Initial Reaction to O'Brien's Masterpiece

This book is amazing!!! I share 100% the enthusiasm of my fellow classmates for Tim O'Brien's novel The Things They Carried. O'Brien has a beautiful voice and his uncensored description of the war in Vietnam is proving very effective to me. I especially love how his book is laid out as a series of short stories about his life around the time of the war and how they are all interconnected, enhancing the story.

The main stylistic point that has made an impact on me thus far in reading O'Brien's novel is in the first chapter when he makes a lengthy description of the things that the men in his Alpha Company carried during the war. He explains not only the obvious physical things that they were required to carry (guns, radios, etc.) and the things they were not required to carry (condemns, marijuana, tranquilizers, etc.), but also the emotional/psychological things that they were all burdened with, such as the deaths of many of the men in their company.

Thus far, this book has made an impact on me both as a writer and as a reader, and I cannot wait to read on and experience Tim O'Brien's amazing writing.

"Times have changed for student protestors" by Lampert Smith

In this article Lampert Smith recognizes how times have changed for political protests concerning college students in the United States. He recognizes how many students do not find the motivation for joining protests, and instead watch television or do other things. Also, the students that do take interest, are not nearly as emotional/active in the protests. Mainly, Lampert is comparing the modern-day protests with the vehement, anarchy-established protests of the 1960's.

My personal response to this issue is that I share, 100% the observations made by Lampert Smith. Today young people, especially college students, care more about drinking, partying and watching television than they do about their country/political landscape. Whether this be because there is no draft or direct contact with these students, as Smith believes, or if the students simply do not care, I believe it is that latter more than the former. Students over the past forty years have become increasingly selfish and in need of constant satisfaction in their lives, which leads them to care about partying, drinking and watching television more than the more important political topics that will come to affect their adult lives in the real world.

"A Carnivore's Credo" by Roger Scruton

This essay, by Roger Scruton, ranks as one of the most enlightening essays that I have read thus far in AP Composition. In said essay, Scruton devises an argument for the persuasion of non-meat eaters to eat meat. First, he makes many observations such as to the causes for the vegetarian movement of the past fifty years. He blames this movement primarily on the growth in the fast-food industry and on the decline in eating as a family pastime. Also, he states that eating has switched from a moral encompassing ritual, bringing families together in thanks for their food, to a savage affair that often separates family members. To bring this back to his point on why people have moved towards vegetarianism is that the current generation yearns for some sort of ethical basis in their lives, so they eat vegetables as a direct connection with mother earth; this movement has also shown up in the recent "Green" movement.

In order to tie these points into persuasion, he brings out the ethical argument near the end of the essay. First, he talks about how it is the duty of the people that recognize the need for animal appreciation, primarily the vegetarians, to eat meet so that they can bring that appreciation back into the process and not leave its future to burger-gobbling pigs. Finally, he makes a point that if we treat the consuming of meat with more respect, then the procurement of said meat and the treatment of the animals will in turn improve.

I completely agree with most of what Roger said. He brought up a lot of good observations surrounding the argument of carnivorism from both sides of the issue and I thought that his theory for the causes of the vegetarian movement was spot on. The only thing that I found a little weak in his paper was his overgeneralizing in describing the raising of cows in particular. While he recognizes the pig battery farms, he generalized the raising of cows to be positive in all cases; by this he says that most farmers treat cows with utmost admiration, taking care of them and feeding them well before they are slaughtered, and at the time of slaughter it is humane and virtually pain-free.

"What is Poverty" by Theodore Dalrymple

In this essay, Theodore describes what he interprets to be the state of poverty in varying countries in today's world. His main focus resides in, what he terms the "welfare state", or England. Dalrymple talks about how in England people take advantage of the government's welfare system, which in effect eliminates his understanding of poverty; by this he means that even the poorest class in England are treated with shelter, food, medicine and entertainment free of charge by the government. He contrasts this state of poverty with that which he observed in Africa: lepers with their noses rotted off, people with heart failure walking eight miles in 120 degree heat to get treatment and then walking back home, etc.

The main point that Theodore tries to get across throughout his essay is that in "welfare states" such as England and most of the current members of the European Union, it has become practice for the poorest of the poor to take advantage of the government; thereby not learning/gaining any values out of the experience of being poor and keeping the "Devil's Temptations" a part of their daily lives (drugs, gambling, prostitution, etc.).

Overall, I loved Theodore's essay on what he believes to be poverty. I agree with him in his observations of the welfare states and how their poor are suckled into contention. I also feel that having poverty is healthy for a society, being a capitalist, because it evens out the scales and teaches good ethics/morals; every family tree has a low point on it, and this is where they find their values to live by.