Rebecca

Eggers’

PortfolioMs.

McGee1B

Table of Contents• Quick Navigational Instructions• Letter to the Reader• Soul Project• Soul Essay• Bucket List• 3 Artifacts—Elementary School• 2 Twelfth grade assignments• One additional assignment

Letter to the Reader

The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being

there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become

visible.  ~Vladimir Nabakov

Quick Navigational Instructions

After hearing the letter to the reader, a map with three different Russian cities is provided. Click on each city’s picture. You will be taken to another title page where links are available for each requirement of the portfolio.

When you are done viewing that link, click on the page background and it will automatically take you back to the city’s title page.

If you have seen every link from a particular city, just click on the

of the city’s page and it will take you back to the original map of Russia.

Moscow

St. Petersburg

Yekaterinburg

St. Petersburg-The Window to

the West

Artifact #1

Artifact #2

Artifact #3

The Goldfish Myth

Moscow: The Soul Moscow: The Soul and Capital of and Capital of

RussiaRussia• Soul Project

• Soul Essay

• Bucket List

Yekaterinburg-From Russia With Love

• Six Word Life Story: Determination to prevail Determination to prevail against all oddsagainst all odds

• One additional assignment

Back to St. Moscow

Next page of assignment

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Back to St. Moscow

Back to St. Petersburg

Back to St. Petersburg

Back to St. Petersburg

Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong

pages 111 and 116

“…Mary Anne was still somewhere out there in the dark. Odd movements, odd shapes. Late at night, when the Greenies were out on ambush, the whole rain forest seemed to stare in at them—a watched feeling—and a couple of times they almost saw her sliding through the shadows. Not quite, but almost. She had crossed to the other side. She was part of the land.”Mary Anne symbolizes the dramatic change in a person during war. She becomes part of the land, part of the terror—the terror itself maybe. People always hear war stories, and hear of men coming back, but never the same as before. Mary Anne is a prime example of that. She becomes so engulfed in a world she never really understood, or never knew existed. By being brought into such and extreme environment her whole view on life changed from the original naïve thoughts of a teenager to an understanding of what the real world of war is. She immerses herself in it. “I want to swallow the whole country—the dirt, the death—I just want to eat it and have it there inside me.” With this acknowledged, we find that Mary Anne isn’t the same. She is obsessed, and quite animalistic—such a surprising thing to think of, especially in a woman. I believe this is why O’Brian used a female character to express this role. It’s uncommon, never heard of, but a way to show the animalistic change that occurs in veterans of war. “She was part of the land.” I find this sentence really moving. It’s not even an exciting sentence, but when you think of the whole situation with Mary Anne, the idea hits you. It’s like Mary Anne isn’t a human. Like she transformed and morphed to become something new. Mary Anne is just another terror, a shadow of war, and an example of the change that O’Brian wanted us to see.

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• Speaking of Courage

I understand why Norman Bowker would never want to tell the story about how he lost the Silver Star. What started out as a courageous feat ended in a pathetic attempt at saving somebody’s life, and quitting at the last possible moment. I would feel the same way as Bowker, though suicide seems a bit drastic. Sometimes the worst things that come from war are not about the horrific sights you have seen, but about the things you know you should have done. Maybe Bowker should have withstanded the smell that engulfed him and saved his friend’s life, and maybe he would have died in Kiowa’s place. Die to save a life. Doesn’t that seem like the more heroic action. And then again, war in a sense is about survival. Is it really a selfish thing to want to stay alive. Wasn’t he about to go down with Kiowa? We will never really know for sure, but we can’t always blame ourselves for things that we should have done. It seems though, that Bowker focuses on the Silver Star more than his friend, but knowing that he committed suicide tells us something else. Maybe by taking his life, he thought that it would make up for what he couldn’t do during the war. Maybe the fact that not receiving that Silver Star always reminded him about what he should’ve done. What I really want to know is why he never told somebody about it. I have always been told that it’s unhealthy to bottle things up inside. Was the shame too much for Bowker to express? Was he too disappointed in himself to ever talk about it again? I know that for some people it’s harder to show emotion and talk about it and maybe the same goes for Bowker, but why wouldn’t somebody notice his inner turmoil?

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• Field Trip

This chapter really irks me to say the least. It's a shorter chapter, and one that I think holds little insight to the rest of the book. It feels misplaced, yet necessary at the same time. What bothers me most is not that O'Brian went back to visit certain scenes of previous horror, but that he brought his ten year old daughter, Kathleen, with him. A ten year old isn't mature enough to understand the complexity and meaning of the "field trip" to Vietnam. Why wasn't she left at home with her mother? Why didn't O'Brian take his wife instead of his daughter? I can't grasp the significance of this chapter, other than the fact that he wants to keep the memories of his comrades in arms (to say the least) in mind. He never wants to forget about them, but he still wants to be at peace with them. That may be the reason why he went back to Vietnam, but what is the significance of his daughter? Was it to show the young innocence and ignorance of a child in contrast to the cruelness and reality of war? For example, “Behind me, Kathleen let out a little giggle. The interpreter was showing her magic tricks.” This particular sentence seems so wrong and even off in contrast with the barely noticeable field that had “swallowed so much.” It feels like a mixture of light and dark, that’s become an uneven form of gray. Is O’Brian trying to create peace with this chapter?

Back to Yekaterinburg

The Goldfish Myth

I once heard the myth that a goldfish,Could only remember a bit.His tiny brain fooled him,Because he really had no wit.

I swear my goldfish has amnesia,He cannot remember a thing.I swear his memory is fading,When I ring with a little bing.

He hides in his gloomy cave,Captivated by some spell.Who knows if he will really hear,My little gold bell.

I swear he can only remember,A small wee bit.And every time I ring the chimeRecognition flickering as if lit.

Sometimes I feel so lonely When my goldfish cannot seeThat he is really onlyThe goldfish who could be

The greatest friend to me.

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