"How to Tell a True War Story"

Summary: I chose to write about the chapter "How to Tell a True War Story" because I read it agin and it had a different meaning to me. The first time I read it the story of Rat Kiley and Curt Lemon it was a sad story of two best friends that got sadly separated because of death and one of them went crazy. When I read it again to write my in class essay I realized that the author O'Brien explained a lot of his writing in this chapter. O'Brien talked about the happening truth and the story truth. The happening truth is what actually happened and the story truth is what he made up. He goes on to say that sometimes it is hard to tell the difference between two. The things that happened in Vietnam were too hard to talk about so sometimes it was easier to tell a story.

Response: I think that no matter what O'Brien writes about it will have an impact on his reader. Just because he does not tell us exactly how thing happened does not mean his readers did not get an understanding of how difficult it was to be in the war. O'Brien tells his readers that the truth you feel in your gut. I felt every story in the pit of my stomach and even though I was wondering what was true or wasn't by the end I did not care. I enjoyed reading the stories in the book The Things They Carried. It was interesting and it gave me a different outlook on the the soldiers that caught in the Vietnam War.

Proposal for Extended Essay

I have selected to extend my my essay about Social Networking. In my essay I give examples of how web users do not have privacy anymore because they air their whole lives on the internet. I discuss these issues but I do not go into depth. That is why this essay is perfect for expanding. There are so many other examples I can give about the internet and social networks, and I can elaborate more on my personal experiences. I am going to talk more about Privacy settings and discuss the reasons why they do not work. In my mini essay all I do is mention the privacy settings and I do not go into detail. In addition I want to add a new reference. The reference I want to include is the televison show "Catfish" from MTV. "Catfish" is a show that searches different profile users to see if they are real or if someone is making up a profile. This will be a good example of how we are not safe on the web. Another way for me to expand my essay will be to compare and contrast the bad from the good of using Social Networks. I can discuss the benefits of having a Facebook or social media, like being able to stay socially connected to friends and family. Overall this essay will have more detail and will hopefully give my readers a better understanding of my thesis. This essay has a lot of room for improvement and it will be easy to add in more information to expand.


Key Terms:
-Privacy Settings
-Social Networks
-Facebook
-Myspace
-Twitter
-Benefits of social media
-Ways of accessing personal information 
-World Wide Web
-Controlling the Web
-Catfish