Response #2 The Genre of War Stories
I would definitely have to agree with Chandler when he says, "Assigning a text to a genre sets up initial expectations...However, challenging too many conventional expectations for a genre could threaten the integrity of the text."
(page 2) This statement couldn't ring more true when reading Tim O'Brien's stories about war. When I think of the war genre I see the picture of the movie Blackhawk Down in my head of poeple getting blown up and seriously injured and never do I feel a sense of sympathy in any way to the enemy. The enemy is killing our men and will stop at nothig to reach their goal of destroying the Americans. The genre is bloody, violent, and depressing, and yet as I read Mr. O' Brien's stories I found myself laughing at times and having much empathy for the enemy.
The very first line to the story of "Spin" left me wondering immediately if this text was indeed going to stray away from the typical classification of the genre, "The war wasn't all terror and violence. Sometimes things could almost get sweet....On occasions the war was like a Ping Pong ball. You could put a fancy spin on it, you could make it dance." This is not the typical imagery I would assume to have in reading a war story at all, a Ping Pong ball? (page 1)
Yes O'Brien does talk of times in foxholes and being dirty and missing home like every normal soldier of this genre, however, when the enemy, carrying a gun I might add, is either going to be shot or shot down, it is natural to think," Get 'em!" As the reader of the story, we identify with the voice of the story and do not want him to be harmed, especially an American! Especially being in the times of war currently, no more Americans should be harmed, and this is why it is so interesting to me that O'Brien really leads the reader to have an overwhelming sense of empathy for the soldier that he killed. "He had bony legs, a narrow waist, long shapely fingers...He was a citizen and a soldier... He hoped the Americans would go away soon...He had no stomach for violence. He loved mathematics. His eyebrows were thin and arched like a woman's..." O'Brien really paints the picture well in describing him as a feminine sort, one who wasn't meant to be carrying a gun, but more like an abicus. As a reader it is very sad to think of such a life wasted on something so horrible as war.
The real turn of events though is that O'Brien really gets you to empathize with the young man that he has killed and then suddenly describes that there is absolutely no truth in what he has said. He never killed anyone. All this time you realize you are feeling almost guilty for him and with no reason at all. This is why I agree with Chandler when he says, "challenging too many conventional expectations for a genre could threatenn the integrity of the text." Which in the case of Mr. O'Brien's stories is most definitely the case for me. (page 2)