English 11 8-1

English 11 Unit 8 - 1

Fractured Identities

Vietnam

8 - 1 Due Date 5/06

8 - 2 Due Date 5/08

8 - 3 Due Date 5/13

8.4.3 CST Due Date 5/15

​Watch the video in Unit 8 Overview

It's a very good introduction to what makes up a person's identity!

​Unit 8 Overview

• Identify elements of Postmodernism.

• Analyze Postmodern texts.

• Write an argumentative speech.

​8.1.2 Read

​Watch the 4 minute video on page 2.

This video offers a lot of information about the war in Vietnam and how Americans felt about it.

It also shows how much it cost Americans in many ways.

Military action today is heavily influenced by what happened in the Vietnam era.

The Reading Guide would be very helpful to check your understanding of the material presented in the film.

​8.1.3 page 1 War is inevitable.

​No matter how much we'd like to believe otherwise, war is pretty much inevitable — at least it has been for much of human history. Each generation in the United States has had its own experience with war, though each experience has been very different.

In the 1860s, the nation dealt with the Civil War, which had a very clear purpose and outcome. About a hundred years later in the 1960s and 1970s, the nation dealt with the Vietnam War. Its purpose was unclear, and its outcome was even more undefined.

​8.1.3 page 2

​The violent images — both on television and in other news media — combined with increasingly violent antiwar protests, forced the government to get involved. Eventually, Congress took action with the War Powers Act. As a result of the public's interest and political change, the way the country reacted to war changed forever.

​8.1.3 page 3 Protests

​Americans didn't like the draft or the pictures of the devastation they were seeing. Protests were plentiful. Most were peaceful; some got out of hand and people got hurt.

When the war ended, Americans shunned the returning soldiers for the first time in history. They felt soldiers had acted irresponsibly. Little was done for these veterans. Many had PTSD, and went without help.

​8.1.3 page 4

​Since many soldiers returning from war suffered from PTSD, they needed a way to process the trauma they had experienced in war. Some veterans began to write as a form of therapy, and later, this form of working through difficult experiences came to be called scriptotherapy. It is now recognized as a legitimate form of treatment for all types of trauma.

Writers like Tim O'Brien, a novelist, and Yusef Komunyakaa, a poet, brought Vietnam to life through their writing. At the same time, they were able to work through many of the events that would otherwise remain pent up and cause them additional emotional trauma.

​8.1.3 page 5

​In the midst of the turmoil of the Vietnam War in 1968, an artistic movement called Postmodernism was born. Literature and art from this movement incorporated experimentation and abstraction, making the concept of Postmodernism a bit difficult to define.

​Because Postmodernism is all about breaking conventions and traditional constructions, artists and writers created art in nontraditional forms. Their work is very often nonlinear and fragmented, and rarely provides a clean resolution.

Postmodernists also play around with unusual forms, mixing styles and genres in order to parody or pay homage to past styles. A short story may be presented as an ad, a novel in play form, or a true story somewhat clouded with fiction.

​8.1.3 page 6 Self awareness

​Postmodern works also have a tendency to be self-aware. This literature is sometimes called metafiction because it refers to itself and reflects on itself.

​8.1.3 page 7 Cultural Diversity

​Prior to the Postmodernist time most American literature came from white, male authors.

​8.1.3 pages 8/9 Fictional Nonfiction

​Postmodernists often start with their own lives as a basis for their writing and fictionalize large portions of their stories in order to develop their themes and messages. For example, Sherman Alexie bases many of his stories on his time growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation, but embellishes

them, which means they can't be true examples of nonfiction.

Tim O'Brien wrote The Things They Carried. He admits that it is "story-truth" as opposed to "happening-truth."

​8.1.5 Read

​Watch the 3 minute video on page 1 to help you prepare.

Read a few short stories from Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried.

4 Poetic Selections

​8.1.7 Study

​This Study helps you read and analyze these reading selections. They deal with aesthetic impact, parallelism, sentence structure, theme, imagery, figurative language

​8.1.9 Write & 8.1.10 Project

​In this activity, you'll be writing an argumentative speech about the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Is it an appropriate tribute to the Vietnam veterans?

You'll be looking for outside sources to help you support your claim and incorporate them into your argument. This process is called synthesis because you're using pieces of a variety of sources and putting them together to create a whole.

This writing assignment will focus on the following skills:

• Establishing a claim

• Providing relevant evidence

• Addressing the counterclaim(s)

​8.1.9 page 2

​Do your research about the Vietnam Wall Memorial.

Find information to support your claim, but also gather information for your counterclaim.

It is important to understand your topic from all sides.

Only after you have a clear understanding of both sides can you build a quality claim.

​8.1.9 page 3

​Be sure that your claim takes a position on an issue and doesn't just state a fact.

​8.1.9 Help with the project

​The text book pages offer much help creating an effective speech.

Introduction ... page 4

Choosing main points..... page 5

Finding evidence for each main point/body paragraphs.... page 6

Counterclaim to build ethos .... page 7

Rebuttal to your counterclaim.... page 8

Organizing body paragraphs. . . page 9

Adding Quotes... page 10

Conclusion .... page 11

Note cards.... should be brief... page 12

​8.1.9 page 13

​Maintain a formal tone. It's much easier to establish ethos when you sound knowledgeable and confident.

Practice helps a speaker achieve a formal tone. The more practice ... the more comfortable you will be presenting your speech so there will be fewer fillers.

​8.1.9 page 14 Check list

​I need entire speech written out even though the assignment only asks for note cards or outline.

This is because you're off the hook for delivering the speech.

Look at rubric.... I can't grade properly with only an outline.... If you would prefer to record your speech for submission.... that is optional.

​Respond to ME in the CHAT:




The visual images of the ravages of which war led to the Post Modernism movement?