reading #10, question 3

[Abigail Seay]

In "Field Trip," why do you think that it is important to share this
journey into the past with his daughter?

[Ian McKay]

That's a good question Abbey.

I think it was important for O'Brien to take his daughter back to
Vietnam with him because he wanted to share with her what Vietnam was
like. "The tourist stuff was fine, but from the start I'd wanted to
take my daughter to the places I'd seen as a soldier. I wanted to show
her the Vietnam that kept me awake at night" (O'Brien 175-176).
O'Brien wanted his daughter to understand why he couldn't ever stop
writing war stories or talking about the war. He thought if he took
her there she would have a better understanding about why he could not
just forget the Vietnam War. Also just simply because she is his child
and he wants to share his experiences with her because Vietnam was an
extremely important part of his life, and he believes talking about
his life to his daughter and opening himself up to her brings them
closer together.

[Emily Richards]

That's a good question Abbey. You make a good point Ian, but I
disagree. I think the reason that O'Brien wants to share this
experience with his daughter is because she fails to see why Vietnam
was so important to him. He is physically unable to tell her how much
Vietnam changed him as a person and how important his friends were to
him. I believe Kathleen has a hard time grasping the importance of
Vietnam and why it happened, so Tim takes her to Vietnam to show her
instead of tell her. When he takes her to the field where Kiowa died
he says, "Neither of them [Kathleen and the government interpreter], I
think, understood what all this was about, why I'd insisted that we
search out this spot" (O'Brien 174). So in a way, I agree with Ian
because Tim does want to share the experience with Kathleen, I just
think that it's because she can't understand if he just tells her. And
at the end of the trip, I don't think she ever grasps the importance
of the field because Tim says, "She pinched her nose and watched me
wade out to where the water reached my knees. Roughly here, I decided,
was where Mitchell Sanders had found Kiowa's rucksack...'What a mess,'
Kathleen said. 'All that gunk on your skin, you look like...Wait'll I
tell Mommy, she'll probably make you sleep in the garage'" (O'Brien
179). As much as Tim O'Brien wanted Kathleen to learn from Vietnam
just by seeing the field, she never really saw what he saw.

> > journey into the past with his daughter?- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Scott Cast]

I somewhat agree with Ian, but more than understanding I feel he wants
his daughter’s respect. He explains “I wanted to show her the Vietnam
that kept me awake at night" (O'Brien 176). I feel that his pride is
damaged by her not understanding. He thinks his daughter sees him as
weak, so he wants to show her the horrors he went through, but when
they got there, it was nice sunny day and it humiliated him. He put
this field on a pedestal so seeing it in a normal light was a shocking
event. As he stares at it, he thinks “This little field, I thought had
swallowed so much. My best friend, my pride, my belief in myself as a
man of some small dignity and courage” (O’Brien 176). The monster that
took his life is just an unremarkable field. His horror was unjust in
his daughter’s eyes. The whole point of the trip was ruined. He could
never show his daughter the hellish battle field he lived through and
she would never understand or respect what had occurred.

On Feb 22, 9:17 pm, Abigail Seay <as...@brvgs.k12.va.us> wrote:

[Ashton Trice]

I agree with Ian and Emily. Even though O’Brien doesn’t really have a
daughter, he wanted to include this story so he could go back to the
field that Kiowa was killed. It was important to him to share his
experience with his daughter because “seeing is believing”. Even
though Kathleen is young and didn’t experience the war with her
father, it gives her a better understanding to walk on the land that
her father did years ago. O’Brien thought of the trip as “a kind of
birthday present, showing her [Kathleen] the world, offering a small
piece of her father’s history” (O’Brien). O’Brien takes his daughter
to the place where his friend died and she complains about wanting to
go home. I also agree with Scott’s point about the trip being a
failure. In the end, O’Brien failed to get his daughter to understand
the reality of the war. Kathleen’s innocence about the war makes it
hard for her to grasp the significance of the field. I think O’Brien
wanted to share his experience with his daughter because he wanted her
to have a better understanding of what he went through, even though
she doesn’t exactly take the trip seriously.

[Jessica]

I agree with Ashton. I think that it was very important for O'Brien to
go back to Vietnam because it was Vietnam that made him the way he is,
and he wanted to share that with his daughter. I think that O'Brien
felt like no one back home truly understood what he had been through,
and he thought that by bringing his daughter to Vietnam she would
finally get a glimpse of what he went through and how he felt.
Unfortunately, O'Brien's daughter still didn't seem to understand her
father after coming to Vietnam with him and said "You're pretty weird,
aren't you?...Some dumb thing happens a long time ago and you can't
ever forget it," (O'Brien 175). Kathleen doesn't see why her father is
so infatuated with Vietnam and war stories because the concept of war
is so foreign to her. Even though his daughter didn't understand his
reason for taking a trip to Vietnam, I still believe it was important
to him that she at least saw the place where so much of his misery
originated from.

[Lindsay Padgett]

All of you have made really good points but I agree with what Emily and Ian have said here. I think O'Brien felt it was important to take his daughter to the Vietnam so she could understand what it was like to be there and he hoped that she would realize more why it was so important to him. O'Brien spent several years of his life in Vietnam, fighting for reasons he wasn't sure of. "It's a mystery, I guess. I don't know." (O'Brien 175) Even though O'Brien wasn't quite sure of why he was in Vietnam he wanted his daughter to visit the place that he had been stationed in for so long because the events that had taken place there shaped his life and had become an important part of him. O'Brien also mentions that he takes Kathleen to Vietnam to "show her the world, offering a small piece of her father's history" (O'Brien 174). This quote goes back to him wanting her to see the world and visit his past just so she will be knowledgeable and understanding of the surroundings present in Vietnam that her father had seen while he was there. Also, the importance of Vietnam was shown because of how it influenced his life after he returned home. The dramatic experiences, death of friends, and the struggles that took place in the country were all hard to say in words but O'Brien was hoping that by taking Kathleen there she would understand a little better all of the war stories he had tried to tell and explain to her in the past.

[Virginia]

That’s a really good question, Abbey. However, in contrast to some of
the points many of you have made, I’d like to argue a point that
contradicts the context of this question. Even though O’Brien states
that he has brought his daughter to Vietnam to “show her the Vietnam
that kept [him] awake at night”, it is evident that his subconscious
intention of bringing her was to use her as a form of support.
(O’Brien 176) O’Brien’s daughter, Kathleen, shows no interest in the
sites that her father has taken her to, and it is quite evident that
he shows no intention of captivating her attention, either. In fact,
the only time he shows any effort of interesting his daughter with
Vietnam is when he goes to make amends at Kiowa’s death site. This is
only because he needs her as a crutch; O’Brien is not completely sure
that he can go to the murky river and separate himself from Kiowa’s
shoes, the last object of sentimental value that O’Brien has kept over
the twenty years. Therefore, through my interpretation of the chapter,
O’Brien brings his daughter to Vietnam, not to mingle her with the
Vietnam areas where he has made so many memories, but to have her as a
form of support when he re-approaches these somber areas.

On Feb 24, 7:48 pm, Lindsay Padgett <linds.m.padg...@gmail.com> wrote:
> All of you have made really good points but I agree with what Emily and Ian
> have said here. I think O'Brien felt it was important to take his daughter
> to the Vietnam so she could understand what it was like to be there and he
> hoped that she would realize more why it was so important to him. O'Brien
> spent several years of his life in Vietnam, fighting for reasons he wasn't
> sure of. "It's a mystery, I guess. I don't know." (O'Brien 175) Even though
> O'Brien wasn't quite sure of why he was in Vietnam he wanted his daughter to
> visit the place that he had been stationed in for so long because the events
> that had taken place there shaped his life and had become an important part
> of him. O'Brien also mentions that he takes Kathleen to Vietnam to "show her
> the world, offering a small piece of her father's history" (O'Brien 174).
> This quote goes back to him wanting her to see the world and visit his past
> just so she will be knowledgeable and understanding of the surroundings
> present in Vietnam that her father had seen while he was there. Also, the
> importance of Vietnam was shown because of how it influenced his life after
> he returned home. The dramatic experiences, death of friends, and the
> struggles that took place in the country were all hard to say in words but
> O'Brien was hoping that by taking Kathleen there she would understand a
> little better all of the war stories he had tried to tell and explain to her
> in the past.

> > > - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -

[Kierra W.]

I agree with Emily’s opinion on O’Brien’s reason for sharing the
journey to the field with his daughter being because he wants her to
completely understand and where words fail to describe why Vietnam
meant so much to him and how it changed him. When O’Brien and his
daughter take the two hour venture to the field that Kiowa died as
their last place to visit showed that this was the most significant
part of the war for him and he wanted to express this to his daughter.
When they first arrived to the field he notices that “The field was
still there, though not as I remembered it.”(O’Brien 173). The fact
that the field, even to him, didn’t seem the way it was when he was
there before and that it seemed to be “at peace” with its self, shows
right from the start that any chance his daughter would have
understood what her father saw and why the land had such sentimental
value to him was highly unlikely. This fact is proven when she tags
along while her father goes to unite Kiowa’s moccasins to the water.
To her, all she sees is her dad covered in muck; while to her dad the
muck was a finalizing step to being a new person away from the war and
Kiowa’s death.

On Feb 22, 9:17 pm, Abigail Seay <as...@brvgs.k12.va.us> wrote: