1. The things they carried
Study Guide Questions
The things they carried

2. #4
What is a phrase that is frequently repeated in the first chapter? Why do you think O’Brien repeats that phrase?

3. #5
Give an example of irony from the novel. Explain HOW it is ironic.

4. #6
In your study guide, analyze the following passage. Be sure to consider the essential questions and be able to answer: What is O’Brien’s purpose in writing this? What does he want readers to think/feel/understand?
“They carried the soldier’s greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing. Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to” (O’Brien 20).

5. #7
Based upon the following passage, what can the reader infer about Martha? “…he’d almost picked her up and put his hand on her knee and just held it there all night long…Martha shut her eyes. She crossed her arms at her chest, as if suddenly cold, rocking slightly, then after a time she looked at him and said she was glad he hadn’t tried it. She didn’t understand how men could do those things” (O’Brien 28).

6. #8
Find an example of imagery from the chapter “Spin”. What are the images like? Why do you think he includes that imagery?

7. #9
Analyze the following passage. Feel free to use the suggestions projected on the board. Be sure to consider the essential questions (Why do we tell stories?) and be able to answer – What is O’Brien’s purpose in writing this: “Forty-three years old, and the war occurred half a lifetime ago, and yet the remembering makes it now. And sometimes remembering will lead to a story, which makes it forever. Stories are for joining the past to the future. Stories are for those late hours in the night when you can’t remember how you got from where you were to where you are. Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story” (O’Brien 36).

8. #10
Who is Elroy Berdhal? Why does O’Brien call him the “hero of my life”?

9. #11
At the end of the chapter, “On the Rainy River,” what does the narrator imagine? Why does he imagine that?

10. #12
Summarize what happens in the chapters “Enemies” and “Friends”. Explain how the events of these chapters are ironic (there are many examples – choose one!). Remember, in order to explain irony, first state what is expected, then explain what happens.

11. #13
Why does Rat Kiley kill the baby buffalo? Explain the complex emotions he experiences in this scene. Is this scene disturbing to you – why or why not? How does it compare to the death of a platoon member – like Ted Lavendar or Curt Lemon?

12. #14
Analyze the following passage. Explain what it means, in your own words. Why does O’Brien say there is/is not a “true” war story? What does he explain about the truth here?
“For the common soldier, at least, war has the feel- the spiritual texture -of a great ghostly fog, thick and permanent. There is no clarity. Everything swirls. The old rules are no longer binding, the old truths no longer true. Right spills over into wrong. Order blends into chaos, love into hate, ugliness into beauty, law into anarchy, civility into savagery. The vapors suck you in. You can’t tell where you are, or why you’re there, and the only certainty is overwhelming ambiguity.
In war you lose your sense of the definite, hence your sense of truth itself, and therefore it’s safe to say that in a true war story nothing is ever absolutely true” (O’Brien 78).

13. #15
Summarize the events of the chapter “The Dentist” AND explain which device readers primarily encounter in it (irony, imagery, paradox, repetition). Find an example of that device in the chapter and write it down.

14. #16
What happens to Mary Anne Bell? What does her story say about one of the effects of war?

15. #17
Explain two of the impacts of war we read about in “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” – you can either directly quote them or summarize the examples (they need to be either DQs or CDs!).
Identify one example of a device (imagery, irony, paradox, repetition) and write it down, along with the page #.

16. #18
What happens in the chapter “Stockings”? Why do you think O’Brien includes this chapter in his novel? 

17. #19
What happens in the chapter “Church”? Why do you think O’Brien includes this chapter in his novel? 

18. #20
In the chapter “The Man I Killed,” O’Brien uses imagery extensively. First, explain what the images are of. Why do you think he uses this rhetorical device in this chapter? What effect does the imagery have on the reader? How does that effect connect to an essential question? Explain thoroughly.

19. #___
Analyze the following passage. Be sure to consider the how this responds to the impacts of war, as well as to why we tell stories. Explain O’Brien’s purpose in writing this: “Even now I haven’t finished sorting it out. Sometimes I forgive myself, other times I don’t. In the ordinary hours of life I try not to dwell on it, but now and then, when I’m reading a newspaper or just sitting alone in a room, I’ll look up and see the young man coming out of the morning fog” (O’Brien 134).

20. #21
What happens in the chapter “Style”? Why do you think O’Brien includes this chapter in his novel?

21. #22
What is Norman Bowker doing in the chapter “Speaking of Courage”? Describe at least two things he does SPECIFICALLY. What is the tone of this chapter? What is your reaction to this chapter?

22. #23
What happens to Norman Bowker in the chapter “Notes”? Why do you think that happens?

23. #24
The chapter “In the Field” gives some information about Kiowa’s death. Explain how he dies, describing three SPECIFIC events that occur.

24. TW #6 Turn your research paper packets to page 5 and 6.
For this essay, you will write down passages from 5 different sources.
The passages all need to be examples of THE IMPACTS OF WAR.
From each source, you will need this number of DQs by the end of the period today if you would like to get full credit:
Novel – 4 DQs
Radio program (article #1) – 2 DQs
Frontline interview (article #2) – 2 DQs
Movie – 2 DQs
Interview – 1 DQ (if you haven’t completed your interview yet, then you need 5 DQs from the novel instead)

25. #25
What happens in the chapter ‘Field Trip’? Summarize the events of this chapter. How is the title of this chapter ironic?

26. #26
Analyze the following passage. Explain what he means about story truth and happening truth. “Here is the happening-truth. I was once a soldier. There were many bodies, real bodies with real faces, but I was young then and I was afraid to look. And now, twenty years later, I’m left with faceless responsibility and faceless grief. Here is the story-truth. He was slim, dead, almost dainty young man of about twenty. He lay in the center of a red clay trail near the village of My Khe. His jaw was in his throat. His one eye was shut, the other eye was a star-shaped hole. I killed him. What stories can do, I guess, is make things present. I can look at things I never looked at. I can attach faces to grief and love and pity and God. I can be brave. I can make myself feel again” (O’Brien ).

27. #27
Where does the author get shot? What happens to him?

28. #28
What does O’Brien do to get revenge on Jorgenson? Explain how he is successful or unsuccessful in achieving this goal.

29. #29
In the chapter ‘The Ghost Soldiers,’ the speaker’s character changes a bit. What aspects of his personality are revealed? What does this character development illustrate about the impact of war? Find a good passage to support your thinking. Make sure it is annotated in your book.

30. #30
Analyze this passage. Consider the Essential Questions and key terms “You learn, finally, that you’ll die, and so you try to hang on to… that gentle, naïve kid you used to be…. Because you know for a fact that you can’t ever bring any of it back again” (O’Brien 200).

31. #31
What happens in the chapter “Night Life”? Specifically name THREE events that occur. Why is that title ironic?

32. #32
Linda, O’Brien’s first date, is an emblematic character. What does she represent in the novel?

33. #33
The last chapter seems out of place with the rest of the novel. Explain what happens in the last chapter that contrasts with other events from previous chapters. Then, explain why O’Brien would choose to include that story in this novel.

34. #34
What events occur in the last chapter to make the title ‘The Lives of the Dead’ appropriate? Be specific. _____________________________________ What did you get out of this unit? What ideas have developed, or changed, or been reinforced? What skills have you learned or developed? Be specific – give me feedback!