first reading of E101, MWF 10:10-11:05

It's a big surprise to me when the first handouts the teacher assigned us to read were about the war in Vietnam. I was born and grew up in Vietnam. I am Vietnamese. My father was once a soldier in the Vietnamese American War. I can feel and see what is happening in the story. When I was at school, what I was taught was the pride for my country, the love for my people, and the love for unlucky lives. This explained for my extreme anger at the stupid soldier who threw the carton of milk to the poor man for no reason in "The man at the Well". And I was even more surprised when no one had an action or just a word on that stupid guy. I always expected a hero, or just a normal person that would appear and do something. But nothing happened, and no one did anything. That's non-fiction, I know. There will never be a knight in such a real life. We cannot make up, or change the truth to meet our expectations in non-fictions! Non-fictions deal with real events and people. Characters, settings, and events must conform to what is true. Story cannot be manipulated by the writer’s imagination. That's what I learn from the two stories on the same subject."The man at the well" and "The things they carried". They were written by the same author Tim O'Brien but they are different, completely different just because one is non-fiction and the other is not. I learn that what happened is never exactly the same with what you see happened. What I should do in my immersion project? I have to write exactly and objectively what my characters, Vietnamese people who left Vietnam during 1975-1990, say and think about their motherland now though I like or do not like.