I feel that the narrator in the short story "The Madagascar Plum" is an unreliable narrator. In the first paragraph of the introduction it states that "The Madagascar Plum takes place in a cafe, where a former officer of the Sai Gon army recounts the cause of his post-traumatic stress". So from the very begining we realize that the narrator is suffering from PTSD and is having a hard time dealing with real life after the war. In the first paragraph we see that he freaks out after being offered a madagascar plum. This is not typical behavior after being offered a piece of fruit. Also, the fact that the narrator is a former officer of the Sai Gon army indicates that the story may be biased.
Another factor that leads to the unreliableness of this story is that the narrator is drunk or drinking throughout most of the story. For example he says "Pour me another drink, and when I've finished it, I'll tell you the story". This quote shows that in order for the narrator to tell the details of a story, he needs to be under the influence. He also states later that the night where he killed the girl "if I hadn't been under the devilish influence of alcohol it wouldn't have turned out the way it did". This quote indicates that the narrator was extremly drunk that night and when one is that drunk they often black out, or remember things differently than how they really happened.
The narrator is also bitter from the fact that is was a child that the cook found instead of a dog. The narrator says "Wouldn't it be better to have found a dog rather than a child?" (3).This shows us that from the first instance where he was introduced to the child, she had done nothing at all, and he already dispised her. He tries to make the reader think that she is bad, before she has even made a movement or even muttered a word.
Also the fact the narrator was seeing things makes his story less reliable. For example he says that he saw "the two dear faces of Nam and Phong" in the child's face. This shows that the narrator was a little out of his mind and not seeing things clearly.
Seeing the narrator as an unreliable source makes me view the story as a piece of fiction. It makes me hesitant to take any sort of fact or description he tells as the truth. It also makes me question his thoughts and instincts about the whole situation. First of all, any war story is subject to unreliability. Secondly a war story coming from a soldier that suffers from PTSD is custom to even more unreliability. Also the fact that this incident took place under the influence of alcohol makes the whole picture even foggier and unreliable.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Blog 8 APNR JCP
An allegory is a figurative representation of a literal meaning. The meaning is typically conveyed through a number of symbols and extended metaphors throughout the piece. This is a good tool for Coppola to use to convey his feelings about the war because it allows the reader to interpret what was going on as opposed to just being told literal facts.
One of Coppola's major messages was the death and destruction that came from the Americans involvement in Vietnam. The atrocities of the war were highlighted in the sanpan scene. After boarding, and subsequently shooting all the Vietnamese people on the boat, one woman was still alive. After realizing they were wrong to shoot the people, some of the soldiers wanted to save the woman but Willard shot her dead on the spot. This is a great example of the unnecessary civilian deaths in the Vietnam war. Furthermore killing is the point of the film. Willard is assigned to go kill a rogue officer Kurtz. In a mission to kill one man, far too many others lost their lives while in the of Willard to succeeding on his mission.
In addition to senseless killng, Willard's mission also represents the crews transformation. As the mission progressed the men one by one lost themselves. Willard was harmed enough from his first tour in Vietnam, and now his life and thoughts are entirely consumed by his mission of terminating Kurtz. Lance turned to drugs and loses himself in the high. Cheif breaks down when Clean is killed. The change in the men shows the horrors of war. It is not something where a soldier can go in, complete his mission, and come home. They will all be forever hardened by the war and affected by its aftermaths.
Coppola used many symbols to convey his beliefs on the war. He used face masks to show the point when the men changed. After Lance turned to drugs he wore camouflage face paint symbolizing his true self was gone. Also when Willard kills Kurtz his face is covered in mud symbolizing he is no longer the old Willard, he is simply a killing machine. Also the river is the literal and figurative representation of their mission. As the crew moves out of civilization on the river, they also move out of the normalcy of themselves. Finally Coppola's use of fog is a representation of the unknown that the soldiers are going to have to face.
One of Coppola's major messages was the death and destruction that came from the Americans involvement in Vietnam. The atrocities of the war were highlighted in the sanpan scene. After boarding, and subsequently shooting all the Vietnamese people on the boat, one woman was still alive. After realizing they were wrong to shoot the people, some of the soldiers wanted to save the woman but Willard shot her dead on the spot. This is a great example of the unnecessary civilian deaths in the Vietnam war. Furthermore killing is the point of the film. Willard is assigned to go kill a rogue officer Kurtz. In a mission to kill one man, far too many others lost their lives while in the of Willard to succeeding on his mission.
In addition to senseless killng, Willard's mission also represents the crews transformation. As the mission progressed the men one by one lost themselves. Willard was harmed enough from his first tour in Vietnam, and now his life and thoughts are entirely consumed by his mission of terminating Kurtz. Lance turned to drugs and loses himself in the high. Cheif breaks down when Clean is killed. The change in the men shows the horrors of war. It is not something where a soldier can go in, complete his mission, and come home. They will all be forever hardened by the war and affected by its aftermaths.
Coppola used many symbols to convey his beliefs on the war. He used face masks to show the point when the men changed. After Lance turned to drugs he wore camouflage face paint symbolizing his true self was gone. Also when Willard kills Kurtz his face is covered in mud symbolizing he is no longer the old Willard, he is simply a killing machine. Also the river is the literal and figurative representation of their mission. As the crew moves out of civilization on the river, they also move out of the normalcy of themselves. Finally Coppola's use of fog is a representation of the unknown that the soldiers are going to have to face.
Blog 9 SAL
“The Madagascar Plum” by Nguyen thi Minh Ngoc is about an officer of the Saigon army at a café, where he is recounting a story to explain his PTDS. Through reading the story, it becomes clear that the narrator, the army officer, is unreliable.
The first reason that the narrator is unreliable is his dependency on alcohol and the way in which it convolutes his judgments. Alcohol consumption is a major part of PTSD and a way that many soldiers try to overcome the overwhelming feelings of leaving the war behind. In this instance alcohol clouts the mind of the army officer. “The longer I remained inside [eating and drinking], the more I lapsed into a stupor and the foggier I became” (6). This shows that while under the influence, the officer’s perception of reality is distorted.
The second reason that the narrator is unreliable is his irrational decisions, particularly with the killing of the small child and how his obsessions lead to paranoia by the entire troop. By thinking that the girl is like a ghost and that she disappears every night and takes food, the officer is creating this figment to believe in rather than trying to figure out where the child is going and why they are taking the food. While following the small child is a way to answer these questions, the quest to find the answers has become more of a game, shown when the officer offers to follow her even after a night of drinking. Further irrational thinking is shown when the small child is being killed. It is only the day after Nam and Phong had disappeared and the officer blows up the child; not thinking to follow the child again that night in hopes of finding their fellow soldiers.
“We are ghostly group of soldiers on our way back”(9). This quote exemplifies the effects of PTSD, but the images created when the officer is telling the rest of the story make the reader question his reliability as a narrator.
The first reason that the narrator is unreliable is his dependency on alcohol and the way in which it convolutes his judgments. Alcohol consumption is a major part of PTSD and a way that many soldiers try to overcome the overwhelming feelings of leaving the war behind. In this instance alcohol clouts the mind of the army officer. “The longer I remained inside [eating and drinking], the more I lapsed into a stupor and the foggier I became” (6). This shows that while under the influence, the officer’s perception of reality is distorted.
The second reason that the narrator is unreliable is his irrational decisions, particularly with the killing of the small child and how his obsessions lead to paranoia by the entire troop. By thinking that the girl is like a ghost and that she disappears every night and takes food, the officer is creating this figment to believe in rather than trying to figure out where the child is going and why they are taking the food. While following the small child is a way to answer these questions, the quest to find the answers has become more of a game, shown when the officer offers to follow her even after a night of drinking. Further irrational thinking is shown when the small child is being killed. It is only the day after Nam and Phong had disappeared and the officer blows up the child; not thinking to follow the child again that night in hopes of finding their fellow soldiers.
“We are ghostly group of soldiers on our way back”(9). This quote exemplifies the effects of PTSD, but the images created when the officer is telling the rest of the story make the reader question his reliability as a narrator.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
KSP blog 9
“The Madagascar Plum” written by Nguyen thi Minh Ngoc takes place in a café with a former Sai Gon army officer telling a story in order to explain his PTSD. Like most of the war stories there is the man I killed, but in this particular case it is a child whom the officer has killed.
Throughout the short story, the reader constantly wonders if the narrator is reliable or not, but as the tale unfolds it becomes clear that the Sai Gon army officer is not reliable. The first reason that the narrator seems to be unreliable is because of his dependence on alcohol. After the war many of the soldiers turned to alcohol to cope with their problems, and this narrator is no different. In the second paragraph he asks the waitress to pour him another drink so that he could forget what the color of the plum symbolized to him. As the story progresses there are several more examples that pertain to drinking such as, “The night that if I hadn’t been under the devilish influence of alcohol wouldn’t have turned out the way it did.”(5), “The longer I remained inside, the more I lapsed into a stupor and the foggier I became.” (6), and “My wife nags me that I’m an alcoholic…How can I forget if I don’t have liquor” (8). These are three different instances in which the narrator is under the influence of alcohol which can distort his perception of reality. With such a dependency on alcohol, it makes the reader question the validity of the narrator’s thoughts and feelings.
The second reason that the narrator can be portrayed as unreliable is due to the symptoms of his post-traumatic stress disorder. In the opening paragraph he writes, “Offer me anything but that fruit, please, I beg of you,” (1). Although it is just a fruit, the brown-red color from the fruit reminds the man of the child he killed and her brown skin. As a result of his PTSD, the narrator, “Mutilated [his] own body,” (8). If the man is able to cut off his leg because of the stress he suffers, his mind is clearly not rational. Therefore, everything that he has said must be taken with a grain of salt.
After reading the story, I found the narrator to be unreliable which influenced the way that I interpreted “The Madagascar Plum”. Instead of taking this work to be a personal account, I have taken it as a form of fiction because of his instability. In the section where Nam and Phong went to chase the small child, the narrator was in a drunken stupor. Most people who are drunk view the world differently and they tend to forget things that otherwise sober people would see and remember. This made it hard for me to believe everything that the narrator was saying.
The last thing that I noticed is the lack of detail in which the narrator divulges. Although this maybe a explained by his PTSD, the narrator does not tell the reader where the girl is coming from, why he thinks she is taking things, and what happens to her family after she is killed. This lack of detail brings the reader to just read the surface story and not the meaning that lies underneath.
Throughout the short story, the reader constantly wonders if the narrator is reliable or not, but as the tale unfolds it becomes clear that the Sai Gon army officer is not reliable. The first reason that the narrator seems to be unreliable is because of his dependence on alcohol. After the war many of the soldiers turned to alcohol to cope with their problems, and this narrator is no different. In the second paragraph he asks the waitress to pour him another drink so that he could forget what the color of the plum symbolized to him. As the story progresses there are several more examples that pertain to drinking such as, “The night that if I hadn’t been under the devilish influence of alcohol wouldn’t have turned out the way it did.”(5), “The longer I remained inside, the more I lapsed into a stupor and the foggier I became.” (6), and “My wife nags me that I’m an alcoholic…How can I forget if I don’t have liquor” (8). These are three different instances in which the narrator is under the influence of alcohol which can distort his perception of reality. With such a dependency on alcohol, it makes the reader question the validity of the narrator’s thoughts and feelings.
The second reason that the narrator can be portrayed as unreliable is due to the symptoms of his post-traumatic stress disorder. In the opening paragraph he writes, “Offer me anything but that fruit, please, I beg of you,” (1). Although it is just a fruit, the brown-red color from the fruit reminds the man of the child he killed and her brown skin. As a result of his PTSD, the narrator, “Mutilated [his] own body,” (8). If the man is able to cut off his leg because of the stress he suffers, his mind is clearly not rational. Therefore, everything that he has said must be taken with a grain of salt.
After reading the story, I found the narrator to be unreliable which influenced the way that I interpreted “The Madagascar Plum”. Instead of taking this work to be a personal account, I have taken it as a form of fiction because of his instability. In the section where Nam and Phong went to chase the small child, the narrator was in a drunken stupor. Most people who are drunk view the world differently and they tend to forget things that otherwise sober people would see and remember. This made it hard for me to believe everything that the narrator was saying.
The last thing that I noticed is the lack of detail in which the narrator divulges. Although this maybe a explained by his PTSD, the narrator does not tell the reader where the girl is coming from, why he thinks she is taking things, and what happens to her family after she is killed. This lack of detail brings the reader to just read the surface story and not the meaning that lies underneath.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Blog 9 AKB
The narrator in short story "The Madagascar Plum" by Nguyen thi Minh Ngoc is, for the most part, an unreliable narrator. This is because, as a former officer in the Sai Gon army, he is on the side of the South Vietnamese during the Vietnam War. Since he considers the girl that the narrator's cook Mr. Bay found to be a child of the enemy, he automatically suspects her of being mischievous. When it is discovered that she leaves every night and takes some food with her, the narrator and the other soldiers believe she is aiding the enemy. This can be seen when the narrator tries to find a method of discovering where the girl disappears to every night. "The best method was to return to Old Bay's strategy: follow her. That was the only hope for seizing her whole band" (Ngoc 5). The suspicion that the girl is helping the enemy becomes a constant paranoia for the narrator, as well as for the other soldiers.
Another reason why the narrator is unreliable is because he is so strongly affected by the murder of the young girl. He feels guilty for killing the girl, since he mainly did it because he thought she had led his friends to their deaths. The guilt he has for his actions seems to cloud his memory of the events, leading him to justify the girl's actions, almost portraying her as innocent, by the end of the story. "The more we moved on in that direction, the more we admired the small feet of that tiny child running back and forth" (Ngoc 8). The narrator begins to admire the girl whom he killed after he discovers that neither she, nor the people she is supposedly helping, have killed his friends.
Viewing the narrator as unreliable influences my interpretation of the story because it causes me to believe that there was more to the events than the narrator reveals. Since the narrator is so negatively affected by his actions, it seems that he excludes other proof for why he suspected her of aiding the enemy. He wants the reader to be convinced that he was wrong in suspecting and punishing her, so he may not include all evidence he found of her aiding the enemy.
Also, the narrator's justification for why he killed the girl seems to be lacking something. The narrator reveals that he killed the girl after he "saw Nam's wife-to-be and the children they would have," and "Phong's first clumsy steps to the rhythm of soul music" (Ngoc 7). I believe that the narrator leaves out other reasons for killing the girl, such as that he was hardened by the horrors of war, or that he needed to take his frustrations out on the enemy. Instead, the narrator's reveals only one reason for why he blew the child up, which he uses to depict what a bad person he thinks he is now. At the time, however, he must have had other reasons for killing the girl, although they may not be justified.
Another reason why the narrator is unreliable is because he is so strongly affected by the murder of the young girl. He feels guilty for killing the girl, since he mainly did it because he thought she had led his friends to their deaths. The guilt he has for his actions seems to cloud his memory of the events, leading him to justify the girl's actions, almost portraying her as innocent, by the end of the story. "The more we moved on in that direction, the more we admired the small feet of that tiny child running back and forth" (Ngoc 8). The narrator begins to admire the girl whom he killed after he discovers that neither she, nor the people she is supposedly helping, have killed his friends.
Viewing the narrator as unreliable influences my interpretation of the story because it causes me to believe that there was more to the events than the narrator reveals. Since the narrator is so negatively affected by his actions, it seems that he excludes other proof for why he suspected her of aiding the enemy. He wants the reader to be convinced that he was wrong in suspecting and punishing her, so he may not include all evidence he found of her aiding the enemy.
Also, the narrator's justification for why he killed the girl seems to be lacking something. The narrator reveals that he killed the girl after he "saw Nam's wife-to-be and the children they would have," and "Phong's first clumsy steps to the rhythm of soul music" (Ngoc 7). I believe that the narrator leaves out other reasons for killing the girl, such as that he was hardened by the horrors of war, or that he needed to take his frustrations out on the enemy. Instead, the narrator's reveals only one reason for why he blew the child up, which he uses to depict what a bad person he thinks he is now. At the time, however, he must have had other reasons for killing the girl, although they may not be justified.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
NR Blog 8
An allegory is a representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material forms. A popular example of an allegory is Charlotte’s Web, which sets out to instill the values of friendship, loyalty, and basic human characteristics through an adventure of farm animals. In a similar fashion, Coppola voices his opinions about the war with various characters throughout his incredibly long film.
We see in Marlow what we’ve seen every other work in this course. The war has made him a changed man. We see in the beginning of the film that he has developed a thirst for in-country activity. We see this with the meshing of helicopter propellers with ceiling fans, his heavy drinking, and his talking of divorce. Coppola is projecting a realization of what war, particularly this one, has done to its veterans.
Marlow’s shipmates also serve as a representation of American forces stationed in Vietnam. Lance is a mess. He seems to be on drugs for most of his screen time, all the while projecting no intention of being any sort of good soldier. He gets a kick out of the “purple haze” grenade until the boat is ambushed and Tyrone dies. Lance is a misguided hippy surfer who, due to unfortunate circumstances, got drafted into a war that he had no intention of fighting in. Tyrone is the only character introduced along with his age, 17. It’s an emphasis on the draft’s dragging massive amounts of youth into the war, only to have many of them die. Coppola’s opinion of all this can be heard when Marlow recalls somebody saying that a quarter of their force could win the war as long as they were all dedicated soldiers.
Lt Col Kilgore reminded me a lot of Sgt Horvath from Saving Private Ryan. No matter how many explosions were going off around them, they were up and giving orders to their soldiers. While I found both characters brought some humor to their films, Kilgore seems to be more of a symbolic figure than Horvath does. Just look at his name. Kilgore is Coppola’s representation of the war machine that is the American military during the Vietnam War. He plays fanfare from his helicopters during his attacks and loves the smell of napalmed victory, yet he shows compassion for his forces in attempting to fly the wounded out with haste. His driving intention to capturing the VC base is more for the surfing possibilities than any tactical advantage, which then questions whether or not he really cares for the well being of his troops by flying them into a possibly unnecessary conflict.
The Frenchmen and Kurtz bring up similar points in different fashions. The Frenchmen reason why they are in the war by pointing out that they are territorially involved. They also portray a hidden frustration, bringing to attention their history of continued loss in relatively recent years and how France has fallen from the global authority it once was. They are bewildered as to why the Americans are involved in the war, questioning what they are fighting for. Kurtz puts a spin of insanity on this point. His long record of service is constantly brought up in order to emphasize his amount of experience and nail it into our brains. By then going insane and defecting in Vietnam, we can conclude that the conflict goes against everything else he’s seen in his long career. Whereas other wars may have been justified in the past, he sees no good in this one.
We see in Marlow what we’ve seen every other work in this course. The war has made him a changed man. We see in the beginning of the film that he has developed a thirst for in-country activity. We see this with the meshing of helicopter propellers with ceiling fans, his heavy drinking, and his talking of divorce. Coppola is projecting a realization of what war, particularly this one, has done to its veterans.
Marlow’s shipmates also serve as a representation of American forces stationed in Vietnam. Lance is a mess. He seems to be on drugs for most of his screen time, all the while projecting no intention of being any sort of good soldier. He gets a kick out of the “purple haze” grenade until the boat is ambushed and Tyrone dies. Lance is a misguided hippy surfer who, due to unfortunate circumstances, got drafted into a war that he had no intention of fighting in. Tyrone is the only character introduced along with his age, 17. It’s an emphasis on the draft’s dragging massive amounts of youth into the war, only to have many of them die. Coppola’s opinion of all this can be heard when Marlow recalls somebody saying that a quarter of their force could win the war as long as they were all dedicated soldiers.
Lt Col Kilgore reminded me a lot of Sgt Horvath from Saving Private Ryan. No matter how many explosions were going off around them, they were up and giving orders to their soldiers. While I found both characters brought some humor to their films, Kilgore seems to be more of a symbolic figure than Horvath does. Just look at his name. Kilgore is Coppola’s representation of the war machine that is the American military during the Vietnam War. He plays fanfare from his helicopters during his attacks and loves the smell of napalmed victory, yet he shows compassion for his forces in attempting to fly the wounded out with haste. His driving intention to capturing the VC base is more for the surfing possibilities than any tactical advantage, which then questions whether or not he really cares for the well being of his troops by flying them into a possibly unnecessary conflict.
The Frenchmen and Kurtz bring up similar points in different fashions. The Frenchmen reason why they are in the war by pointing out that they are territorially involved. They also portray a hidden frustration, bringing to attention their history of continued loss in relatively recent years and how France has fallen from the global authority it once was. They are bewildered as to why the Americans are involved in the war, questioning what they are fighting for. Kurtz puts a spin of insanity on this point. His long record of service is constantly brought up in order to emphasize his amount of experience and nail it into our brains. By then going insane and defecting in Vietnam, we can conclude that the conflict goes against everything else he’s seen in his long career. Whereas other wars may have been justified in the past, he sees no good in this one.
MGB Apocalypse Now
APNR is an allegory in much the same way that many war novels are. An allegory is an extended metaphor where fictional characters are used to express a belief. The belief being, how grotesque and twisted the Vietnam War was. Even though the war real and the characters act as real soldiers in a linear plot with traditional narrative, the themes follow an allegory.
Through tragic scenes of the armless Vietnamese children and shooting on innocent civilians, we see the journey that Willard takes. We see his struggle with PTSD and how it affects his journey. Willard‘s mission was to get rid of Kurtz. This symbolized the corruption of the U.S. government in secretly taking out their own side. Kurtz had gone insane from the war and organized his own group of followers. He did crazy things like surfing during fire and claiming to “love the smell of napalm in the morning”. Willard has his own issues and returning to do such a mission only brings back more experiences.
This movie also shows how unorganized the whole war was. Kurtz was a joke and so were many other soldiers. The government presented the idea that was to save innocent Vietnamese civilians. However, they really took pleasure in killing innocent people. It is ironic that Kurtz ends up becoming a Vietnamese spiritual leader to the Vietnamese when in the beginning of the film he took joy in shooting people to classical music. This movie also shows the control and manifest destiny power America tried to impose on Vietnam. The government thought people needed saving and destroyed their culture in the pursuit to impose their own ways.
The movie parallels Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Same as the movie, it rotates around the theme of imperialism. Both have different methods used to oppress the civilians. Kurtz is a character that is the same in both literary works. He takes no shame in admitting he takes the ivory by force and violence. Yet, the overall idea is that slavery is necessary to create a new civilization. Madness and imperialism are two themes that are connected in both works. Willard’s PTSD is clear and so is Kurtz’s downfall through his madness. Overall, the film significantly represents many of the complicated layers of the war. It was harsh and controversial and had many negative effects.
Through tragic scenes of the armless Vietnamese children and shooting on innocent civilians, we see the journey that Willard takes. We see his struggle with PTSD and how it affects his journey. Willard‘s mission was to get rid of Kurtz. This symbolized the corruption of the U.S. government in secretly taking out their own side. Kurtz had gone insane from the war and organized his own group of followers. He did crazy things like surfing during fire and claiming to “love the smell of napalm in the morning”. Willard has his own issues and returning to do such a mission only brings back more experiences.
This movie also shows how unorganized the whole war was. Kurtz was a joke and so were many other soldiers. The government presented the idea that was to save innocent Vietnamese civilians. However, they really took pleasure in killing innocent people. It is ironic that Kurtz ends up becoming a Vietnamese spiritual leader to the Vietnamese when in the beginning of the film he took joy in shooting people to classical music. This movie also shows the control and manifest destiny power America tried to impose on Vietnam. The government thought people needed saving and destroyed their culture in the pursuit to impose their own ways.
The movie parallels Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Same as the movie, it rotates around the theme of imperialism. Both have different methods used to oppress the civilians. Kurtz is a character that is the same in both literary works. He takes no shame in admitting he takes the ivory by force and violence. Yet, the overall idea is that slavery is necessary to create a new civilization. Madness and imperialism are two themes that are connected in both works. Willard’s PTSD is clear and so is Kurtz’s downfall through his madness. Overall, the film significantly represents many of the complicated layers of the war. It was harsh and controversial and had many negative effects.
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