What defines a novel to be AP level worthy? Could it simply be worthy because it's written by a credible or noted author? Or it's use of exotic diction or style? All of this is included and can either add or detract from the worthiness or difficulty of a novel. However, one thing I think personally that makes a novel AP worthy is if analysis is required to find either a hidden meaning or better understand the meaning of the work as a whole.
Going After Cacciato is AP worthy. Although Tim O'Brien uses fairly simple language and few words that would be found on a modern SAT test, I would still say it is AP worthy. I assume at one point in your life you have read a war novel before. Maybe for a class or maybe for by personal choice. I know most of the war novels that I have read are more centered around action and engaging the reader through physical violence and that is indeed a great style. O'Brien has centered on the toll taken on Paul Berlin's emotional state. For example, the gruesome things you see, your close friends dying, and the constant fear of dying. All of that on top of everything else other people worry about and deal with everyday.
Disease and infection was a huge problem in the humid tropical forests of Vietnam and it's neighboring countries and it still is to this day. Imagine having a fever, being dehydrated, and having nothing to cure or help you through whatever may be attacking your immune system. It would make you go absolutely insane. Paul Berlin's lieutenant has gone mad and jeopardizes the mission with his insanity.
Then he licked his lips. "We been kidnapped."
"Sir?"
"Kidnapped," the lieutenant said hoarsely. "Snatched. Bagged and
nabbed, every one of us."
"I see."
"No shit, you see! It's the straight dope. We been kidnapped."
Paul Berlin couldn't help smiling. (p 135)
Paul Berlin knows Lt. has gone mad and the war has made him this way and I think he knows this could be him and this altercation further attracts him to leave with the young girl he met for Paris and never come back to the war.
O'Brien is showing that war isn't just guns and death. War can mess people up big time and it lasts a lifetime. For this reason, the fact that the reader must analyze why Paul Berlin makes the decisions he makes, Going After Cacciato is AP worthy and reading a story with multiple simultaneous stories will help on an AP exam.
Having read multiple other O'Brien novels, I can confirm that his concern is generally the emotional tolls of war. Based on your reading of other war novels and/or of history, do you think there is anything different about the Vietnam War when it comes to this topic?
ReplyDeleteI like your intro and explanation of AP worthy text. Do you believe any of these soldiers become almost numb to the grusome realities of war you have layed out?
ReplyDeleteThanks, James! I absolutely do beleive that some of these soldiers and soldiers from any given war developed a numbness to the things they encounter and it becomes the norm for them. Later in the novel, a brutal death of a comrade had little effect on the squad and they ceased their mourning a couple hours later and had moved on.
DeleteYour reasoning makes a lot of sense and I completely agree! I think to truly decide whether a book has literary merit is to analyze the meaning of the work as the whole. My question is how this book is different from other war novels of literary merit. Does the theme just revolve around the idea of death? Having read a few war novels, there is always some detail that sticks out and makes the novel unique. What is that detail in this book that makes it different from the rest?
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