1. Turnitin.com is officially up and running. We will discuss how to set up your student account today. You must submit your Catcher essay to Turnitin.com in the next 24 hours or it will not be validated for 1st quarter grades.
2. A.P. workbooks are here! As we work on Hamlet in class, I will be assigning work in English Literature: Close Reading and Analytic Writing. The majority of assignments from this book will be posted on our blog.
3. Your assignment: Complete lesson 1 in English Literature: Close Reading and Analytic Writing. Take note of the marginal notes/questions to help guide your reading. Respond to the "essay question" on our blog:
Lesson 1: from The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien
Assignment: Write an explication of the story's last paragraph, taking into account both objective information about Lemon and the narrator's interpretations. Assignment length: 200 word minimum. Due: Tuesday, November 15. There is no need to comment on classmates' posts for this assignment. Follow the conventions of standard written English.
The last paragraph of “The Dentist”, an excerpt from Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, encapsulates the tough guy, Curt Lemon, who earns his title, essentially the “cowardly lion”(Lemon) that finally stands up to the Wicked Witch (the dentist in this case) and earns his medal of courage. With the beginning of this tribute passage to Lemon, the narrator notes that he is reluctant to speak fondly of Lemon in his death because he was a very jagged macho character, which can be assumed since he is a soldier and soldiers stereotypically tend to be depicted as macho and proud to fight and die by their country. This indirect characterization soon contradicts itself when the narrator’s anecdote brings about a vulnerable side to Lemon, revealing that his weak-point is in a dentist’s chair. It seems that the narrator finds joy in seeing Lemon’s weak-point since he is always bragging about his strong-points, and it brings out the human in Curt Lemon, because even the bravest soldier has a fear or two. This contradiction seems to resolve itself when the last paragraph comes in to play because Curt practically throws himself into the dentist chair, after already having been humiliated that day in the same chair, to look his fear square in the eye and move on with his life (with one less tooth).
ReplyDelete~Ester Wasserman
After reading the last paragraph of “The Dentist” by Tim O’Brian you can conceptualize Lemon’s aspiration to perpetuate his “Tough soldier role”. Throughout the excerpt the indirect characterization portrays Lemon as a quintessential, tough guy, “always puffing himself up”. However, as the narrator stated, “He kept replaying his own exploits, taking on little flourishes that never happened.” The reader can envision Lemon’s insecurity and his need to perpetuate himself as the “tough soldier” to cover up who he truly is. This relates to how bullies are truly the most insecure and pick on others to feel benevolent about them selves. The last paragraph in turn exemplifies the fact that Lemon is a “bully” in the aspect that being tough is all he has and he cannot lose this image. In the end, when Lemon finally decides to get the tooth pulled out even though he stated, “No way. Count me out. Nobody messes with these teeth.” It demonstrates Lemon’s need to prove to everyone else that he is a tough guy. Also, relating to the title, The Things They Carry, in the fact that the last paragraph illustrates how Lemon carries his tough personality and if he was viewed as a coward he would lose the only thing that made him who he was.
ReplyDelete-Russell Weeks
The narrator sees Lemon as an insecure man who strives to fight and “take things a little too far” in order to proove his toughness (but maybe on a deeper level, the love of his country, and to show to what extend he is willing to go to save his country). From an objective point of view, Lemon thinks that a true soilder must show no sign of weakness, and that a true hero is impervious to any and all weaknesses. We can see this in Lemons personal disappointment when he fainted at the thought of visiting the dentist.
ReplyDeleteIn my personal opinion, I feel that the author is trying to convey that people who might seem annoying and insecure in the beginning have the potential to overcome their fears and become the true heroes. The narrator’s first opinion of Lemon was of a man who is insecure with his ‘thoughness’ and must go to any extent to proove it to others and himself. However, we see that this was not insecurity so much as it was zeal to overcome ones weaknesses. We can learn a lot from this short excerpt to not judge people by first impressions, but rather to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Tim O'Brien wrote the "Dentist" as a means to describe this man who is a big macho man who can do anything that the army asks of him but is afraid of the dentist. I think it is important that the author shows that these are tough men who can defend our country but also that they are like me and you in the sense that are also afraid of really small thing s like everyday people and in Lemons case it was the "dentist". The scene where he convinces the young captain to take out his tooth is important because it shows that he is willing to overcome his fear more importantly the author shows Lemons final step towards becoming that ultimate soldier who shows no fear.
ReplyDeleteAs the mantra goes, there are two kinds of people, those who want to be and those who want to do. Curt Lemon is one who wants to be. He wants to be that iconic, perfect figure that is looked up to. When a problem arises, he wants to be able to stand up to it, look it straight in the eyes a tackle it with all he has. Unfortunately, when the time comes, the beast looks him back in the eyes, he falters. Instead of being prepared and allowing his weaknesses to become visible, not only to himself, but to those who witnessed the ordeal as well. It was a failure in his eyes, a complete loss.
ReplyDeleteBut instead of completely ducking out of his hopes, he stands back up. After a day of feeling sorry for himself, he chooses to become that which he wanted to be, to become the one who wants to do. He goes back to the beast and invites the worst it can do. He then not only asked for the challenge, but overcame it with flying colors doing what he wanted to be.
In this passage the narrator is having a realization during his retelling of the event, that at that moment, Curt became what we all aspire to be. We talk about how we are ready to face the next challenge. Finish the next race, beat the next team, tackle the next beast. Although when the time comes, what will you do? Will you stand up for what is right and you believe in or will you hide and wait for another? That is the question being posed by this final paragraph and it is impossible to tell. I would like to think that I am ready, but only once that challenge is posed for us will we know that we are ready. So prepare for as long as you wish, but when the time comes - will you be ready?
--Brandon Harris
The characterization of Curt Lemon's character at first portrayed a man that is outgoing and adventurous. He is also described by the narrator to be brave but annoying. Also the narrator stated that the man is either insecure or somewhat arrogant. At the end the answer seemed to be that the person was a guy who had low self esteem, he tried to act tough in the military because in the past he was looked down upon. To prove his bravery, Lemon faced his fears and got a perfectly good tooth yanked out. It seems that war is turning people around. First of all the dentist had bad breath, that is just extremely ironic. Also, we do not know what caused Lemon to act or start acting the way he did. Taking into account the context of the whole passage, it seems to me that it shows that war changes people leading to confusing stories. The contrast between tough and sissy, the irony of a dentist having bad breath, the illogicality of removing a perfectly fine tooth leads to the assumption that something changed within these men. But the final sentence says "there was some pain, no doubt, but in the morning Curt Lemon was all smiles", this reflects the feeling of soldiers after the war. They feel accomplished, proud of what they have gone through during their fight for the cause they believe in. Even though they struggled to face their fears and hardships they succeeded in the end so everything is fine, everyone is all smiles
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the last paragraph of “The Dentist” by Tim O’Brian I as the reader saw Curt Lemon as an outgoing person who strives to fight and become a better solider. Here is lemon who claims he can take blood and pain, yet is afraid of the dentist. After reading this it makes you take a step back and makes you remember that these are solider that we are talking about and not robots who don’t have thoughts our feelings. Which once brought up, it makes you see that Lemon is just like all of us, we all have some type of fear. Now just because they are in combat it does not mean that there fears stay home with them.
ReplyDelete--Inol Santana
Curt Lemon acts like the typical tough guy. He pulls off dangerous stunts just to prove to everyone that he is the toughest. He is even trying to prove this to himself. However, when the dentist arrives at camp, Lemon can't help showing his fear, even fainting before the dentist could touch him. "He wouldn't talk to anyone. For the rest of the day he stayed off by himself, sitting alone under a tree." Lemon was so embarrassed of the incident that he sulked off by himself for the rest of the day. He would not accept consolation from anyone, or no one was willing to give it. This moment of weakness "turned a screw in his head" because Lemon went to the dentist in the middle of the night and had him pull out a good tooth. Lemon forced himself so that he could prove to everyone, but most importantly himself, that he really was tough.
ReplyDeleteIt appears to me that Curt Lemon has an inferior complex, similar to Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye. From the story as a whole, he attempts to act tough to mask his weaknesses behind a tough-looking soldier. When he wakes up from fainting over fear of the dentist, it is apparent that he is embarrassed, so much that he looked “as if he’d been caught committing some terrible crime” (lines 43-44). The extremity of his embarrassment goes to the point where he stops talking and spends the rest of his day alone. This reveals his deep sensitivity to how other people think of him. I believe one of the possible reasons he went back to the dentist tent to have a “monster toothache” removed was to try and regain dignity, and to overcome his fear so that he would not be hindered by his own weakness. At the end of the final paragraph, the clause “Curt Lemon was all smiles” portrays his sense of accomplishment of something that has seemingly plagued him for years. The story builds develops Lemon as a character, and this overall effects the sentimentalism of the story, despite the narrator’s wishes to guard against sentimental thoughts.
ReplyDelete~ David Rockapriore
After reading the last excerpt of “The things they carried”, I thought that by the narrator’s interpretations, the narrator thinks that Curt Lemon is a person that wants to be known. In the last paragraph the narrator states that usually Curt Lemon is the type of person that wants to be in the spotlight. The narrator uses indirect characterization in order to describe the way that Curt Lemon is as a character. The narrator’s tone shows how the narrator perceives Curt Lemon and the way he reacted to the dentist and the fact that it gave him the creeps. In the last paragraph the narrator mentions how Curt Lemon mentioned that although he is not fearful of pain and blood, the dentist gave him the creeps for some reason that he did not explain. Curt Lemons is characterized by the narrator as being someone who always wants to be on top and recognized from something important. The narrator wanted to convey the fact that Curt Lemon, although at first he refused, eventually decided to go back to the dentist and have his tooth pulled out. Although Curt gets a dose of novacane in order to numb the tooth so that he would not feel any pain. This in turn shows that the character is not as brave as he said himself to be. He is just a normal guy that like everyone else has fears and weaknesses. In the end Curt Lemon feels a sense of accomplishment when he returns to the dentist because he was afraid and although he had the pain numbed I think he felt a sense of pride knowing he went back. Curt Lemons felt like a brave soldier when he went back to have a perfectly good tooth pulled out.
ReplyDelete-Jasmine Berrios :D
Curt Lemon has a powerful sense of pride. It is, based on what is shown in the excerpt, a pride that is based on the opinions of others. When Lemon failed to live up to the perceived expectations of his peers, he reacted with shame, “cussing, bawling himself out.” In order to meet those expectations, albeit retroactively, Lemon went to the dentist, the object of his phobia, and demanded that he do what Lemon feared of him, removing his tooth with the assistance of Novocain. This series of actions leads to the conclusion that Curt Lemon was the type of man that tried to improve upon himself. Even when it seemed unnecessary to other people, as long as Lemon’s pride was satisfied, he didn’t care about them. Instead, he felt pride in improving. On another note, the narrator found Lemon a bit annoying and yet did not hate him. The narrator’s tone when speaking of the man seems a bit amused. More than that, the narrator felt obliged to speak of Lemon after he died, so he must have felt at the very least some form of camaraderie. That in mind, the entirety of the narrator’s reminiscence can be seen as an informal eulogy of a man that tried to be tough even when he was very much afraid.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure that Curt Lemon has an inferiority complex, much like mentioned in the Catcher in the Rye. He's buff and manly and feels the need to always be like that. This is likely because he actually feels small on the inside. The narrator believes this too, as seen in lines 9-11: "He had an opinion of himself, I think, that was too high for his own good. Or maybe it was the reverse. Maybe it was a low opinion that he kept trying to erase." I think that Curt Lemon was beyond ashamed about the fact that he was terrified of the dentist. A piece of evidence that points to this is on lines 34 and 35, when he says that he had bad experiences with dentists, with "real sadism...torture chamber stuff." His defensive attitude makes the reader (and the other soldiers) believe that he's actually frightened of the dentist because the man is a dentist...not because past dentists have done horrible, sadistic things to him. I think the purpose of the last paragraph was to emphasize Curt Lemon's inferiority complex. He's scared of the dentist, and this embarrasses him, so he feels the need to redeem himself by going through an unnecessary tooth extraction.
ReplyDeleteIn the last paragraph of "The Dentist" from Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried we see Curt Lemon stand up to something that both scares him and publicly humiliated him. Curt Lemon is seen as a man that constantly takes “creative liberties” with his military history. While the narrator does not seem to hate Lemon he does seem annonyed by him as evidenced when the narrator says that Lemon “kept replaying his own exploits, tacking on little flourishes that never happened. He had an opinion of himself, I think, that was too high for his own good.” It is also apparent that the narrator believes that Curt Lemon might put on this “tough guy act” to cover for his own insecurities. This act is tested in the story when the dentist comes to camp and orders everyone to have a checkup. Lemon faints and immediately fells insulted and takes the embarrassment to heart, though no one holds it against him. To stand up to his fear and right the wrong he feels Lemon returns to the tent and demands the tooth pulled. The next day, Lemon was “all smiles” because he had both conquered his fear of the dentist and righted his embarrassment.
ReplyDeleteIn the story called "the Dentist", Curt Lemon is portrayed as a strong soldier with allot of pride. He seems to be a jolly individual that has the fear to go to the dentist, a factor that broke his pride which is why he "fainted" before the dentist could touch him. The author even evokes fear in the reader when he talks about the environment of the tent having an battery-powered drill, a canvas cot, a bucket of sea water for rinsing, a metal suitcase full of the various instruments." This serves to the appeal of pathos for Curt because this evokes pity in the reader. The last paragraph serves to show how he redeemed his pride by the removal of his tooth. This trait of Curt is what made him unique because the narrator narrates, "Anyone else would've laughed it off, but for Curt Lemon it was too much." To prove that he was fearless, he had to conquer his fear of the dentist. This is clearly displayed in the story when Curt had "all smiles" in the morning. The reader can tell that he redeemed himself because he has a tendency to reward himself when he does something self-fulfilling; for example, he always boasted about himself for the risky stunts that he has done in his life.
ReplyDeleteThe last paragraph of "The Dentist" can be seen as showing the true nature of human behavior. Lemon wanted people to think of him as this tough, cool guy that does all these crazy things because in reality he had a "low opinion [of himself] that he kept trying to erase" (lines 10-11). Lemon was trying to boost up his morale around the other troops, maybe not wanting to be the awkward uncool kid he was once in his school years. The embarrassment of him not being able to do something as simple as a dentist check up obviously left him emotionally damaged somehow. His reaction to his fainting probably made the event more memorable then the actual fainting. Nevertheless, haunted by his failure to proceed with the dentist check up and his past dentist demons, he felt the need to finally overcome the fear of dentists by having a tooth removed in the middle of the night. The last paragraph in the story shows the amount to which Lemon would go to redeem himself, sneaking back in the middle of the night seemed to be another crazy story he could add to his brag list in case anyone wanted to challenge him on his fear of dentists.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the last paragraph from "Things They Carried" there were many questions that popped up. Basically the story is talking about Lemon is in the military and is this tough guy, however he has these bad experiences with dentists. So while he was stationed in the war a dentists had come by to check the teeth of all the soldiers. Lemon made it very clear to his fellow soldiers and himself that he did not like the dentist and that he had bad experiences with them especially in high school. So when Lemon was called up to see the dentist he fainted and his fellow soldiers had to carry him away. Now this brings us to the last paragraph. Lemon woke up almost in astonishment and did not speak to anyone, almost as if he was ashamed of himself. Later that night he went back to the dentist and told the dentist that he had a tooth ache but the dentist found that there was no problem. However, Lemon insisted that he pull the perfectly good tooth out, and then Lemon the next day was happy. I feel as though that the reason that Lemon had this "pain" in his tooth was because he really just wanted to face his fears with the dentist, and basically show his fellow soldiers that he is a manly man and is not scared of the dentist. Pulling the tooth was a message of self satisfaction of overcoming Lemon's fear of the dentist and becoming happy after.
ReplyDeleteCurt Lemon was a man who wanted to be the best. He sought glory in battle, "enjoyed combat" (line 36), and feared anything that could soil it. When he was lowered to the level of "human", by having a tooth problem, he couldn't stand it. The last paragraph of "The Dentist" tells us a great deal about him as a person. His machismo is great on the outside, but he hides a sensitive side beneath it. Bad experiences with a dentist at a young age still haunt him, and are a blemish in his manly image, one of the main reasons he resists so strongly against a simple dentist appointment. Yet, he ended up seeking out the dentist, despite his fear. This demonstrates that he wants to overcome his phobia, and become a stronger person. When it turned out his pain was an illusion, it shows even clearer that his struggle is an internal one, not an external one. As Karl said, no one was holding his toothache against him. It was his problem, and his problem alone.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the last paragraph of “The Dentist” by Tim O’Brian I saw that Curt Lemon was a man who just wanted nothing but the best for himself and the way the narrator made it seem like Curt Lemon wanted all the attention. After reading the last paragraph in "The Dentist" I saw Curt Lemon as a cool, tough guy. This is exactly what Curt Lemon made people think of him after doing these crazy things because in reality he had a "low opinion [of himself] that he kept trying to erase" (lines 10-11). The narrator’s tone shows the narrators perception of Curt Lemon and how he reacted to the dentist and the fact that it gave him the creeps. However, as soon as the dentist arrives Curt Lemon expresses his fear and the narrator conveys the fact that Curt Lemon essentially decided to go back to the dentist and have his tooth removed. Even with the novacane Curt Lemon is still entirely frightened and with this in mind, now you can see that Curt Lemon is all "talk" because he doesn't live up to the character he portrays himself to be. In the end Curt Lemon feels like this was an accomplishment. When he returns to the dentist he was still afraid and although he had the pain numbed I thought that Curt felt a sense of pride and bravery knowing he went back conquering his fears.
ReplyDelete- Marc Cortes :)
klk;l
ReplyDelete