The Things They Carried Study Guide – Flashcards
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emotional baggage (fear, guilt, love) and tangible things. Everything they carry represent who they are
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What sort of things did the young men in Vietnam carry?
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shot in the head on his way back from peeing. (situation: lee strunk had just got out of the foxhole and everyone was yelling). This is important because it shows that life can end a flash
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What happened to Ted Lavender?
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he needed o process that life can be gone in a flash
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Why did Kiowa want to Keep talking about Ted lavender's death?
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she represented guilt and she was distraction which ultimately led to death
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Why did Lt. Cross burn Martha's pictures and letters?
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Lt. Cross and O Brien are talking about martha in his kitchen; her life had moved on and he was still stuck in the past (doesn't love him)
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How does the time and place setting shift?
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He says that they ran into each other and he told her that she loved him, but she didn't love him back
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What does Jimmy Cross say about martha
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when different people tell the same story, they put their on perception (or spin) on the story
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Why is the chapter entitled "Spin"?
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when someone asked Lavender after he used his tranquilizers how the war was, he replied with "mellow man. the war is mellow"; the purpose is to show that war is not always about battle; life has laughter too
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Give an example of comic relief in this section
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the narrator is cowardly, educated, he was taught that war was right, but he didn't know why
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What does the chapter reveal about the narrator?
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He had to decide whether to run away to canada or go to war
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What dilemma did the narrator face?
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he went to war because he said that he couldn't "face the embarrassment" if he didn't
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What decision did the narrator make? why?
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the stolen knife
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What caused the fight between Lee Strunk and Dave Jenson
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he broke his own nose to be "equal"; shows that he doesn't like conflict and is afraid of the unknown
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How did Dave Jensen resolve the conflict?
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they said that if one of them was wounded severely that the other one would shoot the other one out of their misery
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What pact did Dave Jensen and Lee Make?
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he was wounded and he begged jensen not to kill him; this shows that he tries really hard to fit in and he is cowardly
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what happened to lee?
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his best friend, curt lemon, had just died. this caused him to have an irrational expression of rage which means that this event caused him to act abnormally and without forethought
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Why did Rat Kiley torture the baby water buffalo?
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no moral, doesn't generalize, does not seem to end, cannot be believed, hard to separate what you think happened and what actually happened, does not have a point and it embarrasses you (embarrasses as in shames you)
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what are some characteristics of a true war story?
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they were sent to listen for the enemy for a prolonged period of time and they began to hear a dinner party going on; the silence caused them to become paranoid and hear things
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What weird experience did the six men on the reconnaissance team have?
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it shows that he is prideful and that he feels that he must prove himself in order to gain admiration
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what does the story show about curt lemon? (dentist story)
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rat kiley
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who is the source of the story? (sweetheart of the song tra bong)
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he managed to sneak in his girlfriend, mary anne bell
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what did mark fossie do?
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she managed to change from an innocent, shy girl to a emotionless guiltless person; the war atmosphere changed her dramatically; she found everything fascinating; she disappeared into the mountains and was never seen again (mystical creature)
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what happened to mary anne bell?
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his girlfriends pantyhose apparently kept him safe
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What talisman seemed to protect Henry Dobbins?
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the monks lived a simplistic life and admired that aspect in dobbins
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why did the two monks relate so well with Dobbins?
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kiowa said that you shouldn't mess with churches; didn't want to bring the destruction of war into a place of worship
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why did kiowa object to staying there with the monks?
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tim thinks that the man might have been a scholar, born in the village of My Khe, not a communist, didn't want to fight, loved math, thought that the boy thought that he would shame his family, only a soldier for a day; this parallels with the life of the young tim obrien
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The narrator actually knowns nothing about the dead young boy. What biographical sketch does he make up? why?
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trying to get tim to talk; possibly a moment of irrational expression of rage; trying to get tim to start picking up the pieces
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at the end of the day, what is kiowa trying to get tim to do?
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this chapter talks about how tim cannot stop reliving the story of the head boy; it is the story that never stops replying
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how does this chapter (ambush) related to the man i killed?
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a young woman dancing among the destruction
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what strange sight did the men see in the burned village?
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he is mad because azar is mocking the woman's dancing; he tells him to stop
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why did dobbins become angry with azar?
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ge is beginning to unravel and is realizing that he cannot handle the guilt and pressure from war; he kills himself
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as you read the chapter "speaking of courage", what did you see happening to Norman Bowker? why?
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this chapter refers to the letter that norman sends to tim talking about he couldn't handle life after war
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how does the chapter "notes" relate to "speaking of courage"?
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stories are tim's way of coping and these stories tell the truth about experiences
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what does the chapter "notes" imply about tim's character?
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the field was a sewage wasteland
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what as wrong with the site where the men dug their foxholes?
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he was suck under the waste and the men could not find him
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what happened to kiowa?
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they describe lt. cross's "happy place" (golf course). here, he does not feel responsible for anything, especially the death of kiowa
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what do the concluding paragraphs describe in "in the field"?
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he did not, but since he was present, that was guilty enough
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did tim kill a vietnamese soldier, or did he not?
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when his daughter, kathleen, and him return to the field where kiowa died
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what does the chapter "field trip" describe?
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she was not present during the war, so to her, its just another field
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why is kathleen's reaction to the battle stie so different from her father's?
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medic after kiley left; o'brien resents him because he almost died of shock since jorgenson couldn't come over to help him
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who was bobby jorgenson
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he died from polio from swimming in the song tra bong
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what happened to moray phillips?
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no because it seems to childish and pointless among the war setting
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does the elaborate ruse to scare Jorgenson seem like a likely war story? why or why not?
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the war had finally hit him; he would constantly scratch himself to get rid of the bugs, he couldn't sleep during the hop days and he couldn't cope with the night; he would imagine what the life people looking like dead; shot himself but everyone understood
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what happened to rat kiley? why?
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linda was o'briens first love who died of a brain tumor; she was his first experience of death and he carries around her memory with him
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who was linda? why is her story included here?
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he believe that one can keep the dead alive through stories; you can revive them because in a story, miracles can happen
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what does the narrator seem to believe about stories?
