stopped. It started again and we went a little farther, then stopped. (Hemingway 207) Repetition

No, that is the great fallacy, the wisdom of old men. They do not grow wise. They grow careful.(Hemingway 279)

There are no winners in war.

Captain Abe Shrinkle, worked in the field and made alot of “mistakes” like not waiting for permission to kill a “terrorist” who was not. On another mission he decided the best course of action for them was to throw a grenade toward a group of people, and ended up killing a child in the process. Eventually a meeting was called, Lieutenant Colonel Vic Duret decided he should go, the conversation brought up the events with Captain Abe Shrinkle and he thought he should do something about it  (he is in charge of him). He sent Shrinkle to go on a R&R to Qatar and when Shrinkle got back he got “gym duty” instead of getting court martialed. Shrinkle discovered a pool full of Australians after overhearing a conversation at the gym about a prayer meeting, so he goes to pray with a bible, he learns that minted of a prayer meeting it is people drinking and partying by the pool. Shrinkle decides to create a new identity for himself instead of who he is now. 

1. “The Grenade sailed through the air. The crowd or Iraqis collectively flinched, Then came the blooming explosion and the trunk cab was briefly filled with white light, a cloud of smoke, and a small lick of flame…” (Abrams 146) - Imagery 

This quote uses imagery to explain how everyone watches as their Captain throws a grenade not caring  for other people's safety, if people are at fault or if there are other people around or if there are people in harm's way. 

1. “‘It was so hot you could fry eggs on the hood of our Humvee’” (Abrams 210) - Metaphor 

1. “…he replayed the filming his mind on an endless loop: the coiled-spring strength of his legs moving towards the truck in adhamiya, the determination pull of the pin, the hard pitch of the grenade…- break - the coiled-spring of his legs, the pin pull, the flames, - break - legs, pin, fire, complete - and so on, ad infinitum, until dome one would come ask him if the treadmill had been fixed yet and he he’d snap back to the job at hand: one-two-three, fold, stack…one-two-three, fold, stack.” (Abrams 220) - Imagery

1. “Life goes on, same as always. And sometimes, if you are lucky, life tastes like coconut cream pie.” (Abrams 241) -Simile 

After a VBIED explodes this quote uses a simile to show that their lives keep going one even though they keep going and “if you are lucky life tastes like a coconut cream pie” sweet and without trouble

Because his leg is almost completely healed, Henry is granted three weeks of sick leave; however, he will need to return to the front. Catherine breaks the shocking news that she is three months pregnant after making the offer to accompany him on the trip. In order to avoid being sent back to the front, he is accused of intentionally injuring himself. Henry and his men decide to leave the column early in the morning and travel north on a minor road. He watches as a lieutenant colonel is taken away, questioned, and eventually killed. Henry rushes to the river and jumps in because he sees an opportunity to escape.

1. “ ‘The coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave but one?’ … ‘ he knew a great deal about cowards but nothing about the brave. The brave dies perhaps two thousand deaths if he's intelligent. He simply doesn't mention them.’ ” (Hemingway 139-140) — Pov, character, hyperbole

This quote shows how people view the war. People see the cowards as “dying a thousand deaths” when in reality it is the brave that die a thousand deaths they just do not tell people. The cowards want to seem as though they are brave by talking about all of the “brave” things they did. Whereas the actual brave ones don't tell or brag about the things they did making them seem as though they are brave. This helps me understand the story more because it shows how they feel about cowards and the brave both in war and in literal meaning. I chose hyperbole as a lit term because people cannot die a thousand deaths but they can do things that are either brave or cowardly. They are using death as a representation of the problems they faced and the things they went through.

2. "Miss Van Campen," I said. "Did you ever know a man who tried to disable himself by kicking himself in the scrotum?" (Hemingway 144) — Character, imagery

Miss Van Campen is trying to say that henry drank himself to jaundice on purpose just so he wouldn't have to go back to the front. This quote helps me understand the story because some people will do what they can even if that means hurting themselves just so they don't have to go back to the front. But, he is trying to get her to understand that he didn't get sick on purpose by asking if she has ever known a man who has disabled himself by kicking himself in the crotch.  

3.  “Catherine was in bed now between two sheets, … ‘Good night, Catherine,’ I said out loud. ‘I hope you sleep well. If it’s too uncomfortable, darling, lie on the other side,’ I said. ‘I’ll get you some cold water. In a little while, it will be morning and then it won’t be so bad. I’m sorry he makes you so uncomfortable. Try and go to sleep, sweet.’ “ (Hemingway 171-172) —  Imagery, pov, character.

4. “ ‘im going to have a baby, darling. Its almost three months along. You're not worried, are you? Please please don't. You mustnt worry.’ ” (Hemingway 137-138) — Pov, character 

The message about wae so far is even in the midst of war, love and life is possible.

Johnny is still trying to learn what he can’t and cannot do inside this new body of his. He’s getting better at realizing when he is and isn’t dreaming. The thought of why we go to war and what we do it for really starts to aggravate him. With him being probably the closest to being dead without being dead. He realizes that there is nothing in this world that is worth trading your life for. After being able to count how often a nurse comes to take care of him. He can figure out what time of the day they come to take care of him. By feeling the sunlight on his skin in the morning. After having an epiphany that he can still talk to people using morse code. He taps his head on the bed profusely trying to get the nurses attention that he’s saying something. But they only assume he’s just a crazy person that’s injured.   

“Maybe he was lucky his nose was shot off. It would be pretty bad to have to lie and smell the perfume of your own body as it rotted away”(Trumbo 90).-Imagery, Character 

“If you get killed fighting for your native land you’ve bought a pig in a poke”(Trumbo 113).-Metaphor, Character, Plot   

This quote helps us understand what Johnny thinks war is worth. He’s basically saying that it’s not worth fighting for something when there’s a good chance that you're never going to get the reward. What’s the point in putting your life on the line for land if you're just going to end up being dead?

“It felt like his neck was seared burned scorched from the heat of the rising sun”(Trumbo 137).-Imagery, Simile  

Johnny in his state right now cannot feel much because he can’t move anywhere. The most feeling he gets is when his nurse comes to take care of him every 4 hours. Realizing that he could feel the sun was a huge breakthrough from him to be able to come back to the world again. With him only having the few senses that he has left this feeling was probably one of the strongest sensations he’s felt in awhile.

 “He kept on tapping growing angry now and hopeless and feeling like he wanted to throw up”(Trumbo 164).   

Johnny’s vision of war at this point has become very anti-death. He’s realizing that there is nothing worth trading your life for. That the majority of people who say that they really wanna go to war for whatever word they believe. Are the stupidest people on the planet, because they don’t understand what you would be giving up.

In section 2 to Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, they’re starting to meet the football players. This is where they are beginning to watch the game. Billy meets some football players and cheerleaders. One cheerleader, he has a romantic connection, named Faison. Billy is not doing okay emotionally and taking on the challenge of ptsd and trauma. We’re seeing more of his trauma and how it’s coming along.

1. “...absorbed is he in the beautiful shapes her mouth makes as it forms the words. Witness, bearing, witness, yr, words, deeds, acks, acks of sack-rih-fice, free-dom…” (Ben Fountain 148) -Understatement, P.O.V. 

1. “He gets so tired of living with the daily beat-down of it, not just the normal animal fear of pain and death but the uniquely human fear of fear itself like a CD stuck on skip-repeat, an ever-narrowing self-referential loop that may well be a form of madness.” (Ben Fountain 115) -Metaphor, P.O.V, understatement, imagery. 

This quote helps me show the tiredness of the beat-down life of being in the war. The main perspective on this is the feeling of the constant repeating loop of what war feels like. I added understatement here because we could’ve understood more of what Billy was feeling like in the tiring, repetitive situation and being in his shoes with war. The overall message the author was trying to get at was that war is tiring, it’s repetitive, it feels the same constant feeling and constant actions of doing daily.

1. “That gulpy reggae drop-beat, ohhh-oh, Pavlovian cue for bursting of dopamine bombs and xylophone trills up and down your spine. Then the trapdoor springs beneath your feet.” (Ben Fountain 203) -Understatement, imagery, onomatopoeia, p.o.v. 

This quote helps me understand Billy more and that he’s struggling with trauma. The quote explains how the fireworks sound like dopamine bombs which is the explame of how he is getting flashbacks from war due to the banging sounds of fireworks. I added understatement here because we didn’t get a lot of how Billy was feeling or what he experienced in that scene. We only really knew that he was getting horrible flashbacks. The overall message the author was trying to get was that soldiers coming back from war should be taking it easy because things, like fireworks, can set off unwanted trauma and ptsd. Soldiers are struggling and it takes time.

1. “Inner peace- you need to know who you are, what you want out of life. You have to do your own thinking, and for that you better know who you are,” (Ben Fountain 214) -Character 

The overall message about war is that the soldiers struggle with mental health. They have serious ptsd and trauma that is overlooked because it’s not mentioned nor talked about. They struggle with their emotions and the author is trying to tell us to be careful with a soldier that is coming back from war because the slightest things can cause ptsd and trauma.

In the second third of the book (page 124-254) the story goes through the perspectives of; Duret, Lumley, Shrinkle, Gooding, and Harkleroad. Throughout the entire section there are repeated mentions of Captain Shrinkle killing an innocent local national with an incident with a grenade, and the conflicting views. Gooding struggles being around the intense Major Filipovich who has nothing but contempt with the system of how they work.  Lumley and his men are stuck in their metal box of barracks and the smell of several unwashed men.

1. “This was the fuck-a-roo to end all fuck-a-roos” (Abrams 151)-- Pov, character, and understatement 

1. “One of our illustrious  school-trained captains through a grenade at a U.S. fuel truck Whoosh-kaBOOM” (Abrams 133)-- understatement, Character, and onomatopoeia 

1. “Sir, is your captain a complete and utter idiot prone to eating Stupid Sandwiches at every meal” (Abrams 136)--Pov, character

This quote gives us some insight on Major Monkle feelings on Captain Shrinkle, and how he fits into the story.

1. “I can hardly wait until I get to Iraq and get me some live ammo so I can kill capt. S.” (150)-- understatement, Pov

This quote is important to see the different perspectives on the fob base, and the sort of normalization of hating Shrinkle.

The message is a clear divide in people of your either with me or against me, that things of black and white of the Fob base are thinking of what to do with Captain Shrinkle.

 In Chapters 8-12  Trapper and Hawkeye traveled to Kokura to do a surgery on a congressman's son  which was a routine operation.  When they returned to the 4077 the found it with a lot of wounded soldiers so they went straight to work. Hawkeye  is under pressure  and went and had a  talk with  Dago Red.  

• “... Trapper said Take off your shirt, stick out your tongue and tell me about the pain”   This can be seen as POV, and Character 
•  “Hawkeye turned and impaled him on an ice stare. Beat it, Pop. If his  chest gets infected, I’ll tell the Congressmen on you”(86).  Plot, Pov, Character. This Quote from MASH help understand that people were trying to get the best surgeons for the job  even if they were in time of war and were thousands of miles away. This quote also    Helps show the Plot in as it shows that young kids were being wounded and    had to get help from the surgeons that were drafted into the war. 
•  “Hawkeye Pierce looked at Trapper John. “I always knew you was  foolish,” he said. Duke Forrest whined, “I cain’t go to no hospital. I gotta get me a mermaid” (144).    Character, Pov,   In This Quote it helps show the Character of Hawkeye and Duke.  As they  were  try to joke around and have a fun time to deal with the war going on. 
•     Father Mulcahy led Captain Pierce  to   Father Mulcahy’s tet, gave him a cigarette and a canteen half full of Scotch and water. Lying on Red’s sack  Hawkeye dragged on the butt,  swallowed the drink and said “Red, my curve’s hanging, and I lost the hop on my fast ball (120).  Chartar, Imagery, Pov  

From what i have seen so far war is taken differently as it goes At one time they could be have a fun time with joking then the next minute they could be having a hard time after hearing that someone has passed away.                                                                                                                                                        

War Novel Reading Response #2

Summary of MASH Part 2:  In the beginning of Part 2 we get a little bit of background information on Trapper and how we made our way into playing golf at country clubs often for free. At the beginning of Chapter 9 Hawkeye returns from Kokura and they begin work immediately. Throughout the rest of Part 2 they continue to operate in O.R. and they play various sports like football to pass time. 

Quote 1: “ Poor kid,” the sergeant said. Goddam army…”(Pg.82) I chose POV here because the Helicopter Pilot is surprised that these goofballs are the surgeons he is supposed to pick up.

Quote 2:  “ You men and under arrest,” the colonel boomed, when he stormed onto the scene.

“ Quiet!” Trapper said. “ Can’t you see I’m putting?” (Pg. 89).  Understatement here because a Colonel is telling them they are under arrest but they play it off like it’s no big deal because they are in the middle of a golf match.

Quote 3:    “Get help,” he ordered Knocko McCarthy. “I gotta keep a finger on this or we lose him, and I can’t expose it and get it clamped with one hand” (Pg.107). Imagery 

Quote 4: “ And still they came. Bellies, chests, necks, arteries, arms, legs, eyes, testicles, kidneys, spinal cords, all shot to hell. Win or lose. Life and Death” (Pg.110-111). Imagery, Understatement.

My statement: So far what I have learned in the novel is that war isn’t for the faint of heart. It will eat you up and spit you out. These doctors are doing incredible work under the most poor conditions. They do surgery on things that require specialists at State side hospitals.

"The legs of those who stood were like fence posts driven into a warm, squirming, farting, sighing earth. The queer earth was a mosaic of sleepers who nestled like spoons." (Vonnegut, 70)

 "I am a Tralfamadorian, seeing all time as you might see a stretch of the Rocky Mountains. All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is." (Vonnegut, 86)

"So they were trying to re-invent themselves and their universe....Science fiction was a big help." (Vonnegut, 101)

"The skyline was intricate and voluptuous and enchanted and absurd. It looked like a Sunday school picture of Heaven to Billy Pilgrim." (Vonnegut, 148)

"The skyline was intricate and voluptuous and enchanted and absurd. It looked like a Sunday school picture of Heaven to Billy Pilgrim." (Vonnegut, 148)

Lit Term~Character~ It shows character more than any other Lit Term for this quote. It shows how the character sees the sky in the Sunday school picture. It really shows how the person thinks and sees the world calling the picture enchanted and absurd.  The message about war in this quote is that even though people go through war and some that go through war start to see things differently whether better or worse or they can still see it how they would have before but something else about them might be different. 

 "I am a Tralfamadorian, seeing all time as you might see a stretch of the Rocky Mountains. All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is." (Vonnegut, 86)

Lit Term~Plot~ This quote is mainly just to move the story forward. But it plays a big part in the Plot of the book. It is one of the biggest points that help continue the plot and helps Billy Pilgrims character. The message about war in this quote is that people in war change how they think because of the events they’ve gone through. Billy Pilgrim went through so much that he started making up false memories about meeting the Tralfamadorian and traveling through time and seeing his future lives as he his really in the war he thinks he is “unstuck in time” he makes all of these stories and things to cope with what happened to him.

Repetition: “Perhaps after one or five or twenty years he could develop such strength that the circle of his rocking would become wider and wider and wider.” (Trumbo 88) 

This example of repetition shows how an injured war vet feels while laying in his bed. The “rocking” is the vet trying to roll over in his bed, hoping that the metal tubes feeding him will puncture him and kill him.

Simile: “When you're completely unconscious there is no such thing as time it goes like the snap of your finger you’re awake and zip you’re awake again with no idea of how long a time passed between.” (Trumbo 127)

This simile talks about being unconscious, and how being unconscious feels. It shows how it feels like blinking, and while no matter how long you are out for, you won't feel the time you are unconscious. The war vet had been strung in and out of consciousness ever since his injury.

The Prompt: 

-First, summarize what happens in this part of your novel. Make it at least four sentences.

Joe sitting in his room thinks about stories he had heard about wounded soldiers eating through tubes.  Joe fades into a dream and he starts to feel a rat crawling on him. It's a memory of a dead German soldier with a rat eating his face. Joe keeps having memories of things he has seen during his time not wounded.

-Second, find 4 quotes from the second third of your novel to analyze. Quotes should be moments that stood out or seemed significant to YOU. (There aren't specific quotes that fit this assignment best, and using the same quotes as others reading your novel will look suspicious.)

-In your analysis, explain which literary terms each quote could be identified as---list any and all literary terms that apply. 

-Choose two quotes to go into a deeper explanation of what they helped you better understand about the story and how they helped showcase a specific literary term.

“He had seen the airplanes flying in the sky he had seen the skies of the future filled with them black with them and now he saw the horror beneath. He saw a world of lovers forever parted of dreams never consummated of plans that never turned into reality.” (Trumbo 103) imagery this quote shows imagery because its being descriptive of things that he has seen .

 “No matter how far you are separated from other people if you have an idea of time why then you are in the same world with them you are part of them but if you lose time the others go ahead of you and you are left alone hanging in air lost to everything forever.” (Trumbo 124) character  this is showing character because its basically showing his acceptance of himself 

“It was more of a panic it was the panicky dread of losing yourself even from yourself. It made him a little sick at his stomach.” (Trumbo 132) character

“It was so warm so secure so comforting to be home on christmas eve to be in a nice room with a good stove to feel somehow that here was a place in the wilderness, a place forever safe a place that could never be changed could never be harmed, could never be intruded upon.” (Trumbo 143) imagery

-Third, based on the textual evidence you chose, write a statement that addresses your message about war (so far).  

War is the short end of the stick

Reading response 2

1. Before Billy's deployment he is talking with Kathryn and confesses that he is scared. “ It's not like anybody's going to say it's because you're scared” “But I am scared. Everybody's scared” (Fountain 98) this helps to show Billy's character to me in his humble sense. Returning home everyone sees him as a hero and he is getting lavish praise from everyone, but Billy is not the gung-ho type of person or soldier everyone thinks he is because he is decorated and fought bravely with his men. In reality Billy has seen and been through the hell depths of war and its consequences. He is scared and he admits everyone in his team is to go back, but they still do. It's all they know and don't know much other outside of deployment it seems. Billy’s honor and courage shows because he tells Kathryn even after she tried helping him stay home that he insists on going back with his team. “ It doesn't matter what I feel about it. I've got to go, so I'm going.” (Fountain 97)
2. “I don't think anybody knows what we’re doing over there.-the Iraqis really hate us, you know? - we are building a couple of schools, we are trying to get there sewer system up and running, we bring in tankers of drinking water every day and do a meal program for the kids, and all they wanna do is kill us.-and these people are living in literal shit-their government did nothing for them all these years, but we’re the enemy right?” (Fountain 97) this shows the POV of Billy and most soldiers fighting in the middle east. They go on deployment being told it is to help but they feel as if they aren't. Because if they truly were wouldn't the people welcome the help for such a poor country? They feel as if they are doing it all for nothing.

In this section of the book it emphasizes the countdown to their deployment. It introduces us to Billy’s sister and shows her dismay in him going back. They are getting closer and closer to the Bravo team's halftime appearance. Billy’s humbleness is also a very avid trait of his in this section. It gives more background onto their previous deployment as well.

The message about war I noticed was toward the end involving my quotes from above, soldiers lose their identity and feel they are the military’s property. Even if they don’t want to redeploy they feel it necessary that they do no matter how they feel about it.

Summary: Kate continuously is being harassed by the male soldiers and sergeants. The staff leader, Kormick, and one of the guards, “Boner” attempts to rape Kate. This leaves her terrified and with a closer bond with Jimmy, the only kind soldier there and the only person who’s willing to protect Kate. She misses her fiance, Tyler every day, but is becoming closer with Jimmy; she doesn’t know how to feel. Naema’s family is suffering from the absence of Naema’s father and little brother. We find out that Naema has a fiance back home in Kuwait. 

“But why are you a solider? Why, as a woman, did you choose such a path? Soldiers take life. Women give life.” (Benedict 73)--perspective, character, juxtaposition.

“And it bugs the hell out of me that all that praying doesn’t stop those same guys from acting like assholes the minute they’re done.” (Benedict 121)--perspective

“And what about Papa?... His legs have never recovered from being smashed again and again by Saddam’s prison guards--he walks bent over and limping now, as if he is stepping barefoot on glass. How can his mind and heart, already broken by torture and starvation, bear the strain?” (Benedict 113)--perspective, character, understatement, simile, imagery.

This quote represents perspective because Naema is worried about her father’s mental state. He and Zaki aren’t in the same prison, so she’s worried that his already broken heart is not going to be able to bear the pain of him being missing from his home and family, especially Zaki not being with him.

“The five girls getting drunk on stolen whiskey. Piling in a car, giggling, even though every last one of them knew better. Careening into an oncoming pickup at sixty miles and an hour. Dangling heads, twisted backs, smashed faces. “I lay in a hospital for six months thinking about why the Lord let my friends die and not me, Mom said.” (Benedict 124)--Imagery, perspective, understatement, juxtaposition, character.

This quote represents juxtaposition because it’s comparing Kate’s mom, and her friends. Why did they die, and not her? She realized that God was giving her a second chance, wanting her to spread the love. 

Joe discovers more about his injuries and wounds, he notices that his amputation sites have healed, he has a hole in his stomach, his face has been covered by a cloth, and he finds it very frustrating to move. He struggles a lot with being in and out of consciousness. He is afraid he won't be able to tell when he is sleeping, and when he is awake. Joe thinks about going to war and how he didn't think of the consequences it would have. 

Quote 1: “He thought about it afterward. It didn’t matter whether the rat was gnawing on your buddy or a damned German it was all the same. Your real enemy was the rat…” (Trumbo 91) This quote shows POV and character. The perspective Joe is showing us is that when he saw that rat eating someone, even if he was the enemy, Joe was angry. He and the other soldiers killed the rat and Joe thought to himself that that man whose face was being eaten by a rat could have been anyone. The rat doesn't care who dies, it doesn't care about sides, only that it gets fed. This is also like how people who aren't in the war feed off of the soldiers who are dying just for their sake. 

Quote 2: “He thought here you are Joe Bonham lying like a side of beef all the rest of your life and for what? Somebody tapped you on the shoulder and said come along son we’re going to war. So  you went.” (Trumbo 109) This quote shows simile when Joe says he's laying like a side of beef. He is struggling a lot with wrapping his head around his situation and compares himself to a side of beef, unable to move. 

Quote 3: “What the hell does liberty mean anyhow? It's just a word like house or table or any other word. Only it's a special kind of word. A guy says house and he can point to a house to prove it. But a guy says come on let's fight for liberty and he can't show you liberty. He can't prove the thing he's talking about so how in the hell can he be telling you to fight for it?” (Trumbo 110)

Quote 4: “He was a dead man with a mind that could still think. He knew all the answers that the dead knew and couldn't think about. He could speak for the dead because he was one of them. He was the first of all the soldiers who had died since the beginning of time who still had a brain left to think with.” (Trumbo 117)

The main message of this section of the book is that nobody really wins in war.  

In the book Slaughterhouse-five, Billy goes to a pow camp in Germany, which causes him to have a feast with prisoners. He then gets show with morphine after he has a breakdown, which makes him travel to Dresden again. As there work the camp gets disintegrated by allied forces killing 130,000 people but billy and the pows survive. They get out and look at the destruction of what they did.

“Billy answered. There was a drunk on the other end. Billy could almost smell his breath—mustard gas and roses. It was a wrong number. Billy hung up.” (Vonnegut 73)
Imagery, P.O.V., Understatement
The most arbitrary quote reminds me of an understatement as it could have been one of his war buddies (as the reference to mustard gas) or one of his loved ones (Reference to roses). However, he hung up after he supposedly thought it was the wrong number, could it mean that he was a witness of mustard gas exposure?

“After poor Edgar Derby, the high school teacher, was shot in Dresden later on, a doctor pronounced him dead and snapped his dogtag in two. So it goes.” (Vonnegut 92) repetition, understatement

“Billy uncovered his head. The windows of the ward were open. Birds were twittering outside. ‘Poo-too-weet?’ one asked him.” (Vonnegut 100)
Repetition, Onomatopoeia, Understatement
The bird's sound has been referenced at the beginning of the book which is why I chose understatement and repetition. As soon as he uncovered his head he heard birds chirping, which could mean that something is going to happen at the end of the book.

“Billy closed that one eye, saw in his memory of the future poor old Edgar derby in front of a firing squad in the ruins of Dresden.” (Vonnegut 105)P.O.V.

Overall, it seems that billy is going through an episode where war references are coming back, starting slowly and progressively getting worse.