Help with my "The Things they Carried" Essay

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"A critic once said that one important measure of a superior work of literature is its ability to produce in the reader a healthy confusion of pleasure and disquietude. Write a 2-3 page essay in which you explain the sources of "pleasure and disquietude" in your reading of The Things They Carried . Provide atleast 2 examples of each and support your essay with specific and relevant details. "

What the fuck? What in this book is supposed to give you pleasure? The fact that a dude got shot in the head, or another one got blown to bits all over a tree?
 
i read it like 4 years ago....its a great book

but doesnt that guy return to his hometown or something? thats kinda a nice thing lol

or the fact that the book shows the strength of the soldiers by them being able to make it through the war even after watching horrid events
 
but pleasure doesnt necessarily mean something happy happened in the book...you can get pleasure out of something by deducing a meaning or something deeper from the events of the book
 
Yes, I've heard of sparknotes. can you give me specific examples in the book where theres pleasure?
 
the guy returns to his home town, only to find he has no friends and becomes really depressed. The only person he even connected with was the speaker from the drive threw.

good book, but depressing.
 
Tell your teacher that you are a part of PETA and you cannot support something that goes against your beliefs.

aka when they blew up the puppy... tehehe
 
engagement is pleasure in literature. if the book is engaging, it provides the reader with some form of pleasure. i imagine thats one way?
 
I don't know.. 1 example I'm going with is O'Brien writing the book to cope with Vietnam.
 
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