Discussion 1-

I chose the story, "The Gift of the Magi", about a young couple who loved each other but sacrificed their nicest assets to give each other Christmas gifts.

The conflict in the story is the fact that the loving couple were not wealthy, so they each sold something that was of value to them to buy Christmas gifts for each other;

The theme of the story is Love and Adoration. The couple obviously love each other and care a lot about each other, because of their sacrifices -Della cut her beautiful hair and sold it to buy Jim's present and Jim sold his family's heirloom watch to buy a present for Della (O Henry, 1906).

The literary elements/techniques that I selected are:

Allusion: the narrator refers to the magi like the Three Kings who gifted the baby Jesus with three gifts gold, frankincense and myrrh. The Three Kings were called the "Magi."

Situational Irony: The outcome of the story was not anything like what I expected and it was ironic that each character sold something of value to the other, but what they sold was what they had bought the gifts for, Della's hair was sold to buy the chain for Jim's watch and Jim sold his watch to buy combs for Della's hair.

Omniscient point of view: All though the story, the narrator describes the characters' actions, thoughts and feelings partly in proper nouns(their first names) and in the pronouns he, she and they.

Discussion 2-

For my character I chose First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross from the story The Things They Carried by Tim O'brien. (1990)

Why did this character interest you? What choices does the character make, and how do the choices (or the result of the choices) contribute to the theme of the story?

This character interested me because he to was in the military and understands the hardships that come with it. First Lieutenant Cross makes a lot of choices throughout this story, but at the beginning his thoughts are clouded by his memory of his loved one Martha. He is constantly thinking about this women throughout war when he should be concentrating on the task at hand. Because of his negligence to think about the war, his actions caused someone to die.

What Kind of conflict (internal/external) did this character encounter, and how did he/she handle it?

First Lieutenant Cross encounter internal conflict when he was constantly thinking about Martha that it caused one of his men to die. He was hit with grief for himself, his soldier and Martha. He knew that the reason his soldier died was because he was distracted and it could have been avoided. He handled the situation by burning the pictures and love letters that he had in his possession from his loved one. He also knew that burning the photos and love letters was not going to be enough, he also had to move on from Martha and give his full attention to the war.

How does the setting contribute to the character's development?

The setting in the story is set in a war zone, where a platoon are tasked out to complete patrols through certain cities. The setting helps us understand were First Lieutenant Cross is situated and how he is there physically but not mentally. How dangerous the situation really is and how he is lost in thought daydreaming about Martha.

How does the setting contribute to the characters experience and give the story more meaning?

Listening to the story, one can tell that this is Lieutenant Cross's first time being on deployment as a platoon leader because he is lost in his thoughts and isn't aware of the danger's around and how easy it is to loose men. The story speaks of how he wonders what Martha is doing back home and how he longs to be with her but that kind of thinking is what gets men killed. Not being aware and vigilant will cause one to be complacent and complacency kills.

Discussion 3-

The story I chose for this assignment was The Things They Carried (Obrien 1990). This one was a little closer to home for me and I understood the characters point of view more than I thought I would when I picked it. This character interested me because I have been there in both places. I have been the LT and I have been the "Martha". I have been in the position of day dreaming and hopng that one day I would be able to have the one thing or person I longed for and used that to get me through the battle. You take those life lines and you live on them.

You feast on them and you depend on them, their words and stories to take you out of your own and let you live through them even if just for a little while. The theme is learning to live with the choices that you make and living in a fantasy world while living your true life. The best things in life are those you have to work for but also doing what is best for everyone and you in the end. The LT battled so many internal and external conflicts one of the biggest to me is when he saw her and their eyes met. His insides were wanting to be with her in one of those scenarios that he had dreamed of.

Listen to her talk and not be doing what he was but as the external conflict of his duties and responsibilities being the military and his role he brought himself back to reality and he pushed her to the back of his mind and the troops and his duties to the front of it. The setting contributes to the meaning of the entire story because of where he started in the beginning and where he finished in the end. From digging fox holes and dreaming to leading troops and realizing the reality of the problem as opposed to fantasy.