http://www.sonyclassics.com/fogofwar/
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Friday, February 24, 2012
CRQs Fallen Angels Ch. 14-15
(Photo from http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/vietnam/photoessay.htm)English 11
Fallen Angels
Critical Reading Questions: Chapters 14-15
Answer all Questions completely on a separate piece of paper. Staple this prompt to your answers. Open book. Use evidence from the text to support your answer. Due at the end of the period.
A) You’ve heard various expressions about giving someone (or an idea) a human face. In chapter 14, faces and the destruction of or removal of faces is emphasized. Trace the several times a human face is emphasized and explain what happens. What might be the writer’s purpose here? What idea is he trying to emphasize? What is happening to Perry?
B) “We could have burned as easily as we put out the fires” (150). What is happening here? How can this be explained or made sense of? How does this fit into any of the stories that have been told so far?
C) On page 164 Perry tries to imagine the thoughts of another. Who is he thinking about? What is he trying to figure out?
D) Why does Lobel write to apologize to his father? Is he really sorry?
E) “But it meant being some other person than I was when I got to Vietnam” (183). What is Perry trying to figure out here? Is he satisfied with his conclusion? How might this passage serve in your paper about telling a true war story?
Monday, February 20, 2012
CRQs ch 12-13 Fallen Angels
English 11
Fallen Angels
Reading Accountability Quiz: Chapters 12-13
(Photo from http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/vietnam/photoessay.htm)
Answer all Questions completely on a separate piece of paper. Staple this prompt to your answers. Open book. Use evidence from the text to support your answer. Due at the end of the period.
A) Faggots. Commies. Draft cards burned. Short squads. Canada. Put these elements together and explain the conversation in chapter 12 that contains them. What does Perry think about the conversation? What is meant by “being in the crowd meant you could be killed”?
B) After the above discussion, Perry has a related conversation with Johnson. “You trying to figure out who the good guys, huh?” How does Johnson deal with this question? How does Perry? How is this related to our paper topic?
C) Who is Turner? What happens to him? Is this loss meant to be compared to the loss of Jenkins? How does Perry respond? Explain.
D) Explain what happens with the claymores? Why do you think the author included this incident? In what ways does it contribute to the development of the character? In what ways does it contribute to the development of thematic concerns in the novel? How does Perry deal with it? How does he explain it to himself? Does this illuminate the idea that sometimes what could have happened can be as powerful as what happens? Explain.
Fallen Angels
Reading Accountability Quiz: Chapters 12-13
(Photo from http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/vietnam/photoessay.htm)Answer all Questions completely on a separate piece of paper. Staple this prompt to your answers. Open book. Use evidence from the text to support your answer. Due at the end of the period.
A) Faggots. Commies. Draft cards burned. Short squads. Canada. Put these elements together and explain the conversation in chapter 12 that contains them. What does Perry think about the conversation? What is meant by “being in the crowd meant you could be killed”?
B) After the above discussion, Perry has a related conversation with Johnson. “You trying to figure out who the good guys, huh?” How does Johnson deal with this question? How does Perry? How is this related to our paper topic?
C) Who is Turner? What happens to him? Is this loss meant to be compared to the loss of Jenkins? How does Perry respond? Explain.
D) Explain what happens with the claymores? Why do you think the author included this incident? In what ways does it contribute to the development of the character? In what ways does it contribute to the development of thematic concerns in the novel? How does Perry deal with it? How does he explain it to himself? Does this illuminate the idea that sometimes what could have happened can be as powerful as what happens? Explain.
CRQs ch. 9-11 Fallen Angels
English 11
Fallen Angels
Reading Accountability Quiz: Chapters 9-11
Answer all Questions completely on a separate piece of paper. Staple this prompt to your answers. Open book. Use evidence from the text to support your answer. Due at the end of the period.
A) How does Lobel use the movies to explain the pacification mission to Perry? How does Perry feel about this characterization?
B) In chapter 6 Lobel introduced the idea of deciding on a role for yourself. (Are you the baby-faced virgin who gets killed or Lee Marvin as a tough sergeant?) Perry is going through similar questions here, especially on and around page 95—similar but not exactly the same. Explain. How is this need to understand one’s role related to the large questions we are considering in our paper?
C) Describe the scene in which Lt. Carroll falls. Is the setting significant? In what way?
D) What Letter is Perry asked to write? How does he describe this task? How does Simpson describe the task? How is this passage related to the concerns of our paper?
E) Perry explains that Lt. Carroll’s death is different than that of Jenkins. How does he describe the difference?
F) “Can’t handle nothing deeper.” This phrase appears on page 116. What is being discussed? What does the speaker mean? Insight for your war story essay? Explain.
Fallen Angels
Reading Accountability Quiz: Chapters 9-11
Answer all Questions completely on a separate piece of paper. Staple this prompt to your answers. Open book. Use evidence from the text to support your answer. Due at the end of the period.
A) How does Lobel use the movies to explain the pacification mission to Perry? How does Perry feel about this characterization?
B) In chapter 6 Lobel introduced the idea of deciding on a role for yourself. (Are you the baby-faced virgin who gets killed or Lee Marvin as a tough sergeant?) Perry is going through similar questions here, especially on and around page 95—similar but not exactly the same. Explain. How is this need to understand one’s role related to the large questions we are considering in our paper?
C) Describe the scene in which Lt. Carroll falls. Is the setting significant? In what way?
D) What Letter is Perry asked to write? How does he describe this task? How does Simpson describe the task? How is this passage related to the concerns of our paper?
E) Perry explains that Lt. Carroll’s death is different than that of Jenkins. How does he describe the difference?
F) “Can’t handle nothing deeper.” This phrase appears on page 116. What is being discussed? What does the speaker mean? Insight for your war story essay? Explain.
Monday, February 13, 2012
poem of the week: esse "reflections of clouds and trees are not clouds and trees"
Esse
I looked at that face, dumbfounded. The lights of métro stations flew by; I didn't notice them. What can be done, if our sight lacks absolute power to devour objects ecstatically, in an instant, leaving nothing more than the void of an ideal form, a sign like a hieroglyph simplified from the drawing of an animal or bird? A slightly snub nose, a high brow with sleekly brushed-back hair, the line of the chin - but why isn't the power of sight absolute? - and in a whiteness tinged with pink two sculpted holes, containing a dark, lustrous lava. To absorb that face but to have it simultaneously against the background of all spring boughs, walls, waves, in its weeping, its laughter, moving it back fifteen years, or ahead thirty. To have. It is not even a desire. Like a butterfly, a fish, the stem of a plant, only more mysterious. And so it befell me that after so many attempts at naming the world, I am able only to repeat, harping on one string, the highest, the unique avowal beyond which no power can attain: I am, she is. Shout, blow the trumpets, make thousands-strong marches, leap, rend your clothing, repeating only: is!
She got out at Raspail. I was left behind with the immensity of existing things. A sponge, suffering because it cannot saturate itself; a river, suffering because reflections of clouds and trees are not clouds and trees.
Brie-Comte-Robert, 1954
By Czeslaw Milosz from "The Collected Poems 1931-1987", 1988
Translated by Czeslaw Milosz and Robert Pinsky
I looked at that face, dumbfounded. The lights of métro stations flew by; I didn't notice them. What can be done, if our sight lacks absolute power to devour objects ecstatically, in an instant, leaving nothing more than the void of an ideal form, a sign like a hieroglyph simplified from the drawing of an animal or bird? A slightly snub nose, a high brow with sleekly brushed-back hair, the line of the chin - but why isn't the power of sight absolute? - and in a whiteness tinged with pink two sculpted holes, containing a dark, lustrous lava. To absorb that face but to have it simultaneously against the background of all spring boughs, walls, waves, in its weeping, its laughter, moving it back fifteen years, or ahead thirty. To have. It is not even a desire. Like a butterfly, a fish, the stem of a plant, only more mysterious. And so it befell me that after so many attempts at naming the world, I am able only to repeat, harping on one string, the highest, the unique avowal beyond which no power can attain: I am, she is. Shout, blow the trumpets, make thousands-strong marches, leap, rend your clothing, repeating only: is!
She got out at Raspail. I was left behind with the immensity of existing things. A sponge, suffering because it cannot saturate itself; a river, suffering because reflections of clouds and trees are not clouds and trees.
Brie-Comte-Robert, 1954
By Czeslaw Milosz from "The Collected Poems 1931-1987", 1988
Translated by Czeslaw Milosz and Robert Pinsky
Thursday, February 9, 2012
PBS Video resource for the 'war story' project
Watch War Letters on PBS. See more from American Experience.
Fallen Angels CRQs chs. 4-5 and 6-7
English 11
Fallen Angels Chapter 4-5
Please answer the following questions carefully and completely. Write a brief paragraph for each question. Use evidence from the text.
A) At the bottom of page 36, Monaco “started to say something else, then shrugged it off, and left.” What might he have started to say? Why didn’t he just say it? Does the author’s decision to describe it this way—to tell you he wanted to say something but not have him actually say it—serve an artistic purpose?
B) In chapter 4 we find the first exploration of the significance of the title. Explain.
C) In chapter 4 we learn from the same story of Lt. Carrol’s transformation and the reason for Perry’s and Peewee’s assignment to Alpha Company. One might also find in the story more about the significance of the title. Explain.
D) Lobel says that if he owned the village (where they are doing “PR” work, according to our narrator) he’d “make it into a real jungle scene”(44). What does he then describe? What irony does this ask us to think about? Why is this important? How might this be related to our big question—how does one tell a true war story?
E) Identify the role of and importance of the following:
• VC and ARVN
• Lobel
• Walowick
• Stewart
• “People in Hollywood don’t pee.”
• Paris/President Johnson/Hawaii
• The medical profile (more)
English 11
Fallen Angels
Please answer the following questions carefully and completely. Write a brief paragraph for each question. Use evidence from the text.
Chapter 6 and 7
A) “There you go again Perry. . . .You’re really hooked on reality. It’s a bad scene.” Who says this? To whom? In what context? Explain how this and similar samples of dialogue develop this character and how this character might help explore some of the themes of the novel.
B) (this is a big question—long answer) Explain the eight different answers to the question the film crew asks. Who says what? Considering what we know of these characters, do these answers seem genuine?
C) What is the point of the emphasis on “three confirmed kills”?
Fallen Angels Chapter 4-5
Please answer the following questions carefully and completely. Write a brief paragraph for each question. Use evidence from the text.
A) At the bottom of page 36, Monaco “started to say something else, then shrugged it off, and left.” What might he have started to say? Why didn’t he just say it? Does the author’s decision to describe it this way—to tell you he wanted to say something but not have him actually say it—serve an artistic purpose?
B) In chapter 4 we find the first exploration of the significance of the title. Explain.
C) In chapter 4 we learn from the same story of Lt. Carrol’s transformation and the reason for Perry’s and Peewee’s assignment to Alpha Company. One might also find in the story more about the significance of the title. Explain.
D) Lobel says that if he owned the village (where they are doing “PR” work, according to our narrator) he’d “make it into a real jungle scene”(44). What does he then describe? What irony does this ask us to think about? Why is this important? How might this be related to our big question—how does one tell a true war story?
E) Identify the role of and importance of the following:
• VC and ARVN
• Lobel
• Walowick
• Stewart
• “People in Hollywood don’t pee.”
• Paris/President Johnson/Hawaii
• The medical profile (more)
English 11
Fallen Angels
Please answer the following questions carefully and completely. Write a brief paragraph for each question. Use evidence from the text.
Chapter 6 and 7
A) “There you go again Perry. . . .You’re really hooked on reality. It’s a bad scene.” Who says this? To whom? In what context? Explain how this and similar samples of dialogue develop this character and how this character might help explore some of the themes of the novel.
B) (this is a big question—long answer) Explain the eight different answers to the question the film crew asks. Who says what? Considering what we know of these characters, do these answers seem genuine?
C) What is the point of the emphasis on “three confirmed kills”?
Fallen Angels CRQs ch 1-3
English 11 mcrawford
Fallen Angels Chapter 1-3
Please answer the following questions carefully and completely. Write a brief paragraph for each question. Use evidence from the text.
A) Emphasis on Peewee’s character development is an important part of the opening chapters of this novel. Describe Peewee’s character. What do we learn about his background in the first three chapters? How is this character developed? Why do you think his characterization plays such a big role so early?
B) Richard Perry, our narrator, is also introduced in the first three chapters, though perhaps more subtly than Peewee. What is Perry like? What do we learn about his background? How do we learn it?
C) How are the men addressed during their first moments in Vietnam? What narrative purpose is served by the description of the two marines who have “been in Nam a while” in this scene?
D) The war (and staying alive) is not the only conflict in this novel. What other issue(s) is introduced in these early chapters? What does this promise to do for the plot?
E) Who is Jenkins? How is he characterized? Where is he by the end of chapter 3?
F) Describe the three flashbacks (Perry’s) in the first three chapters. What purpose do they serve?
G) Identify the role of and importance of the following:
• Johnson
• Simpson
• Carroll
• Monaco
• Brunner
• The medical profile
Fallen Angels Chapter 1-3
Please answer the following questions carefully and completely. Write a brief paragraph for each question. Use evidence from the text.
A) Emphasis on Peewee’s character development is an important part of the opening chapters of this novel. Describe Peewee’s character. What do we learn about his background in the first three chapters? How is this character developed? Why do you think his characterization plays such a big role so early?
B) Richard Perry, our narrator, is also introduced in the first three chapters, though perhaps more subtly than Peewee. What is Perry like? What do we learn about his background? How do we learn it?
C) How are the men addressed during their first moments in Vietnam? What narrative purpose is served by the description of the two marines who have “been in Nam a while” in this scene?
D) The war (and staying alive) is not the only conflict in this novel. What other issue(s) is introduced in these early chapters? What does this promise to do for the plot?
E) Who is Jenkins? How is he characterized? Where is he by the end of chapter 3?
F) Describe the three flashbacks (Perry’s) in the first three chapters. What purpose do they serve?
G) Identify the role of and importance of the following:
• Johnson
• Simpson
• Carroll
• Monaco
• Brunner
• The medical profile
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