Vietnam Literary Journalism

Which of the following statements is a paradox? "There is no room for the impurities of literature in an essay." ("The Modern Essay," Virginia Woolf) "This affair must all be unraveled from within." (The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Agatha Christie) "Men work together . . . whether they work together or apart." ("The Tuft of Flowers," Robert Frost)

"Men work together . . . whether they work together or apart." ("The Tuft of Flowers," Robert Frost)

Which excerpt from Dispatches contains a paradox? And at night, all of it seemed more possible. At night in Khe Sanh, waiting there, thinking about all of them (40,000, some said), thinking that they might really try it, could keep you up. If they did, when they did, it might not matter that you were in the best bunker in the DMZ, wouldn't matter that you were young and had plans, that you were loved, that you were a noncombatant, an observer. Because if it came, it would be in a bloodswarm of killing, and credentials would not be examined. Anxiety was a luxury, a joke you had no room for once you knew the variety of deaths and mutilations the war offered.

Anxiety was a luxury, a joke you had no room for once you knew the variety of deaths and mutilations the war offered.

I remembered the way a Phantom pilot had talked about how beautiful the surface-to-air missiles looked as they drifted up toward his plane to kill him, and remembered myself how lovely .50-caliber tracers could be, coming at you as you flew at night in a helicopter, how slow and graceful, arching up easily, a dream, so remote from anything that could harm you. It could make you feel a total serenity, an elevation that put you above death, but that never lasted very long. One hit anywhere in the chopper would bring you back, bitten lips, white knuckles and all, and then you knew where you were. It was different with the incoming at Khe Sanh. —Dispatches, Michael Herr What is the overall effect of the imagery in this passage? Terrifying images show that people continue to dream about events after they have happened. Vivid images of a Phantom pilot show the terrible dangers that soldiers faced at war. Beautiful images of deadly weapons create tension. Serene images of the night sky show that soldiers found comfort in the natural world.

Beautiful images of deadly weapons create tension.

Read the excerpt from Dispatches.I remembered the way a Phantom pilot had talked about how beautiful the surface-to-air missiles looked as they drifted up toward his plane to kill him, and remembered myself how lovely .50-caliber tracers could be, coming at you as you flew at night in a helicopter, how slow and graceful, arching up easily, a dream, so remote from anything that could harm you.Based on the sensory details, what can be inferred about the narrator's feelings toward the airstrikes he witnessed? He was fascinated by the way they looked. He became drowsy from their slowness. He despised them because they were destructive. He feared them for their unpredictability.

He was fascinated by the way they looked.

Compare and contrast Herr's and Caputo's texts to respond to this question: How do Herr and Caputo combine observations and literary devices to tell a story? Use specific examples from both readings in your response.

Herr was a war correspondent who is famous for "Dispatches" - a Vietnam war memoir. Philip Caputo wrote a book "A Rumor of War", also about Vietnam war. Both became very important "documents" of the war, even a dispute arised on the discussion of best book written for the Vietnam war. The crucial difference is that Herr's book is consisted of pure personal experience, while some parts of Caputo's book contain fiction.

Identify an objective observation from the passage. Illumination rounds were fired from inside the wire. The landscape had a ghastly clarity. The explosion outlined the gaunt trees.

Illumination rounds were fired from inside the wire.

How do Herr and Caputo use imagery to show the conflicting emotions that people face when they are at war?

Philip Caputo wanted the romance of war, bayonet charges, and desperate battles against impossible odds during the Vietnam War. hilip Caputo imagined himself charging up a beachhead, like John Wayne in Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), and this led him to join the Marines to fight in Vietnam. Michael Herr commented on the performance of `grunts' when they knew that there was a camera crew nearby and how they imitated the stars of war movies. So powerful were cinematic images of battle that soldiers acted as though they were on the screen according to Herr.

There would be the muted rush of illumination rounds, fired from 60-mm. mortars inside the wire, dropping magnesium-brilliant above the NVA trenches for a few seconds, outlining the gaunt, flat spread of the mahogany trees, giving the landscape a ghastly clarity and dying out. —Dispatches, Michael Herr What is the effect of combining the objective observations and the imagery? Readers become confused about what is happening inside and outside the wire. Readers feel distanced from the scene. Readers learn what weapons were used and visualize what those weapons did.

Readers learn what weapons were used and visualize what those weapons did.

I remembered the way a Phantom pilot had talked about how beautiful the surface-to-air missiles looked as they drifted up toward his plane to kill him, and remembered myself how lovely .50-caliber tracers could be, coming at you as you flew at night in a helicopter, how slow and graceful, arching up easily, a dream, so remote from anything that could harm you. It could make you feel a total serenity, an elevation that put you above death, but that never lasted very long. One hit anywhere in the chopper would bring you back, bitten lips, white knuckles and all, and then you knew where you were. It was different with the incoming at Khe Sanh. —Dispatches, Michael Herr How does the image of the .50-caliber tracer in flight compare with the image of the pilot who has been hit by the tracer? The tracer has a dreamlike quality, so the pilot feels serene and invincible no matter what happens. The tracer looks harmless in flight, but the pilot's bitten lips and white knuckles suggest how dangerous it can be. The tracer looks terrifying and dangerous, while the pilot looks calm and serene. The tracer's graceful, effortless movements contrast with the pilot's wild movements as he tries to control his helicopter.

The tracer looks harmless in flight, but the pilot's bitten lips and white knuckles suggest how dangerous it can be.

Which sentence from Dispatches contains the best example of sensory language? Sometimes you'd step from the bunker, all sense of time passing having left you, and find it dark out. There would be dozens of them at once sometimes, trailing an intense smoke, dropping white-hot sparks, and it seemed as though anything caught in their range would be made still, like figures in a game of living statues. Once in a while—I guess I saw it happen three or four times in all—there would be a secondary explosion, a direct hit on a supply of NVA ammunition. If they did, when they did, it might not matter that you were in the best bunker in the DMZ, wouldn't matter that you were young and had plans, that you were loved, that you were a noncombatant, an observer.

There would be dozens of them at once sometimes, trailing an intense smoke, dropping white-hot sparks, and it seemed as though anything caught in their range would be made still, like figures in a game of living statues.

Which excerpt from Dispatches contains sensory language to describe the geography of Vietnam? There would be the muted rush of illumination rounds, fired from 60-mm. mortars inside the wire, dropping magnesium-brilliant above the NVA trenches for a few seconds, outlining the gaunt, flat spread of the mahogany trees, giving the landscape a ghastly clarity and dying out. It was awesome, worse than anything the Lord had ever put down on Egypt, and at night, you'd hear the Marines talking, watching it, yelling, "Get some!" until they grew quiet and someone would say, "Spooky understands." The nights were very beautiful. Once in a while—I guess I saw it happen three or four times in all—there would be a secondary explosion, a direct hit on a supply of NVA ammunition. And at night it was beautiful. Even the incoming was beautiful at night, beautiful and deeply dreadful. Nights were when the air and artillery strikes were heaviest because that was when we knew that the NVA was above ground and moving. At night you could lie out on some sandbags and watch the C-47's mounted with Vulcans doing their work.

There would be the muted rush of illumination rounds, fired from 60-mm. mortars inside the wire, dropping magnesium-brilliant above the NVA trenches for a few seconds, outlining the gaunt, flat spread of the mahogany trees, giving the landscape a ghastly clarity and dying out.

If you were a war correspondent, what would you include in your report on the event shown in the photograph? Check any that apply. Three soldiers are carrying a wounded soldier on a stretcher. It is impossible to tell how badly injured the soldier on the stretcher is. The soldiers are up to their hips in a stream and are surrounded by jungle. One soldier has lost his helmet. The soldiers appear to be very tired.

Three soldiers are carrying a wounded soldier on a stretcher. It is impossible to tell how badly injured the soldier on the stretcher is. The soldiers are up to their hips in a stream and are surrounded by jungle. One soldier has lost his helmet. The soldiers appear to be very tired.

Which statements explain the point that Caputo is making through this paradox? Check all of the boxes that match the excerpt. The war took a physical toll on the soldiers and caused them to age prematurely. Young soldiers were forced to witness death at an early age. War forced young soldiers to grow up and mature. Soldiers who returned from war felt like creatures from a horror movie.

Young soldiers were forced to witness death at an early age. War forced young soldiers to grow up and mature.

[The exhilaration] was usually followed by more of the same hot walking, with the mud sucking at our boots and the sun thudding against our helmets while an invisible enemy shot at us from distant tree lines. . . . Weeks of bottled-up tensions would be released in a few minutes of . . . violence, men screaming and shouting obscenities above the explosions of grenades and the rapid, rippling bursts of automatic rifles. —A Rumor of War, Philip Caputo One inference the reader can make based on this passage is that warfare in Vietnam was characterized by constant, violent action and emotional outbursts. monotony and endless boredom. a lot of walking and short, intense conflicts. successful battles that encouraged American troops.

a lot of walking and short, intense conflicts.

[The exhilaration] was usually followed by more of the same hot walking, with the mud sucking at our boots and the sun thudding against our helmets while an invisible enemy shot at us from distant tree lines. . . . Weeks of bottled-up tensions would be released in a few minutes of . . . violence, men screaming and shouting obscenities above the explosions of grenades and the rapid, rippling bursts of automatic rifles. —A Rumor of War, Philip Caputo "Prologue pgs xiii-xvi" from the book A Rumor of War, edited by Philip Caputo. Copyright ©1977 by Philip Caputo. Reprinted by permission of Henry Holt and Company. What contrast does Caputo create with the imagery in this excerpt? a slow, repetitive pattern and sudden chaos muted, dull colors and bright, cheerful colors sweet, tender kindness and vicious, evil cruelty unbearable tension and soothing relaxation

a slow, repetitive pattern and sudden chaos

Read the excerpt from Dispatches.The far side of the hills around the bowl of the base was glimmering, but you could never see the source of the light, and it had the look of a city at night approached from a great distance. Flares were dropping everywhere around the fringes of the perimeter, laying a dead white light on the high ground rising from the piedmont. There would be dozens of them at once sometimes, trailing an intense smoke, dropping white-hot sparks, and it seemed as though anything caught in their range would be made still, like figures in a game of living statues. There would be the muted rush of illumination rounds, fired from 60-mm. mortars inside the wire, dropping magnesium-brilliant above the NVA trenches.The sensory details in the excerpt evoke a sense of awe and wonder. confusion and disgust. hope and strength. surprise and excitement.

awe and wonder.

EXAM Read the excerpt from A Rumor of War.Repeatedly, I have found myself wishing that I had been the veteran of a conventional war, with dramatic campaigns and historic battles for subject matter instead of a monotonous succession of ambushes and firefights. But there were no Normandies and Gettysburgs for us, no epic clashes that decided the fates of armies or nations. The war was mostly a matter of enduring weeks of expectant waiting and, at random intervals, of conducting vicious manhunts through jungles and swamps where snipers harassed us constantly and booby traps cut us down one by one.Based on the excerpt, why might the author have titled the book A Rumor of War? because the author wrote about the Vietnam War, but he did not actually fight in it because many people have forgotten the events that happened during the Vietnam War because the Vietnam War was fought in an especially brutal and untraditional way because many of the Vietnam War stories are believed to be untrue and exaggerated

because the Vietnam War was fought in an especially brutal and untraditional way

The inclusion of sensory details makes readers feel as if they

can see and hear what the narrator sees and hears

Read the excerpt from A Rumor of War.The tedium was occasionally relieved by a large-scale search-and-destroy operation, but the exhilaration of riding the lead helicopter into a landing zone was usually followed by more of the same hot walking, with the mud sucking at our boots and the sun thudding against our helmets while an invisible enemy shot at us from distant tree lines. The paradox in the excerpt illustrates the idea that danger could alleviate the monotony of war. walking was often necessary after flying. the soldiers could not see their enemies. the heat was more difficult to overcome than the enemy.

danger could alleviate the monotony of war.

Read the excerpt from Dispatches.Because, really, what a choice there was; what a prodigy of things to be afraid of! The moment that you understood this, really understood it, you lost your anxiety instantly. Anxiety was a luxury, a joke you had no room for once you knew the variety of deaths and mutilations the war offered.The purpose of the paradox in the excerpt is to illustrate the narrator's desire to relieve his uneasiness. reinforce the physical and emotional challenges of war. show that indulgences are stolen during war, not provided. highlight the idea that fear can be viewed in different ways.

highlight the idea that fear can be viewed in different ways.

Which pair of words could be combined into a paradoxical statement? rough, coarse blue, green noise, silence tart, sour

noise, silence

Which of the following did you include in your response? Check all of the boxes that apply. Both authors use contradictions in their imagery. Herr describes deadly weapons beautifully to show people's conflicting feelings. Caputo describes boredom followed by sudden chaos. Both authors describe scenes using emotional language.

select all

Which of the following elements did you include in your answer? Check all of the boxes that apply to your answer. examples of imagery examples of paradox examples of subjective observations inferences about experiences the fact that the reader feels like a part of the story

select all

Read the excerpt from A Rumor of War.Weeks of bottled-up tensions would be released in a few minutes of orgiastic violence, men screaming and shouting obscenities above the explosions of grenades and the rapid, rippling bursts of automatic rifles.In this excerpt, the author uses imagery to describe the soldiers' feelings of fear. the soldiers' feelings of relief. the chaos and frenzy of war. the pain and anguish of war.

the chaos and frenzy of war.

What can you infer from this passage?

the rounds were deadly but beautiful

Read the excerpt from A Rumor of War.Repeatedly, I have found myself wishing that I had been the veteran of a conventional war, with dramatic campaigns and historic battles for subject matter instead of a monotonous succession of ambushes and firefights.Which best describes the purpose of the paradox in the excerpt? to demonstrate how bored the narrator felt while serving in Vietnam to illustrate the hardships faced by soldiers who have fought in wars to emphasize the difficulties faced by soldiers in untraditional warfare to highlight the complexities of more traditional warfare and weaponry

to emphasize the difficulties faced by soldiers in untraditional warfare

The knowledge of death, of the implacable limits placed on a man's existence, severed us from our youth as irrevocably as a surgeon's scissors had once severed us from the womb. And yet, few of us were past twenty-five. We left Vietnam peculiar creatures, with young shoulders that bore rather old heads. —A Rumor of War, Philip Caputo Identify the paradox in the passage. severed youth who were severed from the womb living men who have knowledge of death young men who have old minds

young men who have old minds