1. A Visual Journey

2. •H o w d o e s t h e u s e o f l i g h t i m p a c t t h e
p o r t r a y a l o f W a s h in g t o n ?
•H o w d o y o u k n o w t h e s o l d i e r s & t h e i r
g e n e r a l a r e d e t e r m in e d t o w in t h is
b a t t le ?
•W h e r e d o y o u s e e s t r a i g h t l i n e s ? W h a t i s

3. •How does this bronze relief show men united by a cause?
•Visually, how are the soldiers depicted differently than
Colonel Robert Shaw (the man on horseback)?

4. Allies Day, MAY
1917
By Childe Hassam
•Does the painting emit a
feeling of lightness or of
heaviness? Explain.
•What is the focal point of the
painting? Why?
•Why portray the people as
tiny and the flags as large?
•Overall, then, what does this
painting suggest about
America after WWI?

5. •W h a t f e e l i n g d o e s t h i s m e m o r i a l c o n v e y ?
E x p la in .
•H o w d o e s t h e s t r u c t u r e c o n v e y a s e n s e

7. •H o w w o u l d t h i s
p o s t e r m o t iv a t e
a n A m e r ic a n t o
s u p p o r t W W II?
•W h a t d o e s t h i s
p o s te r s ug g e s t
about good &
e v il in W W II?
•W h a t d o e s t h e
im a g e o f a ll t h a t
s moke s ug g e s t
a bout Na zi
G e r m a n y?
•D i s c u s s t h e
ju x t a p o s it io n o f

8. •W h a t f e a t u r e s o f
t h is J a p a n e s e
o f f ic e r a r e
e xa g g e ra te d ?
W h a t is t h e e f f e c t
o f t h e c a r ic a t u r e ?
•T h i s J a p a n e s e
o f f ic e r is c la s p in g
h i s h a n d s i n ______.
•W h y w o u l d h e
w a n t a n A m e r ic a n
to “ ta k e d a y o ff” ?
( e ffe c t o f th e
m is s in g “ a ” ? )
•S o , o v e r a l l , h o w
d o e s t h is p o s t e r
m o t iv a t e
A m e r ic a n s t o w o r k

9. When Tim O’Brien gets his draft notice in “On the Rainy
River,” he implicitly contrasts WWII with The Vietnam War.
Unlike WWII, in Vietnam . . .
“Certain blood was being shed for uncertain reasons. I saw
no unity of purpose, no consensus on matters of philosophy
or history or law. The very facts were shrouded in
uncertainty: Was it a civil war? A war of national liberation
or simple aggression? . . . . Was Ho Chi Minh a Communist
stooge, or a nationalist savior, or both, or neither?”
He then goes on to say,
“There were occasions, I believed, when a nation was
justified in using military force to achieve its ends, to stop a
Hitler or some comparable evil, and I told myself that in such
circumstances I would’ve willingly marched off to the battle.”
Apply O’Brien’s statements above to the images from WWII
we just examined.

10. Let’s further examine
what made The
Vietnam War different
from all previous
wars . . .

12. •D i s c u s s
the
c o n t r a s t in
c o lo r s
b e tw e e n
t h is p o s t e r
& W W II
one , a nd
w ha t tha t
c o ntra s t
s ug g e s ts .
•W h a t h a s
V ie t n a m
d o ne to
A m e r ic a ?
Us e
d e t a ils

16. How does the nature of the Vietnam
War change conventional notions of
Courage?
Find quotes in “On the Rainy River”
that show O’Brien’s definition of
courage.

17. When he thinks about the American people,
including his town & family, O’Brien writes,
“They didn’t know history. They didn’t know
the first thing about Diem’s tyranny, or the
nature of Vietnamese nationalism, or the long
colonialism of the French—this was all too
damn complicated, it required some reading
—but no matter, it was a war to stop the
Communists, plain and simple, which was
how they liked things, and you were a
treasonous pussy if you had second thoughts
about killing or dying for plain and simple
reasons.”
Identify O’Brien’s tone here.