Thinking about Tim O'Brien's "How to Tell a True War Story"
Since you may choose to write stories for your magazines, we'll read, write, and talk about fiction a bit during the Creative Writing segment of your three weeks here at Gov School. We'll also devote some late-afternoon workshops to fiction, as needed. Below are some questions about a frequently anthologized story, which may or may not resemble stories you've read before :) Please post your responses to our blog, as instructed in class.
1.
Pick one sentence or passage from this piece that strikes you as interesting, moving, strange, confusing, illuminating, dumb, imaginative, well-crafted, or otherwise noteworthy. Explain your choice.
2.
What kind of story is this? Draw on any and all categories familiar to you.
3.
How is it put together? What is its structure?
4.
What makes it different from other short stories you may have read?
5.
Who are the characters? What's with these guys? What's the narrator's chief problem or struggle? Is that problem ever resolved?
6.
How do questions about gender enter into this story? Is the story itself or its language "gendered"? How are men and women represented in the piece? Is the story in any sense about gender?
7.
How does this story fit into the perspectives wheels we looked at earlier? What kind of "art" is it?
8.
How does the piece make you feel, finally? What's its main effect or effects?
9.
Read the story again from the point of view of a writer. I.e., reading the piece as a fiction writer yourself, what do you notice? What general and specific choices has this author made? What possibilities in terms of form or content does it suggest for your own writing?
 back to English Studies syllabus and schedule
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