Joseph Flora, a university professor, once included Shane in a course he conducted on American literature. He found the student’s aversion to the character of Shane interesting, and rationalized it with this statement: “At century’s end, in post-Vietnam America, believing in Shane’s kind of heroism and selflessness is hard, as is believing in a characterContinue reading “You Can’t Run Away Forever: Confronting a Dark Past (Part 2 of 2)”
Tag Archives: Tim O’Brien
You Can’t Run Away Forever: Confronting a Dark Past (Part 1 of 2)
Former president Lyndon B. Johnson once said, “We can draw lessons from the past, but we cannot live in it;” he would certainly know something about regretting the past. Among his many acts as President, he is remembered by most for escalating American involvement in the Vietnam War, from 16,000 American soldiers in 1963 toContinue reading “You Can’t Run Away Forever: Confronting a Dark Past (Part 1 of 2)”
Turning Back the Clock: How Flashbacks Are Used in Literature (Part 2)
Tim O’Brien also uses time travel in his critically acclaimed novel, In the Lake of the Woods. What makes these journeys to the past so much easier to identify and pay attention to in O’Brien’s novel versus Miller’s play? The answer: format and point of view. In In the Lake of the Woods, scattered throughoutContinue reading “Turning Back the Clock: How Flashbacks Are Used in Literature (Part 2)”
Turning Back the Clock: How Flashbacks Are Used in Literature (Part 1)
Time. Time is something that affects us all. We can feel it aging us, passing us by – we know we are living right in the midst of it. However, despite our intimate experience with it, the vast wealth of human ingenuity and knowledge has yet to afford us with a way to travel backContinue reading “Turning Back the Clock: How Flashbacks Are Used in Literature (Part 1)”
Robin Jeffrey 