English 015 - Americans Abroad
November 30, 2003 - December 06, 2003
The Moon
Category: 08B: Going After Cacciato | Karen Tang
The moon appears during the very long night at the observation post and on the road to Paris. It serves as a symbol for hope. “The moon gave light. It would be all right, he told himself. He was safe” (p.27). At the observation post, Paul Berlin gains peace...
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Posted by ktang on December 02, 2003 at 02:30 PM
Time
Category: 08B: Going After Cacciato | Ben Ledue
A recurring idea within Paul Bowles's Going After Cacciato is time. Time is a reminder of opportunity, while also humbling the soldiers. Each soldier is aware of how many months they have been at war, as well as how many until they leave. Before his first real battle action, Berlin...
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Posted by on December 02, 2003 at 02:13 PM
A Senseless Conflict
Category: 08B: Going After Cacciato | Hope Stockton
The soldiers in Going After Cacciato display a confusion of purpose; they remain unsure of why they are in Vietnam, what exactly they are doing, and who it is for. This confusion is reinforced when the side the characters appear to be on turns against them, a recurring idea in...
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Posted by on December 02, 2003 at 02:03 PM
Tunnels of Death and Opportunity
Category: 08B: Going After Cacciato | Tom Lakin
Tim O’Brien’s Going After Cacciato, images and ideas repeat themselves throughout the various sections of the novel. One of these repeating themes is tunnels, and their significance in the war. In the battle scenes, the VC tunnels are portrayed and dangerous areas which need to be destroyed to get rid...
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Posted by on December 02, 2003 at 02:03 PM
True Traveler
Category: 3E: Bowles | Karen Tang
In Paul Bowles’s The Sheltering Sky, only Kit develops into a true traveler. A true traveler, according to Port, belongs “no more to one place than to the next, moves slowly, over periods of years, from one part of the earth to another” (p.14). Port and the Lyles never become...
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Posted by ktang on December 02, 2003 at 02:00 PM
Impersonal War
Category: 08B: Going After Cacciato | Bryan Ciborowski
Interestingly, the settings comment on one another by showing the distinction between a war fought impersonally and personally. This idea of impersonality can be clearly seen in the episode with Li Van Hgoc. Here we see how a soldier, Paul Berlin, acts towards his enemy after interacting with him...
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Posted by on December 02, 2003 at 01:54 PM
Counting
Category: 08B: Going After Cacciato | Meaghan Tanguay
At the observation post and on the road to Paris, there is an “incredible slowness with which time passed” (p45). Paul Berlin struggles with his obsession over the passage of time. At the observation post during his Middle-hour guard, which he believes to be the scariest guard time, “he tried...
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Posted by on December 02, 2003 at 01:40 PM
Changing Soldiers
Category: 08B: Going After Cacciato | Matt Nickel
The characters in Going After Cacciato change from soldiers to civilians slowly over the novel. This transformation is promoted by the childhood and civilian images on the road to Paris and the night in the observation tower. On the road to Paris, the soldiers slowly lose their weapons and clothing...
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Posted by on December 02, 2003 at 01:38 PM
Explosions
Category: 08B: Going After Cacciato | Meg Gray
The soldiers in "Going After Cacciato" are constantly on the move in both the reality of battle and the fantasy of the road to Paris. Then Paul Bowles uses the same event, an explosion, to break up the monotony of the trail in both settings. The effects of the...
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Posted by on December 02, 2003 at 01:36 PM
Pursuit of Peace
Category: 08B: Going After Cacciato | Andrew Plowman
Paul Berlin believes that the road Cacciato is leading them to is a road to escape war and find a meaningful life. They are heading westward which stands for civilization and peace. This westward “country [is] far from the war, rich and peaceful country” (pp.16). Berlin, “whose only goal...
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Posted by aplowman on December 02, 2003 at 01:33 PM
Routines
Category: 08B: Going After Cacciato | Thomas Buehrens
The narrator says early on, “the routinization of war, which helped make it tolerable, included even trivial things” (p. 44). The idea of making all actions follow either a formal or informal operating procedure is what keeps the characters of Going After Cacciato doing their duties both in battle,...
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Posted by on December 02, 2003 at 01:19 PM
In the Tunnels
Category: 08B: Going After Cacciato | Kelsey Abbruzzese
Tunnel scenes in Going After Cacciato display violent traps for Americans. The soldiers refuse to go down them, knowing what fate awaits them. They hate Martin for sending men to search the tunnels. After the Vietnamese shoot Frenchie Tucker, Oscar says, “This here’s what happens when you search the fuckers...
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Posted by on December 02, 2003 at 01:18 PM
Absence from War
Category: 08B: Going After Cacciato | Eric Robinson
In two separate settings from Tim O’Brien’s Going After Cacciato, the common theme of absence from the Vietnam War is founded through images and characters’ dialogue. The first location is set on the trail to Paris, which leads through mountains and jungles. While the troops follow Cacciato up a...
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Posted by on December 02, 2003 at 01:13 PM
War Games
Category: 08B: Going After Cacciato | Zac Milner
Children often pretend to be soldiers, simulating war in their free time. In GAC, soldiers tend to play children’s games in real war time. Playing games helps calm the uncertainty and distress of the war; games serve as both a distraction from the horrific images surrounding the soldiers and a...
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Posted by on December 02, 2003 at 01:12 PM
A Catch 22
Category: 08B: Going After Cacciato | Ross Stern
References to the soldiers’ constant involvement in the war and Paul Berlin’s powerful desire to escape the war and reach Paris are recurring ideas throughout the soldiers’ adventures on the road to Paris and the long night at an observations post. Together, these two ideas, shown through the repetition of...
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Posted by on December 02, 2003 at 12:13 PM
Repeated Imagination
Category: 08B: Going After Cacciato | Simon Parsons
While on the road to Paris and during the extended night at the observation post, the idea of Paul Berlin’s imagination appears repeatedly. Although the instances clearly show differences, they seem entwined as the novel builds upon itself. When Berlin is on guard at the post, he reflects deeply...
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Posted by on December 01, 2003 at 11:57 PM
Junk Food
Category: 08B: Going After Cacciato | Diana Heald
Both in battle and on the road to Paris, the soldiers in Going After Cacciato yearn for home. While they occasionally admit to missing their families and hometowns, the soldiers most often express their homesickness in both situations by relating their cravings for junk food. When they emerge from hidden...
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Posted by on December 01, 2003 at 10:56 PM
What do you want here?
Category: 3E: Bowles | Simon Parsons
In Paul Bowles’s The Sheltering Sky, the leitmotifs prostitution and especially blindness hold particular importance as they relate to the traveler. The blurring of sight intrigues Kit and Port as it isolates them from that which they seek to forget: for Port, the “mechanized age” (14) associated with WWII, for...
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Posted by on November 30, 2003 at 06:03 PM