Song of Napalm
BY BRUCE WEIGL
for my wife
After the storm, after the rain stopped pounding,
We stood in the doorway watching horses
Walk off lazily across the pasture’s hill.
We stared through the black screen,
Our vision altered by the distance
So I thought I saw a mist
Kicked up around their hooves when they faded
Like cut-out horses
Away from us.
The grass was never more blue in that light, more
Scarlet; beyond the pasture
Trees scraped their voices into the wind, branches
Crisscrossed the sky like barbed wire
But you said they were only branches.
Okay. The storm stopped pounding.
I am trying to say this straight: for once
I was sane enough to pause and breathe
Outside my wild plans and after the hard rain
I turned my back on the old curses. I believed
They swung finally away from me ...
But still the branches are wire
And thunder is the pounding mortar,
Still I close my eyes and see the girl
Running from her village, napalm
Stuck to her dress like jelly,
Her hands reaching for the no one
Who waits in waves of heat before her.
So I can keep on living,
So I can stay here beside you,
I try to imagine she runs down the road and wings
Beat inside her until she rises
Above the stinking jungle and her pain
Eases, and your pain, and mine.
But the lie swings back again.
The lie works only as long as it takes to speak
And the girl runs only as far
As the napalm allows
Until her burning tendons and crackling
Muscles draw her up
into that final position
Burning bodies so perfectly assume. Nothing
Can change that; she is burned behind my eyes
And not your good love and not the rain-swept air
And not the jungle green
Pasture unfolding before us can deny it.
Tim O’Brien, “The Things They Carried” - Analysis
Discussion: Analyzing the style of O’Brien’s short story
1. Read the second paragraph of the story. Are the words in this paragraph primarily general or
specific, concrete or abstract? Give examples.
What is the effect of this word choice?
2. Read paragraphs 11 & 12. About how many sentences are longer than ten words? About how
many sentences are shorter than ten words? What might be significant (the intended effect) of
the contrast between the longer and the shorter sentences in these paragraphs?
3. Find examples of parallelism and repetition. What kind of effect do these techniques have on
the tone of the writing?
4. Read paragraph 39. What examples of irony do you find in this paragraph?
Be prepared to discuss the style of writing in this paragraph: word choice, imagery, figurative
language, sentence type, etc.
Be prepared to identify ironies in the story and to discuss what you think is the conflict in this story
and how that conflict is resolved.
What similarities can you see between the situation, the theme, the characters in this story and the
themes, situations, and speakers in Bruce Weigl’s poem “Song of Napalm” and Jim Northrup’s poetry?
http://youtu.be/7Y1J9Br66co Jim Northrup
http://youtu.be/wKFyKbuD1Fc Jim Northrup
“The Things They Carried”: Discussion Questions
1. What do the personal items these men carried reveal about themselves? Discuss at least a couple
of examples.
2. In what sense does Jimmy love Martha? Why does he construct this elaborate (mostly fictional)
relationship with her? What does he get out of it?
3. When is Jimmy most likely to think about Martha? Why is he thinking about her while one of his
platoon members is in the tunnel?
4. Why did Lieutenant Jimmy Cross feel guilty about Ted Lavender’s death? In what sense is Ted
Lavender’s death his fault?
5. Here is his excuse for allowing his men to be lax: “He was just a kid at war, in love.” Why does
Jimmy use this excuse? In what sense does it excuse him? In what sense, doesn’t it?
6. Why do the soldiers tell jokes about war, about killing? Why do they use profanity?
7. How is the idea of weight used and developed in this story (“Jungle boots, 2.1 pounds.”)? How do
you, as a reader, feel reading those lists of weight? What effect does it have on you?
8. What is significant about Jimmy Cross’s name?
9. If this is a story about sacrifice, what does Jimmy sacrifice, and why?
10. How has Jimmy changed by the end of the story? How will he be a different person from this point
on? What has he learned about himself? Or, to put it another way, what has he lost and what has
he gained?
11. What is the effect of the repetitions in the story (the constant descriptions of how much things
weigh, the regular need to carry things, the way in which Lavender died)?
12. Do you think the war will affect him in a different way now that he refuses to think about Martha?
How will it be different? What did “Martha” save him from?