The Intangible Burdens

       In The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien, describes the things that a group of American soldiers are each carrying in the Vietnam War. He also includes the weights of each of these objects to emphasize the heaviness of these physical burdens. However, throughout the whole story, O'Brien implies the message that the intangible burdens of the soldiers are much heavier than the materials that they carry. For example, Jimmy Cross has a fanatical love for a girl named Martha, and his sexual desires for Martha distract him from the war. Additionally, as the leader of the platoon, Cross carries with him the responsibility of the lives of all the men, along with the sense of guilt he feels after Ted Lavender dies.
     Ted Lavender is also an excellent example that portrays the intensity of the emotional and mental burdens during a war. Lavender carries around tranquilizers and drugs because of his fear of getting killed. Although he carries a relatively light weight, the burden from his guilt is extremely heavy and eventually leads him to his death. On the other hand, Henry Dobbins, a big, masculine soldier, carries the biggest weapons and a lot of ammunition, thus, carrying the heaviest physical weight of all. However, he is free from the emotional and mental burdens that Cross and Lavender possess, which helps him stay focused on the war, and carry the heaviest physical burden of all.
    Lastly, one of the biggest reasons why I thought Tim O'Brien was trying to exemplify the intensity of the   intangible burdens of the war was because of something that almost every soldier possessed: A "unnecessity" or a superstitious object. Dave Jensen carries toiletries, Lavender carries drugs, Scholl carries foot powder, Kiley carries comic books, and Kiowa carries the New Testament, Dobbins carries his girlfriend's underwear, and Sanders carried around a real thumb. The reason why I put quotations around "unnecessity" is because these objects aren't needed for war, but they are things that the men have to carry for their own emotional and mental comfort.

Gryphon: THe Purpose of Intertwining the Conventional and the Unconventional

Gryphon, by Charles Baxter, is a short story about a mysterious substitute teacher, named Miss Ferenczi, written in the perspective of a fourth grader. The reason why I say Miss Ferenczi is mysterious is because of the many unconventional things she says. There are many examples throughout the story where Miss Ferenczi says very fascinating things that make the fourth graders question the accuracy of her statements, but she also intertwines conventional statements, and I think there is a purpose behind this.

During the arithmetic lesson, Miss Ferenczi makes a boy named John Wazny recite the six-times tables. However, even though John makes a mistake by saying six times eleven is sixty-eight, Miss Ferenczi says, “Well now. That was very good.” (Miss Ferenczi 41) and tries to move on with the lesson. The kids stop her and ask her why she didn’t correct John for his mistake, and she tells the children that six times eleven can equal sixty-eight in higher level mathematics, even though six times eleven is obviously sixty six. The kids find this hard to take in and they continue to question Miss Ferenczi, but Miss Ferenczi waves off their questions by telling them to consider it as a “substitute fact” and to think whatever they like.

Another example where Miss Ferenczi mixes conventional and unconventional facts is when she talks about an imaginary animal that she had seen in Cairo called a Gryphon. A Gryphon is a majestic creature that is half-bird, half-lion. Again in this situation Miss Ferenczi intertwines conventional and unconventional facts. A lion and a bird are both creatures that exist in our world, but Miss Ferenczi mixes them together to create something imaginary.

Lastly, another place where conventional and unconventional things are put together are at the end of the short story. At the end Miss Ferenczi tells the kids’ their fortunes with a set of cards that she brings into class. One by one she goes through the kids and tells them their fortunes, but when she gets to Wayne, she tells him that he will die soon. This causes her to get fired and the story draws to a close. However, the very last paragraph of the story is a large section containing factual information about insects, which contrasts heavily from the teaching style that Miss Ferenczi uses.

There were two main purposes of intertwining conventional and unconventional facts. The first was to emphasize that there aren’t that many “right” answers in our world. Everything can be viewed in multiple points of view and by intertwining conventional and unconventional facts; Miss Ferenczi expands the children’s wonder and imagination. The children’s creativity is forced to grow and they use their creativity to come up with their own answers that they believe is right.

The second purpose of intertwining conventional and unconventional facts was to make us wonder which facts were conventional and which facts are unconventional. By mixing the two types of facts together throughout the whole story, we as readers begin to wonder if even the conventional facts are true and this process of questioning was another purpose of intertwining the two types of facts. 

Interpreter of Maladies: The Negative Ending

Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lihiri, is about a tour guide named Mr. Kapasi, taking a dysfunctional family on a tour around some parts of India. However, during this trip, the mother of this dysfunctional family, Mrs. Das, begins to show an interest in Mr. Kapasi when she hears that he also works as an interpreter at a hospital. At first, Mr. Kapasi doesn’t understand why Mrs. Das has such a big interest in his work, but he is lured into her beauty and begins to have dreams of expanding his relationship with Mrs. Das. However, later in the story, Mrs. Das confesses to Mr. Kapasi that one of her kids, Bobby, has a different father and she asks Mr. Kapasi for an interpretation of her problems. Mr. Kapasi quickly realizes that Mrs. Das’ problem is the source of the dysfunctional relationships within the family and he tells her that her problem is “guilt” rather than pain. Although Mrs. Das is very angry with Mr. Kapasi for saying that she is guilty, she quickly accepts Mr. Kapasi’s interpretation of her pain and she begins to change. Evidence of this change can be seen in the ending scenes of the story where Bobby is getting harassed by a large group of monkeys. Before, Mrs. Das seemed indifferent towards her whole family, and everything the children did seemed annoying to Mrs. Das, however, at the sight of her son’s danger, Mrs. Das screams for help and as soon as Mr. Kapasi saves Bobby from the monkeys, she makes sure that Bobby is okay. Although this may seem like a hopeful ending to the story because the mother finally makes an effort to show some compassion to her child, I think very differently.

At close inspection to the ending of Interpreter of Maladies there is a lot of evidence that can support a negative or sad ending to the story. First of all, none of the family was really interested in saving Bobby from the monkeys, except Mrs. Das. In fact, nobody even noticed that Bobby was missing until Mrs. Das and Mr. Kapasi joined them after their private conversation. Secondly, Mr. Das’ lack of love towards his children is perfectly exemplified when Bobby is put into danger. During this scene, Mr. Das becomes very nervous, but we as readers, can tell that Mr. Das is nervous, not because Bobby is in danger, but because he was put in the uncomfortable situation where he would be expected to act. If a child was put in this kind of a situation, it is quite reasonable to assume that the strong male in the family, who cares for the child’s wellbeing, would help the child. In this case, it should’ve been Mr. Das, but because of his lack of compassion towards his own son, Mr. Das was reluctant to save Bobby. Similarly, his lack of love can also be seen after Mr. Kapasi saves Bobby from the monkeys. Unlike most parents who would say something like, “are you ok?” or “are you hurt?” Mr. Das just assumes Bobby is ok by saying, “He’s fine. Just a little scared, right, Bobby?” (Mr. Das 80) This quote exemplifies Mr. Das’ lack of love and the fact that Bobby’s voice is never heard, shows how little he matters to the rest of the family.

As stated before, readers may consider the ending to be a hopeful ending because of the positive efforts that Mrs. Das makes to get closer to her family, however, even in the ending scene Mrs. Das doesn’t change that much. During the middle of the trip, Mrs. Das had asked for Mr. Kapasi’s phone number and address. However, as Mrs. Das whips out a hairbrush to fix Bobby’s hair in the ending scene, the note that Mr. Kapasi wrote his phone number and address on fluttered away. Although some may argue that this event was coincidental, I think it portrays Mrs. Das’ true personality. The only reason why Mrs. Das asked for Mr. Kapasi’s phone number was to show a fake interest in him, and the only reason why she showed a fake interest in him, was because she thought he could interpret her family problems. Therefore, because Mr. Kapasi had already helped Mrs. Das with her family problems by the time of the ending scene, Mr. Kapasi was about as good as nothing to her, which is why she was so negligent about keeping Mr. Kapasi’s phone number and address well-contained.