Why are they back?

Now that we have read the last act of the play, what do you think the purpose of Act 5 Scene 6 is? This is the passage with Sarah Ironson and Rabbi Chemelwitz. Why are these characters back? What are they trying to say about why people in heaven play cards? What was Kushner's motive for that scene?

Angels in America: Should we trust them?

In the Act II, Scene 2 the Angel and Prior lead a very interesting dialogue. From the scene do you think the Angel is right? Can we trust the Angel? Why or why not?

Angels in America

As we keep reading the play, which I really enjoy, the characters are starting to develop and we know more from the individual scenes. Many of the scenes are funny or very thought provoking. What is your favorite scene from the play that we read so far and why? :)

Louis and Belize

While reading the part in Act Three where Louis and Belize are having their talk about their personal views, why do you think Kushner decided to have them discuss politics at a time like this as opposed to discussing the seemingly intense state of Prior, someone they both hold in high regard? I also questioned why Kushner decided to have Louis elaborate on his political views to the extent that he did when the reader already had a clear sense of his strong character?

Debate Closing Arguments

As I said at the end of class, I thought both sides did a good job of isolating what seems to be the key question of Neilson's article:  Does The Things They Carried offer a moral critique of/comment on war in general and the Vietnam War in particular?  Or does postmodernism somehow make it impossible to take a moral stance?

Please address this question here for your "closing arguments."  There is no limit to how many people from each side can post, and you can feel free to comment upon each other's posts.

O'Brien vs. Neilson 

After finishing the book and reading Neilson's "Trauma as historical amnesia" critique: what do you think about postmodernism as a style to tell war stories? Do you agree with O'Brien or Neilson?

Is it real?

So in "How to tell a true way story," we learned the aspects of a true war story. It is crazy, there is no moral, it embarrasses the person telling, it has no concrete beginning or end, and overall it is confusing. So this weekend we were suppost to read "The Ghost Soldiers." Using what we learned in How to Tell a True War Story do you think that the stories in The Ghost Soldiers is real? Or is O'Brien making it up? And do you think it matters if he makes it up? Is is okay to use the things we learned in How to Tell a True War Story to determine the validity of future stories? (You dont have to answer all of the question.)

Stockings

The soldier Henry Dobbins believes in superstition and he thinks that his girlfriend's pantyhose has a magic power. Why do you think O'Brien decided to write a chapter about this? / what does it tell about war and soldiers?

What is the TRUTH? 

We covered 2/3 of the book and sometimes I still have a problem figuring what the TRUTH really is. The Things They Carried is full of stories that are trues according to Tim O'Brien, but then you turn a page and he tells you that he actually added a lot to the story or just didn't say the whole truth. So, what do you think the TRUTH is? If you want support your answer with textual evidence.

Speaking of Courage

In the last chapter we read, Tim O'Brien tells a story of Norman Bowker. However, at the end of the chapter he writes: "He did not freeze up or lose the Silver Star for valor. That part of the story is my own." Do you think that O'Brien wrote a story about Bowker using his real name or he just made it up and actually the character of Bowker was Tim O'Brien? Explain

Dancing

In the chapter "Spin", we get told about a young Vietnamese girl who is dancing in the midst of her burned down town. Throughout the very short chapter, Azar keeps asking "Why is she dancing?"(129). Why do you think the girl is dancing? What do you think it represents?