The Things They Carried
By Tim O’Brien
Name: _____________________________
12th CP English
Hack
Background Knowledge:

The Things They Carried was published in 1990, twenty years after Tim
O’Brien returned from his tour of duty in Vietnam.

By most estimates nearly 9 million men served in the military between 1964
and 1975. Of that number, approximately 3.5 million men served in the
Vietnam theatre of operations.

The draft called more than 2 million men for military service during the
Vietnam era. It has also been credited with “encouraging” many
volunteers to join the armed services rather than risk being drafted into
combat.

The Things They Carried is widely regarded as one of the most significant
works of literature about the Vietnam War.
Journaling:
You will be journaling throughout your reading of The Things They Carried.
Your journal entries must be handed in stapled together. Each entry
should be completed on the due date assigned in class and have a
minimum of 7 complete sentences per entry. 20 points total
Pre-Reading Journal: (Choose 1)



Think about an object you carry with you all the time (other than
electronic devices) and the importance that the object represents. You
may also think back to your childhood and an object you carried around
with you then.
Catalogue the items you carry in your backpack or purse (List). Choose
two items (other than electronics) and explain why you have chosen to
“hump” these items with you wherever you go.
Imagine that you are going to war and can only take three personal
items. Describe each item and the reason why you want to carry it.
During Reading Journal: (choose 2)

“War Letters” Write a letter home to your loved ones. Why did you choose
to write to this person? Why have you chosen to share the information you
have? Have you hidden information from them? Why?

“Spin” What does it mean when O’Brien writes, in his “peace story,” “All
that peace man, it felt so good it hurt. I want to hurt it back.” What does
this say about peace? About the Vietnam War?

“Ambush”/”The Man I Killed” Read The Man I Killed and answer the
following questions: Who tells the story in this chapter? O’Brien knows
many intimate details about the man he killed. How does he know this?
Where do the details come from?
Post Reading Journal:

Write a journal exploring your personal reactions to The Things They
Carried. You need to go beyond expressing like or dislike. Make a list of
emotions you felt while reading the book, and examine why. Which
characters and scenes did you relate to, and which remained strange or
difficult to comprehend? Was the resolution of the book satisfying?
Comforting? Disturbing? Why?
Vocab List:
1. Kiley- an Australian boomerang; one side flat and the other convex
2. Selective Service- an independent federal agency that administers
compulsory military service
3. Selective Service System (SSS)- an independent federal agency that
administers compulsory military service
4. Conscientious Objector- one who refuses to serve in the armed forces on
grounds of conscience
5. Conscription: compulsory military service
6. Peacetime: a period of time during which there is no war
7. Beret: a cap with no brim or bill; made of soft cloth
8. Topography: the configuration of a surface and the relations among its
man-made and natural features
9. Militia: civilians trained as soldiers but not part of the regular army
10. enlist: join the military
Reading Questions for The Things They Carried
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. Why do the soldiers tell jokes about the war, about killing?
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. How has Jimmy changed by the end of the story? How will he be a different person from this
point on? Whathas he learned about himself? Or to put it another way, what has he lost and
what has he gained?
Chapter 2: “Love”
1. What could Jimmy Cross never forgive himself for?
2. How did Jimmy get a new picture of Martha playing volleyball?
3. What does Jimmy ask Tim to do when he writes his story?
4. What does he tell Tim NOT to mention?
5. What does it tell us about Tim O’Brien, the narrator, that he reveals character traits of Cross’s
that Cross would prefer to have remain unknown?
Chapter 3: “Spin”
1. What do we learn about Azar’s character in this story?
2. How was the war NOT like a game of checkers?
3. How did the “old poppa-san” help the platoon? What was his special skill?
4. What does Norman Bowker wish for, more than anything?
5. What does Kiowa say when his rain dance doesn’t work?
6. What did Azar do to Ted Lavender’s puppy?
7. What does Azar say about his action?
8. Identify in this story moments of beauty and/or serenity.
9. How is this story structured? What can you say about all these short sections?
10. According to Tim, what are stories for?
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 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?
3. What does Tim say is Elroy Berdhal’s role in his life? What sort of person was Elroy? How did Tim
know?
4. How do the opening sentences prepare you for the story?: “This is the one story I’ve never told
before. Not to anyone.” What effect do they have on the reader?
5. Why does O’Brien relate his experience as a pig declotter? How does this information
contribute to the story? Why go into such specific detail?
6. At the story’s close, O’Brien almost jumps ship to Canada, but doesn’t: “I did try. It just wasn’t
possible.” What has O’Brien learned about himself, and how does he return home as a changed
person?
7. In this chapter, we learn the 21-year-old O'Brien's theory of courage: “Courage, I seemed to
think, comes to us in finite quantities, like an inheritance, and by being frugal and stashing it
away and letting it earn interest, we steadily increase our moral capital in preparation for that
day when the account must be drawn down. It was a comforting theory.” What might the 43year-old O'Brien's theory of courage be?
Chapter 5: “Enemies”
1. Who broke whose nose?
2. What was the effect of the fight on Jensen?
3. What did Jensen finally do to resolve the conflict between them?
4. What is the irony of this chapter’s title?
Chapter 6: “Friends
1. What was the pact that Dave Jensen & Lee Strunk made together?
2. What was Lee afraid of when he saw Jensen, and what did he make him promise?
3. The phrase that inspires these two chapters is normally characterized as “friends and
enemies.” Why does O’Brien (the author) reverse this traditional order when sequencing
these chapters?
4. Using both chapters “Enemies” and “Friends,” explain how war distorts the normal social
codes.
5. What is the irony of this chapter’s title?
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. Why does this story begin with the line: “This is true.” How does that prepare you, as a reader,
for the story? In what sense is “this” true?
3. Find a few of O’Brien’s elements of a “true war story.” (such as, “A true war story is never
moral.”) Why does O’Brien believe these elements are important to a “true” war story?
4. Why is the baby water buffalo scene more disturbing than the death of one of O’Brien’s
platoon members, Curt Lemon?
5. 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?
Chapter 8: “The Dentist”
1. Characterize Curt Lemon and why he behaves the way he does. How does this affect your
reading of the previous chapter?
2. How did Curt Lemon’s visit to the dentist affect him?
3. What is the purpose of placing this chapter directly after “How to Tell a True War Story”?
Chapter 9: “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong”
1. Characterize Rat Kiley. After reading the entirety of the story, why does this story seem
particularly “true” to Rat? What meaning might he derive from it?
2. Characterize Mark Fossie and Mary Anne Bell.
3. Describe the changes in Mary Anne Bell from the time she arrived in Vietnam to be with her
boyfriend until the end of the chapter. Be specific and record moments from the text (page
numbers and descriptions) that demonstrate how she changed.
4. Why do you think she changed? What did the change symbolize? How long did this
metamorphosis take?
5.. In what ways (note that this a plural noun) does the word, metamorphosis, apply to the
transformation of Mary Anne?
6. Does it matter that Mary Anne is a woman? How so? What does the story tell us about the
nature of the Vietnam War?
7. Does it matter what happened, in the end, to Mary Anne? Would this be a better story if we
knew, precisely, what happened to her after she left camp? Or does this vague ending add to
the story? Why?
8. “You’re in a place where you don’t belong.” Any parallels to today? How does our lack of
understanding of a people and their place destroy us (as it does Fossie)? How does it make
monsters of us?
Chapter 10: “Stockings”
1. Why did Henry Dobbins continue to carry his girlfriend’s stocking even after she broke up with
him?
2. Consider the comparison O’Brien makes between Dobbins and America. Does O’Brien like
America? Does he respect it?
Chapter 11: “Church”
1. What was Kiowa’s reaction to setting up camp in a pagoda? Why? How does this differ with
Dobbin’s
conception of faith/religion/spirituality?
2. What is the meaning of the washing motion of the younger monk? Is it the same when
Dobbins does it?
3. The image of the monk cleaning an M-60 is incongruous and jarring. What purpose does it
serve in the story?
Chapter 12: “The Man I Killed”
1. How did the narrator react to the fact that he killed another human being? What evidence in
the story leads you to this conclusion?
2. This story describes fairly intimate aspects of the dead man’s life. Where do these details come
from? How can Tim O’Brien know them? What is going on here?
Chapter 13: “Ambush”
1. Tim O’Brien’s daughter, Kathleen, asks if he ever killed a man: “ ‘You keep writing these war
stories,’ she said,‘so I guess you must’ve killed somebody.’ “ Following this, O’Brien relates two
possible scenarios of the death described in “The Man I Killed” to explain “This is why I keep
writing war stories.” In your opinion, why does O’Brien keep writing war stories?
2. Where does truth reside in this book? What is the connection between O’Brien’s actual
experiences and the events in this book? Why is O’Brien using lies to get at “the truth”?
Chapter 14: “Style”
1. What symbolism lies in the woman’s dance?
2. What does Dobbins means when he says “Dance right!”?
Chapter 15: “Speaking of Courage”
1. What narrative point of view is used in “Speaking of Courage”? What problems does
Norman confront when he returns home? What seems to prevent him from dealing with
them successfully?
2. Why is this story called “Speaking of Courage”? Assume the title does NOT hold any irony. In
what sense does this story speak of courage?
3. Like other male characters in this novel, Norman Bowker develops an active fantasy life. Why
do these men develop these fantasy roles? What do they get from telling these fantasy stories to
themselves? What does this tell you about O’Brien’s understanding of the way fiction relates to
real life?
4. Why is Norman unable to relate to anyone at home? More importantly, why doesn’t he even
try?
Chapter 16: “Notes”
1. What is the effect of “Notes,” in which O'Brien explains the story behind “Speaking Of
Courage”? Does your appreciation of the story change when you learn which parts are
“true” and which are the author's invention?
2. Why does O'Brien include Norman's letter in the story?
3. What does O'Brien say about storytelling in “Notes”?
Chapter 17: “In the Field”
1. Briefly summarize the plot and style of the story. Is this story more of a “true” war story than
the account in the chapter “Speaking of Courage”?
2. What point of view is used to narrate “In the Field”?
3. Why is the young man not identified in the story? What is the character’s purpose in the
narrative?
4. In “In The Field,” O'Brien writes, “When a man died, there had to be blame.” What does this
mandate do to the men of O'Brien's company? Are they justified in thinking themselves at fault?
How do they cope with their own feelings of culpability? Consider all of the following characters:
5. What, in the end, is the significance of the shit field story (or stories)?
Chapter 18: “Good Form”
1. In “Good Form,” O'Brien casts doubt on the veracity of the entire novel. Why does he do so?
Does it make you more or less interested in the novel? Does it increase or decrease your
understanding? What is the difference between “happening-truth” and “story-truth?”
Chapter 19: “Field Trip”
1. Why does O’Brien return to the shit field?
2. What is the point of putting Kiowa’s moccasins in the ground (burying them)?
3. Explain the significance of the final sentence. Who or what is “all finished”?
Chapter 20: “The Ghost Soldiers”
1. What does “The Ghost Soldiers” add to the book that we have almost completed? Does it
provide any new insights, perspectives, or experiences about any of the characters? What do
you think its function in the overall narrative might be?
2. Does your opinion of O'Brien change throughout the course of the novel? How so? How do
you feel about his actions in “The Ghost Soldiers”?
3. “The Ghost Soldiers” is one of the only stories of The Things They Carried in which we don't
know the ending in advance. Why might O'Brien want this story to be particularly suspenseful?
4. Explain the significance of the title of this chapter.
Chapter 21: “Night Life”
1. How did Rat Kiley get out of active duty in the Vietnam?
2. Consider the placement of this story in the novel. What is O’Brien’s purpose in including this
story so late in the novel and immediately following “The Ghost Soldiers”?
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. 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.
4. What is the “moral” of the dead KIAs? Consider Mitchell Sanders' view.
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?
6. Reread the final two pages of this book. Consider what the young Tim O’Brien learns about
storytelling from his experience with Linda. How does this knowledge prepare him not only for the
war, but also to become a writer? Within the parameters of this story, how would you
characterize Tim O’Brien’s understanding of the purpose of fiction? How does fiction relate to
life, that is, life in the journalistic or historic sense?
Overall:
1. Assume for a moment, that the writer, Tim O’Brien, created a fictional main character, also
called Tim O’Brien, to inhabit this novel. Why would the real Tim O’Brien do that? What would
that accomplish in this novel? How would that strengthen a book about “truth”?
2. Finally, if O’Brien is trying to relate some essential details about emotional life – again as
opposed to historic life – is he successful in doing that? Is he justified in tinkering with the facts to
get at, what he would term,some larger, story-truth?
3. On the copyright page of the novel appears the following: “This is a work of fiction. Except for
a few details regarding the author's own life, all the incidents, names, and characters are
imaginary.” How does this statement affect your reading of the novel?
Final Assessment
The Things They Carried
The stories we have read by Tim O'Brien deal with the Vietnam War, but they also
contain many compelling issues about the human condition unchanged by the 30
years since that conflict. For your last essay of the semester, write an essay in which you
draw from these stories some issue, conflict, theme, or motif that interests you.
Don't simply tell the story; construct an argument for a particular point of view about it.
Your essay should refer to and quote from at least three of the stories.
Topics:
1. In "The Things They Carried," O'Brien writes that "Men killed, and died, because they
were embarrassed not to" (21). Find three characters from the assigned stories and
explain how their actions, attitudes, and beliefs reflect O'Brien's point of view in regards
to such issues as masculinity, cowardice and courage. What are your conclusions
regarding the issues O’Brien raises? Use plenty of examples from the stories to support
your point.
2. Why is it so hard to "tell a true war story"? Write an essay in which you examine
O’Brien’s use of imagination and invention, and the difficulties posed by wartime
conditions on truth-telling.
3. Throughout the stories, O’Brien juxtaposes images of great beauty with images of
great horror, the scene of Curt Lemon’s death in "How to Tell A True War Story" being
one notable example. Write an essay in which you trace the use of such contrasting
images across at least three of the stories. What do these contrasting images say about
O’Brien’s experiences in Vietnam?
4. The men deal with the uncertainty, fear, and death around them in sometimes
surprisingly tender, irreverently funny, or horrifyingly brutal ways. Choose three
characters from the stories to examine how these characters respond to their
circumstances and the men around them. What conclusions can you draw about men
and war through these examples?
5. People are usually profoundly changed by their experiences in war. Choose at least 3
characters from the stories and examine how these characters were changed by their
experiences. What conclusions can you draw from these examples about the effects of
war on the human spirit?
6. What is the role of women and girls in the book? Examine the various female
characters in the novel and explain what each may represent.
7. The "Speaking of Courage" sequence, as well as the stories related to "the Man I
Killed," deal a lot with the issue of responsibility and guilt. Discuss how at least three
characters deal with their feelings of guilt over the deaths of those around them.
(Requirements on next page)
Requirements:
1. A clear thesis statement and introduction which sets out for your reader the point
you wish to make about the stories. Please do not repeat verbatim the essay
prompt.
2. A very brief synopsis of the stories you are discussing. This means writing a
sentence or two about each story (no more than one paragraph in total).
3. An analysis supported by examples from the text, properly quoted (or
paraphrased) and cited.
4. Length: 1 ½-2 pages
5. All drafts must be typed (10 or 12 font), double-spaced, 1" margins. .
6. Must have an original title (other than the book title).
7. Use MLA format for in text citations!
Due Dates:
Rough Draft Due/25pts: _____________
Final Draft Due/50pts: _______________