The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
Book Group activities: Test Grade
You will also have a test over The Things They Carried.
You will meet on a regular basis with your assigned book group. Each week your group will complete the activities
below and store them in an assigned folder in the classroom. This work will be graded at the end of our reading and will
count as a test grade for each person in the group. Daily classwork grades may also apply as well as pop-quizzes over the
reading.
Each week your book group will complete the following:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Complete the study guide questions in the packet-THERE ARE NOT QUESTIONS FOR EVERY CHAPTER.
Keep up with the characters as they appear in the novel. Make notes on your character list.
Choose 1 character to study in depth. Complete a mind map on that character (See attached).
Follow a theme throughout the book. Choose one image from the weekly reading that your group feels is the
strongest image. Choose a quote that matches this image and expresses the theme/main message of the section.
The image and quote may be symbolic or full of vivid detail. Draw this image and add color. Then, write the
quote and AND EXPLAIN THAT QUOTE under your image or on the back of your paper. Explain how the
quote captures the theme. Keep images and quotes on a separate piece of paper in your folders entitled “Thematic
Images.”
5. Create a chronological timeline of this story. Your group will work on this over the 4 weeks that we read the
novel. Keep track each week of events and times.
a. Reconstruct the major events of this novel as you create a timeline
b. Your timeline should include images but must also include the names of people and events and a
description of those events. You may want to reference page numbers to help you keep track of events
cited on the timeline.
c. Begin your timeline with Timmy’s infatuation with Linda
d. End your timeline with the narrator’s discussion of storytelling at age 43
e. Select at least 10 major events to include on your timeline.
READING ASSIGNMENT
Chapters
Title of last chapter / ending page number
1-3
4-8
9-14
15-19
20-22
Ch. 3 “Spin” / pg. 40
Ch. 8 “The Dentist” / pg. 97
Ch. 14 “Style” / pg. 154
Ch. 19 “Field Trip” / pg. 213
Ch. 22 “The Lives of the Dead” / pg. 273
ALL GROUP WORK DUE
TEST
American Lit. 112 B
The Things They Carried
Complete reading by this
date
Monday, Feb. 10
Wednesday, Feb. 12
Wednesday, Feb. 19
Tuesday, Feb. 25
Monday, March 3
Thursday, March 6
Friday, March 7
Page 1
Character List: As you read the novel, write the chapter number(s) where this character is mentioned and include a
description of the character. Include the character’s physical description as well as mental and emotional description.
You also may choose to describe the character by the story associated with the person.
Character
Chapter title
Description
1. Kathleen
2. Rat Kiley
3. Mary Anne
4. Martha
5. Elroy
6. Tim O’Brien
7. Henry Dobbins
8. Curt Lemon
9. Vietcong Soldier
10. Mark Fossie
11. Dave Jensen
12. Bobby Jorgenson
13. Linda
14. Kiowa
15. Norman Bowker
16. Monks
17. Ted Lavender
18. Nick Veenhof
19. Timmy
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Character: _______________________________
1. Sketch your character. Think beyond physical appearance. What represents the character and their actions?
Visually represent what the character feels/sees/hears/touches, etc.
2. Identify three of the most IMPORTANT events or things that represent the character. DRAW 3 symbols that
represent these things.
3. Find 3 quotes relating to those things
4. Explain each quote (three explanations of those quotes)
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STUDY GUIDE QUESTSIONS
ALL STUDY GUIDE QUESTIONS MUST BE ANSWERED IN COMPLETE SENTENCES! SOME
QUESTIONS MAY REQUIRE SEVERAL SENTENCES TO ANSWER.
Chapter 1-3 Questions
Chapter 1: “The Things They Carried”
1. In the list of all the things the soldiers carried, what item was most surprising? Which item did you find most
evocative of the war? Which items stay with you?
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. Describe what Jimmy does to Martha’s picture. Why does he do it? For what had Jimmy Cross never forgiven himself?
4. How is the idea of weight used and developed in the story? How do you, as a reader, feel reading those lists of
weight? What effect does it have on you?
5. What is “the single abiding certainty”?
6. In the title story, soldiers carry things both tangible and intangible. Which were heavier? Which items spoke most
powerfully to you? What do you carry around with you every day, materially and emotionally? What do soldiers carry
in war today, and what would you most want to carry in war?
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Chapter 4-8 Questions
Chapter 4: “On the Rainy River”
1. How did Tim feel about the Vietnam War while he was at college? Do his actions and language support the idea
that he “hated” the Vietnam war?
2. What was Tim’s job the summer he got his draft notice? How does this information contribute to the story? Why
go into such specific detail?
3. What were Tim’s options once he received his draft notice? Who did he hold responsible for his situation? Who
did he think should go to war instead of him?
4. At the end of "On the Rainy River," the narrator says, "I was a coward. I went to the war." What
does he mean by this? Do you agree?
Chapter 7: “How to Tell a True War Story”
1. According to O'Brien, how do you tell a true war story? What does he mean when he says that true war stories
are never about war? In what sense is a “true” war story actually true? That is, in O’Brien’s terms, what is the
relationship between historical truth and fictional truth?
2. What does Kurt Lemon do to the Baby Buffalo? Why?
3. O’Brien explains that this story was “not a war story. It was a love story.” In what sense is this a “love story”?
Why?
4. In “How to Tell a True War Story,” O’Brien writes: “A true war story is never moral.” What does this mean? Is there
even such a thing as a true war story? Can one person’s truth be another person’s falsehood? Can truth evolve over time,
or is truth fixed and absolute? Can some truths stand in opposition and contradiction to one another? Is truth a simple
matter of black and white, or can it come in shades of gray? In what other places in the book do we see characters
struggling with morality? Are there morals to be learned from these war stories? How does the book change the way you
understand the political ramifications of Vietnam? How does its discussion of morality fit into the larger discussion of
wars and our world today?
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Chapter 9-14 Questions
Chapter 9-“Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong”- Character study of Mary Anne
1. What company are the men in?
2. Who tells the story of the Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong? What does he have a reputation for doing when telling stories?
3. Describe Mary Anne Bell when she first arrived in Vietnam? Be very specific!
4. Describe the small medical detachment unit in the mountains of west Chu Lai where this story takes place. Why was it an ideal
place for a medic? What kind of security did this outpost have/capacity to defend itself if attacked?
5. Describe the “Greenies.”
6. Who is the boyfriend of Mary Anne Bell?
7. What kind of relationship does Mary Anne Bell have with her boyfriend?
8. Eddie Diamond says of Mary Anne: “There’s the scary part. I promise you, this girl will most definitely learn.”

What is he inferring about Mary Anne?
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How does Rat Kiley make a connection between Mary Anne and the male soldiers fighting in Vietnam?
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What do you think Tim O’Brien is suggesting about the nature of war?
9. How does Mary Anne change by the second week in Vietnam – in activity, physical description, and plans for the future?
10. Where does Mary Anne go when she disappears from the medical unit one night?
11. When she finally returns to the unit, what changes does Mark Fossie insist on? In addition, what is part of the “compromise”?
12. Mary Anne disappears for nearly three weeks. When she returns Mark finds her in the Greenie’s hootch. Describe the Greenie’s
hootch:

Sounds:

Smells:

Sights:
13. What kind of clothes is Mary Anne wearing AND what is she wearing around her neck?
14. What happens to Mary Anne Bell in the end, according to Rat Kiley?
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Chapters 15-19-No Questions this week. Work on other assignments!
Chapters 20-22
Chapter 22-“The Lives of the Dead”
1.How does the opening paragraph frame the story we are about to read?
2. Why is O'Brien unable to joke around with the other soldiers? Why does the old man remind him of Linda?
3.Who is Linda, and how does she die?
4. What is the function of the Linda plot in “The Lives of the Dead”? Consider in particular what it teaches him
about death, memory, storytelling.
5. In many ways, this book is as much about stories, or the necessity of stories, as it is about the Vietnam War.
According to O’Brien, what do stories accomplish? Why does he continue to tell stories about the Vietnam
War, about Linda?
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