Nature

You know global warming is occurring, but why don’t you take any action against it? You’re primarily concerned for yourself. You raise money for the poor and may even feel just a little sad for the starving children in third world countries. However, you feel much less sympathy for the plants and animals that are dying from your actions. After all, what is going extinct anyway? Probably just about a few hundred species of insects. You clearly don’t think anyone is going to miss those insects; you think they’re just pests. You do realize that the disappearance of these insects could have more severe repercussions, like causing birds and lizards to lose sources of food and become extinct. You don’t interact with these animals, so you don’t care about them. Is the environment really your problem? You do recall that the U.S. and other developed countries have apparently been taking action to reduce their levels of pollution in the environment. The poor, developing countries have more unsustainable agricultural practices. Those people should be at fault. Not you.

The primary reason you are indifferent towards the well-being of the environment is that you simply are so disconnected from nature. You have sought to isolate yourself from nature since the beginning of history: you have abandoned hunting and gathering, preferring to build shelters and civilizations to protect yourself. You have even developed advanced agricultural techniques and fertilizers to coax the earth to do your bidding. You only water the earth in order to increase your crop yields. You have no genuine concern for the environment. You wish to control the environment rather than coexist with it.

Even today, you use your phones and technology incessantly, almost never going outside. When you do step outside, your only thought is to go back inside into another building. The outdoors are never your main focus; they are just a path you travel to get to another destination. Even on the rare occasions that you go outside, you play football on artificial turf or tennis on concrete. You step on worms and ants without a thought. You simply “don’t believe in Nature anymore.” And it seems very likely that, regardless of what anyone says or does, you never will believe in Nature.

Wise Words from a Professional Athlete

Hi everyone! I’m richer than all of you. I’m richer than teachers, engineers, doctors, lawyers, just about everybody. How is that possible? I am a professional athlete! Back in high school, I remember how so many students complained incessantly about grades and extracurricular activities. Those students thought getting into the Ivy League colleges was hard. Well, I can tell you that nothing is harder than being a professional athlete. I had to work unbelievably hard to become a professional. Well, I take that back. I’m only a professional athlete because I’m tall and strong, traits that I was lucky to inherit. In fact, I haven’t worked or exerted myself in my entire life. All I do is play a game that children play.

I must say, I’m so lucky to be a professional athlete. While high school students are mostly tested individually, I’m evaluated based on my team’s performance. High school students have to stand out from their classmates in order to be accepted into a selective college, but I just need to make sure I don’t stand out. If my team’s winning, that’s great: no one will criticize me or any of my teammates. However, if the team’s playing poorly, I won’t be in trouble as long as I don’t stand out as one of the culprits.

I’m sure all of you are jealous that I get paid so much for playing a children’s game. I even get paid more than doctors who change lives. But I also change lives. One time, I actually pushed this guy and he broke all his bones, out for the rest of the season. I make millions for being a professional athlete and splurge on random things that catch my interest. I have this huge mansion with expansive pools. Honestly, I haven’t set foot in half of the rooms; they’re just there to make me look richer and more successful. I suppose I could let the poor and the homeless live in those rooms, but living with the poor would damage my esteemed image.

I know the real reason I’m a professional athlete is that I am genetically blessed; I haven’t really worked a day in my life. But what’s wrong with just being purely talented? Hard work is so overrated and time-consuming. So many people complain about their long, arduous hours in their jobs, but they brought the pain on themselves, as they simply were not genetically blessed to be an athlete like me. I cannot fathom how the general public has “managed to exist so long under the burdens which they have imposed on themselves.” I, on the other hand, have no burdens, haven’t worked hard, or done anything of value to society. I guess I just have the perfect life!

Change

        When you first meet someone, your first impressions of that person are crucial to your perceptions of his or her character and personality. We are encouraged to make a strong first impression in job interviews and college interviews, as we may influence the interviewer to subconsciously rate us higher. We tend to give our first impressions of someone far too much importance, even though we realize that first impressions are often misleading. We always should remember that other people can act differently from how we expect them to behave.

        When Milkman explains to Guitar that he helped an old man load a crate out of common courtesy, Guitar automatically assumes Milkman is lying to him about shipping the gold to Virginia. Even Milkman realizes how his explanation “sounded like a lie,” as he had been criticized for his “selfishness and indifference” on multiple occasions. Milkman is recognizing how his personality is fundamentally changing; he is becoming a more selfless and genuine person. He even realizes how he was wrong to exploited others, such as how he completely disregarded Hagar and other characters as actual people.

        However, in the novel, people’s reputations and perceptions of each other are permanent and static. For example, many of the characters’ names are reflections of their past that no longer pertain to their personalities and behaviors. Milkman’s nickname no longer makes sense for him, but it remains because people are unable to move on from their first impressions of him. Guitar also was named for a rather trivial event in which he could not play a guitar he wanted to play as a child. Guitar also continues to think of sugar as a reminder of the white people who tried to console him after his father’s death, never considering how sugar could have a different and more positive meaning for others. Even though she is encouraged by Guitar to move on from her relationship with Milkman, Hagar never moves on, eventually committing suicide due to her depression and feelings of worthlessness.

        Milkman’s change is all the more profound because most of the other characters remain static despite having many blatant flaws. Milkman almost rises above the other characters as the only one to truly grow and develop over the course of the novel. However, the fact that the other characters are unable to overcome their flaws shows how difficult it can be to alter habits and lifestyles. Their communities will continue to be plagued by hardships as long as the characters live on with their faults and refuse to act selflessly with each other.

The Degradation of the Dead Family

When Milkman goes searching for gold and meets Reverend Cooper and the rest of Montour County, the community has fond memories of Macon Jr., remembering that he “was strong as an ox … outran, outplowed, outshot, outpicked, outrode them all.” Milkman realizes that their description of his father is vastly different from the uncompromising man his father has become. On the surface, Macon Jr.’s current social standing and lifestyle are right in line with the successes of his father: Macon Jr. drives a Packard and has married the daughter of a doctor, while the original Macon developed an expansive farm from scratch. However, as Milkman knows, Macon Jr. is drastically different from the original Macon due to the motivations behind their actions. Macon Jr. blindly pursues wealth with little regard for the welfare of the community, striking fear in others. The original Macon served as an inspirational figure for his community, referring to them as his “brothers”.

Initially, I thought one of the messages in the book was that material wealth and morality are mutually exclusive. The characters who are wealthy, such as Macon Jr. and Milkman, are harsh and manipulative, corrupted by their desire for gold and material wealth. On the other hand, Pilate is wise and genuinely helps people through their troubles, yet she is poor. Macon Jr. and Pilate are both socially isolated because the community dislikes how ruthlessly Macon Jr. collects taxes and how Pilate does not have a belly button, labeling her as “unnatural”. The original Macon, however, becomes wealthy and successful in a morally sound way. The original Macon wins the respect of Montour County through hard work and sacrifice, serving as a role model for the rest of the community. Perhaps the original Macon is such an inspirational figure for Montour County because he is a farmer just like the others; he continues to maintain his roots in agriculture and embraces his identity as an African American. He tries to stand up to the white farmers rather than emulate white people, like Macon Jr.

I think a reason for Macon Jr.’s greed for wealth is that he continues to be traumatized by his father’s death. While Pilate willingly shares her past with others, Macon Jr. mainly keeps the past bottled up, only retelling it to Milkman on rare circumstances. Macon Jr. possibly believes that by becoming as ruthless and cold-hearted like the white farmers, he can prevent something like his father’s murder from happening to himself. Macon Jr.’s quest for wealth, however, is worth nothing as long as he endures a dysfunctional family life and social standing. Hopefully, Milkman’s visit to his past will help him reconcile with his family, allowing them to live a peaceful life just as the Deads once did.

Past vs. Present

        In many of the novels we have read in class, there has been a common motif about the connections between the past and the present. We first examined this motif in The Things They Carried, as O’Brien and the surviving soldiers continue to “carry” their emotional trauma from the Vietnam War long after it is over, continuously reliving their past. In Maus, Vladek faces a slightly different situation; he is a direct victim of the violence rather than simply a soldier who experiences it. Vladek is unable to move on from the survivor’s guilt of managing to survive the concentration camps where many of his families members perished. Similarly, the soldiers in The Things They Carried also face survivor’s guilt, wondering how they managed to survive the war when someone as morally and intellectually sound as Kiowa did not. More interestingly, in Maus, trauma is transferred to future generations who do not have any direct experiences of the conflict. Art develops an obsession with Auschwitz and the Nazis due to his father’s constant grief and trauma from his past, despite any meaningful connections with his Jewish identity.

       The characters in Song of Solomon are greatly influenced by their past. Milkman’s “concentration on things behind him” is “becoming a habit” even when he is just four years old and does not have much of a personal past to reflect on; rather, he develops an obsession with his family’s past. Macon Jr.’s fixation on the past is revealed when he names his son Macon III, a continuation of the family tradition of naming the son after the father. This tradition is a reflection of the family’s past as slaves: the children are treated as the father’s property, branded with the father’s name just as slaves were branded by the names of their owners. The Dead family also remains fragmented just as many slave families were separated when family members were auctioned off to different owners. While slave auctions drove slave families apart physically, the Dead family is emotionally detached. Macon Jr. owns a Packard and is respected for his material wealth by the rest of the black community. On the other hand, Pilate is “helpful to everybody” and finds happiness in living simply. Macon Jr. and Milkman’s pursuit of wealth and social status draws parallels to the actions of the white people in society, whereas Pilate has more traditional values, singing songs about the Sugarman that are similar to the uplifting songs that slaves sang in the field.

       In today’s society, we don’t seem to worry about our past. We are all worried about our future: college admissions, internships, jobs, and so on. The past seems so different from our current situation, and we simply have so many goals for our future. Hopefully, when we do eventually look back at the past, we will look back at it fondly and be fulfilled.

The Great Gatsby from a Historical Perspective

The Great Gatsby portrays many aspects of American society in a negative light. The wealthy in society are portrayed as immoral and superficial; Gatsby conspires with suspicious characters like Meyer Wolfsheim and gains wealth through bootlegging and other illegal activities. People “guessed at [Gatsby’s] corruption” and believed in his “incorruptible dream”, revealing an inherent distrust of the wealthy. However, there are many examples of people in the early 1900s who earned their wealth through sincere hard work and innovation. Around the turn of the 20^th century, Andrew Carnegie was the prime example of the self-made man. Raised in a poor Scottish family, Carnegie found success in America by investing in steel technologies and the railways. Unlike the wealthy in The Great Gatsby, Carnegie found value in giving back to the poor and the rest of society, writing articles like “The Gospel of Wealth” to emphasize how it was a great responsibility for the wealthy to share their wealth for the greater good of society. Carnegie also founded Carnegie Mellon University and many libraries to emphasize the importance of knowledge in the industrial age.

Fitzgerald also criticizes the American dream, commenting on its superficiality. Perhaps the American dream truly seemed superficial during the 1920s; after the devastating World War, people possibly were losing faith in a society with rampant crime and financial instability. However, there were some events in the 1920s that suggested that the American dream was becoming more of a reality than ever before. Women’s suffrage in 1920 was a major victory for activists and it granted greater equalities for women. Women also began to have a greater role in the workforce. Today, many of us are either related to immigrants or are immigrants ourselves. We might not think of our current lifestyle as ideal, or the “American dream”, but we enjoy countless comforts and luxuries that we would not have in other countries. The American dream really is just a matter of perspective. Our current situation may in fact be the dream for someone else. By keeping our dreams in perspective, we can find greater fulfillment from our future dreams when we do eventually fulfill them. 

The Green Light

We all enjoy countless blessings that we never acknowledge. We live in a safe community, with loving friends and family. We don’t have to think twice about buying those expensive clothes or the newest phone. The few struggles in our life aren’t nearly comparable to the daily challenges others face to survive and make ends meet. In fact, our greatest source of pain happens to be school, a privilege in the eyes of so many others in less developed parts of the world. We even manage to twist our opportunities into challenges; rather than enjoying being a part of a sports team or the orchestra, we heavily pressure ourselves to improve, unable to be content with the pure enjoyment and happiness from these activities.

Gatsby also enjoys many privileges that he takes for granted. Gatsby would be expected to appreciate and understand his privileges more than the other wealthy people, as he has experienced both an impoverished and a wealthy lifestyle, beginning as a mere farm boy and becoming a famed figure of society. However, Gatsby still is more discontent with his lifestyle than any of the other wealthy characters are. Gatsby’s source of discontent is his desire for Daisy, which is represented by his fixation with the “single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock” (Fitzgerald 26).  The light represents Gatsby’s single-minded focus on Daisy. Gatsby is blind to everything else he possesses, including his wealth and reputation. Daisy initially was and continues to be Gatsby’s motivation for his material successes.

Gatsby is also very withdrawn from society, which seems quite ironic considering his reputation for throwing glamorous parties. Gatsby stays apart from the crowd, drawing a distinct separation from the very people he sought to emulate just a few years before. Although Gatsby possesses the materialistic qualities of the wealthy, he does not possess their complacency and idleness. Perhaps Gatsby has not completely moved on from his past; after all, his name, Jay Gatsby, bears a strong resemblance to his previous identity as James Gatz.  But now, he has finally been reunited with Daisy. If Gatsby is able to successfully continue their relationship, will Gatsby finally settle for a life of comfort and stability? Will he truly be content with his social standing? Well, there must still be some room for improvement, even for the Great Gatsby.

Maus's Unique Take on Nazi Propaganda

The images are structured in a similar way, with a group of people under a flag, but they still convey drastically different messages. Both images depict the current situation from a limited perspective. For example, in the “Saved” poster, the Jews continue to look distraught even though the Americans have rescued them. Other than the word “Saved” at the top of the picture, there is nothing else in the poster that indicates that the Jews indeed were saved. The picture only considers the continuing effects of the psychological trauma on the Jews, rather than showing the physical benefits of attaining freedom. The Nazi poster also explains the effects of the war from just one perspective. The Nazi poster shows beaming faces and a bright sky, as if the country is peaceful and prospering, with little to suggest the violence and brutality of the Nazi regime.

In both pictures, the characters all have nearly identical appearances. The mice in the poster all look dejected and weary in their prisoner outfit, expressing how Auschwitz spared none of the Jews, inflicting an unimaginable degree of despair and trauma on all of them. The Jews also continue to wear the striped prisoner uniforms from Auschwitz. In the background, the portion of the American flag with stripes is above the Jews, suggesting that the Jews consider their rescue to be a different type of prison, in which they are trapped by their memories rather than abused physically and emotionally by the Germans.

The Nazi poster depicts Germans who all have nearly identical uniforms and faces of pride and joy. The poster reflects how the Germans favored their own race over all others. The Germans all wear military uniforms, and there is a castle in the background, reflecting the strength of German society. The Nazi flag is being hoisted into the sky, mirroring the rise of Germany as a world power. Even the clouds in the background are white and fluffy, a stark contrast to the lethal gases in the Auschwitz chambers.

Both images also depict a character at the forefront who seems to best embody the emotions of the people in the background. Vladek best embodies how lasting the effects of the torture in Auschwitz were; he habitually confuses the past and the present, as when he refers to Art as Richeu in the end of the novel. The man at the forefront of the propaganda poster raises the flag and leads the salute, best demonstrating Germany’s pride in their racial and military superiority and their “avid [desire] to achieve greatness for Germany” (Rinderle).

            The images are both created to send a very specific message about trauma, as in Maus, or national pride, as in the Nazi poster. Neither is focused on the realities; rather, they promote a biased view of the situation. Perhaps a more balanced view of the predicament, equally weighing the positives and negatives, would have been the best way for people to cope with the war and its aftermath. 

The Significance of the Swastika

            

For many people around the world, the swastika evokes a sense of horror at the brutal oppression and the violent subjugation of the Jews. However, for the billions of people from eastern cultures, the swastika represents just the opposite; it is a symbol of fortune and prosperity, commonly depicted on the walls of temples and on clothing and jewelry. Until fairly recently, just about eighty years ago, the swastika was also a largely positive symbol in the western world, present on mosaics in Spain, Italy, and even the U.S.

            The swastika’s orientation is what distinguishes the Nazi swastika from its traditional rendition in Asian cultures. The traditional swastika has the form of a square, but the Nazi swastika is the traditional swastika rotated 45 degrees. The Nazi swastika is drawn in the shape of a diamond, with a definite low point and a high point, representing how the Nazis had a strong belief in the superiority and inferiority of a select few races. The Nazi symbol is also precariously balanced on just one point, ready to tip over, reflecting how unstable and chaotic Nazi Germany was.

In the novel, the swastika is a recurring symbol, striking fear in the Jews whenever they run across it. In many panels, the swastika acts as a searchlight, threatening the Jews still in hiding to reveal themselves to the Nazis. The swastika also represents the rise of the Nazis; the swastika rises in the sky like the sun, just as the Nazis are rising to power in the world. When Vladek is trying to avoid the Nazis, he recounts that he “didn’t have anywhere to go”.  Vladek’s desperation grows, as he says that he “walked in the direction of Sosnowiec, but where to go?!” (Vol. 1 p. 125). During this moment of increasing despair, Vladek almost sees the swastika spanning the streets ahead of him, realizing that the Nazis will inevitably capture him. In fact, the swastika represents terror to such a degree that it is never drawn entirely. The swastika is always obstructed by some other character or object in order to lessen the misery and hopelessness the swastika evokes.  

            Much of the world continues to remember the violence and persecution of Nazi Germany when they see the Swastika, forgetting how that the Swastika has represented peace and luck since ancient times. We seem unable to completely move on from the crimes of the past, dwelling on the negatives instead of focusing on the positives. Similarly, Vladek is consumed by the violence and torture he faced in the concentration camps decades after the war. Instead of being grateful that he survived the war, Vladek almost wishes that he perished as well, along with his friends and family. Perhaps Vladek could have found more value to his life had he considered the positives in his new life, with a new family and a more relaxed, peaceful lifestyle.

The Meaning of Masks in Maus

On page 43 of Volume II, Art and the other characters are visibly human, wearing animal masks on their faces. The masks reflect how people’s differences in race or religion are superficial; everyone is inherently human with a universal set of values regarding love, peace, and respect. The fact that Spiegelman only chooses to portray his characters as humans many decades after WWII emphasizes how people have gradually become more open-minded of other cultures and races. People now more readily embrace the diversity in society and have a mutual respect for each other. However, Spiegelman chooses not to completely expose the human faces of the characters to indicate how racial prejudice and discrimination still exist in the world, and people still possess biases and stereotypes regarding other races and cultures.

Art feels confused regarding his true identity and purpose in life. Art wears the mask in an attempt to feel a closer connection to his family and his Jewish heritage. By depicting himself as a child, Art reveals how he feels sheltered from the tragedies and hardships that his family endured. Art feels weak and helpless, guilty for enjoying such a comfortable lifestyle when his entire family was subjected to torture and other horrors. Art’s original goal in creating the novel was to gain a better understanding of the Holocaust and his father’s experiences. Instead, he is left with more questions and a greater realization that he truly cannot “begin to imagine what [the Holocaust] felt like” (46).

There is also a cat depicted in a photo frame in Pavel’s house. This cat is smiling and harmless, a stark departure from the ruthless Nazi officer cats. Pavel, a Jewish survivor, forgives the Germans for the hardships they inflicted on the Jews, unlike many other Americans and Europeans in the aftermath of WWII. Pavel recognizes that Germans should not be stereotyped as militant and aggressive people and understands that there are morally sound people of all cultures. The smiling cat also shows how Germany has evolved from a chaotic and war-torn society into one of the most developed societies in the world. Germany now is among the leaders in the automobile and electronics industries and provides its citizens a remarkably high standard of living.

                                                                                                                                  

 

Our True Default Setting

David Foster Wallace presents the idea that we are all inherently self-centered and egocentric, and that we “see and interpret everything through this lens of self” (233). But is being self-centered truly our “default setting”? As humans, we are some of the most social animals and we constantly crave recognition and attention from other people. We have a desperate desire to conform to societal norms, even disregarding our personal opinions just to fit in with society. Sometimes, we are so fixated on other people, such as the popular kid at school, that we struggle to focus on ourselves. We are also driven by competition in almost all our endeavors, as opposed to focusing on our individual performance.

For example, after school tests, we fervently ask around to find out who scored the highest, eager to determine how we performed in relation to our peers. If we scored higher than a so-called intelligent person, we feel especially accomplished. We overlook the fact that we probably could have studied harder or performed better on the test. We only evaluate ourselves in relation to that intelligent student; our satisfaction is derived solely from a comparison to another student rather than our true understanding of the subject material.

In addition, many of our interests provide no significant personal gains for us. We watch professional sports and idolize the athletes when we actually have little in common with them. We may think that we play the same sport as our favorite athletes, but in reality, our sports have little semblance to the sports the professionals play. Although the rules are the same, the professionals run at an almost unimaginable speed and are blessed with razor-sharp reflexes that we could only dream of having. Despite being so different from these athletes, we still have a strong investment in our sports teams. Even though I rarely watch the Lions play and have little personal attachment to them, I still feel genuinely excited whenever they win a game because everyone around me feels the same way.

We are deluded to think that any of our thoughts and opinions are truly our own. With 7 billion other people in the world, there will surely be someone else who shares the same beliefs. We have not had one original thought; we just respond to what society deems as moral and correct. We are immediately shaped by our interactions with the most important people in our lives, especially our parents and teachers. We will constantly remember their sayings and stories even though these stories have no personal meaning for us. Even Wallace and Thoreau, who have unique views on many topics in life, have opinions that follow directly from those of other great thinkers and philosophers. Our personalities will forever be defined by the teachings of others, and as much as we value the self, we tend to value the people around us even more.

The Power of Music

Music is a universal medium of connecting and uniting people. It can unite connoisseurs of classical music for hours on end. It can unite sports fans, instilling a sense of excitement and anticipation of the next game. Music is performed to celebrate a victory in the war, or it can be used to mourn the deaths of the valiant soldiers who fought with their heart and soul.

Music unites Victor and his father, strengthening an often tense relationship. Alexie states that “music had powerful medicine” (29), as it helped Victor develop a closer bond with his father. Music encourages Victor and his father to have genuine conversations about their identity as Indians and assimilating into society. Through music, Victor also obtains insights into his parents’ past and the times they had a happier relationship.

Listening to music can also be a highly personalized, individual experience. Music is an extension of the mind; it can express various emotions and thoughts beyond physical gestures or even language. I often watch movies or listen to music in languages that I do not understand. I only watch movies in a foreign language if there are subtitles; I understand little from simply hearing the characters speak. However, I need no translation for music in foreign languages; I am able to understand the gist of the song through its climactic buildup and soft harmonies.

For Victor’s father, listening to music is very impactful on a personal level. The Jimi Hendrix concert was the pinnacle of his life, as he had just been released from prison, one of the most depressing times in his life. Instantly, Victor’s father becomes enamored by a musician who also does not fit in with society. Many years later, Victor’s father seems to constantly find himself in the past; he only listens to Jimi Hendrix and he recounts memories of his life when his relationship with Victor’s mother was better. Victor’s father’s blind fixation on the past and his previous memories make him neglect his present responsibilities, such as caring for Victor. Victor’s father is inspired by Jimi Hendrix’s music to such an extent that he is completely blind to the fact that Hendrix lived a very unhealthy lifestyle. Music seems to almost drive Victor’s father to a point of insanity.

However, most of us have tremendously enjoyable and positive experiences listening to music. We may even enjoy singing in the shower, when no one’s watching. But why do we feel ashamed to hum even a soft tune in public? We want our music to be in tune, completely on pitch, without any mistakes. We do not realize that music, like life, cannot be perfect; it is just an experiment, an opportunity for us to improvise and express ourselves.

Memories

The ability to remember is a truly profound aspect of the human mind. Our memories define who we are more completely than any of our physical attributes or interactions with other people. We find it easy to ignore such aspects of our lives when we are alone, in an independent setting. However, we continue to possess our thoughts and memories, from the time we wake to a bright morning to the time we enter a deep, blissful sleep.

Our memories serve many purposes in our lives and are instrumental in our successes. As children, we may use our memories to learn the correct etiquette, always remembering to say “thank you” when presented with any gift. As high schoolers, we push our memories to the limits, attempting to remember every obscure fact for the next test. Perhaps when we are older, we will use our memories and experiences to make wise decisions about life-changing matters, such as choosing a college or a job.

Our memories can evoke strong positive or negative emotions in us. We may fondly remember sitting beside the fire, enjoying a meal under the stars. We might shudder at the time that the whole class ridiculed us for failing an exceptionally easy test.

We possess such a large assortment of memories that includes many notable events in our lives. Yet we fail to remember much from our years as toddlers, years in which we developed vital skills such as speaking, reading, and counting. We have no account of learning such skills, even though learning these skills is likely far more significant than anything we actually remember.

It poses the question, what determines what we remember? Is our memory just a random subset of all the events that have occurred to us?

Although our memories may seem disjointed and random, I believe there is some semblance of a logical structure to them. We keep events that pertain to our responsibilities and ambitions in the forefront of our minds. I remember the questions on my math test last week much more clearly than the food I ate for dinner last night because performing well in school is one of my major goals and eating dinner is something I simply take for granted. Likewise, Tim O’Brien is able to remember events like Kiowa’s death so clearly, as he feels that it was his responsibility to help protect Kiowa and the other soldiers. O’Brien omits the twenty years after the war because no event that occurred in those years had the same magnitude as the traumatic events of the war. O'Brien states that "the thing about remembering is that you don't forget" (22). Even though our memories are constantly changing, we never forget the memories regarding the events we are most passionate and emotional about. These memories will always travel with us, as long as we continue to believe in their significance and impact on our lives.