T h e T h i n g s T h e y C a r r i e d ● Language Worksheet| 1
Read the first sentence:
First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha,
a junior at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey.
The first words “First
Lieutenant Jimmy Cross”
The first verb “carried”
The object “letters”
Put these phrases into the correct boxes in the table:

is in the past tense,

and represents something which was given to the soldiers.

This accentuates the main action of the men in the story.

to show that it has already happened, and is in the active voice, to show that the soldiers were
diligent in doing this.

the main character in this short story and the man who is responsible for the death of Ted
Lavender.

This indicates that the items the soldiers carry are weighty because of the thought and
memory associated with them.

is plural

This emphasises that his actions contributed to the death.

introduce
T h e T h i n g s T h e y C a r r i e d ● Language Worksheet| 2
Read the final sentence:
He might just shrug and say, Carry on, then they would saddle up and
form into a column and move out toward the villages west of Than Khe.
The first verb
“might … shrug”
The first verb
“shrug”
The imperative
“Carry on”
The clause
“form into a
column”
T h e T h i n g s T h e y C a r r i e d ● Language Worksheet| 3
Put these phrases into the correct boxes in the table:

is in the future indicative tense

This reinforces the idea of not carrying emotional baggage from the past but of living in the
moment, in order to achieve their goals in Vietnam as safely as possible.

and indicates that the men will follow his order.

and indicates that in the Cross will make sure that the soldiers are actively following his orders the
instant he gives them.

This emphasises that he has learnt his lesson from carrying the letters from Martha, to which he
was so attached, instead of bearing the responsibility of leading his troops safely.

to give the idea that if this happened, then he could possibly shrug.

literally means that the soldiers line up

means to raise his shoulders to show his detachment

This accentuates the clinical and ordered way the men will move on from this tragic event, both
physically and psychologically.

and suggests that Cross will not choose to carry the burden of emotional attachment to his
troops.

is in the present tense

This reinforces that Cross is considering different ways of handling future situations.
T h e T h i n g s T h e y C a r r i e d ● Language Worksheet| 4
Read the definition O’Brien gives of the verb to carry:
To carry something was to hump it, as when Lieutenant Jimmy Cross
humped his love for Martha up the hills and through the swamps. In its
intransitive form, to hump meant to walk, or to march, but it implied
burdens far beyond the intransitive.
This emphasises that the
soldiers had to devote
The imperative “to carry”
serious and sustained
effort to their task.
to emphasise that
The first object
regardless of the item, the
“something”
soldiers carried a definite
load.
The phrase “as when
Lieutenant Jimmy Cross
humped his love for
Reiterates
Martha”
This stresses the variety
of items the soldiers
carry and acknowledges
that some were
emotional loads.
The noun “love”
The prepositional
phrases “up the hills and
through the swamps”
The adjective
“intransitive”
The verb “implies”
The prepositional phrase
“far beyond”
emphasising the effort and
distances involved.
refers to the form
of the verb which
is used when
there is no object,
is a transitive verb
This reinforces the idea
that the soldiers were
carrying their thoughts:
to imply something
causes someone to think
about what is being
suggested.
This also resembles the
emotional and
psychological highs and
lows through which the
soldiers carried their
burdens.
T h e T h i n g s T h e y C a r r i e d ● Language Worksheet| 5
Put these phrases into the correct boxes in the table:

to reinforce the distance the soldiers carried the things they did.

show where the carrying occurred

is balanced by a synonym,

This shows that wherever the soldiers went, they took their physical and psychological loads.

the first sentence of the short story.

This recognises that although at times the soldiers were simply walking, they still carried their
psychological burdens.

mimics “up the hills and through the swamps”

This accentuates the main action of the men in the story.

accentuating that this object was not concrete or physical.

is both specific, because of the “some”, and general,

to emphasise that the things they carried were not only physical.

which must have an object, in this case the plural verb “burdens”.

the imperative “to hump”.

This highlights the role Cross had in Ted Lavender’s death.

is abstract,