Tim O Brien The Things They Carried Study Guide Page 1 of 6 THE THINGS THEY CARRIED: STUDY GUIDE for LITERARY ELEMENTS What to look for as you read this novella FIRST 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 do you you believe this statement will affect your reading of the novella? PLOT STRUCTURE ANALYSIS The novel flows from the typewriter of a middle-aged man who is trying to find meaning and redemption in his war stories. It has neither a conventional narrator not timeline, which makes a plot line difficult to identify in the conventional sense. The incident that begins the rising action is his decision to disregard his conscious, go back to Worthington and report for the draft. This decision leaves him with a cynical view of courage and bravery that develops throughout the book. It also marks the declaration of an internal war, as if he spends the rest of his life trying to atone for his inability to make a pacifist stand. Throughout his tour of duty he develops close relationships with his fellow soldiers and witness the beauty and horror of war firsthand. When he returns home he carries the memories of conflict with him and is haunted by the deaths of both friends and enemies. The climax of the action is not until he returns to the field where Kiowa died and wades in for a symbolic baptism. Twenty years after the Treaty of Paris was signed, the conflict within him is finally over. The conclusion further explores how his writing aided his ability to grapple with the tragic memories and his own complicity in that horrible conflict. The general theme of redemption connects a series of otherwise unrelated stories. The novel is very much a collection of stories about the truth that war and sorrow and reflection can teach us. Each story has a message, some buried deeper than the others. Stylistically, O Brien often summarizes a story or a chapter in the final quote in the very last sentence. In the chapter Church, a discussion about religion and interaction with the Vietnamese people eventually boils down into the essence of Henry Dobbins final quote - You re right, he said. All you can do is be nice, treat them decent, you know? (Page 123) O Brien s soldiers have an intuitive wisdom, capturing such truth in their ordinary commentary. In terms of structure and style, The Things They Carried, breaks from the conventional first-person narrative of the Vietnam memoir. In fact, the book constantly shifts back and forth from first to third person. Thus, the reader is not locked into one perspective. We do not see the war and its aftermath only through the eyes of the Tim O Brien character. The sequence of events is also jumbled. The book begins is Vietnam, then drives ahead to an episode after the war, reverts back to the summer when he received his draft notice, ahead to the war, reverses to his childhood, etc. Not only are the chapter not connected in time, they re often not connected by topic Even individual chapters suddenly fragment into sections of one or two paragraphs, memory flashes appear suddenly and the fade. In these sections, O Brien dumps his memories onto the table as if they were building blocks, then sorts through them to see what he can assemble. O Brien clearly does not want to give the impression that he has it all figured out, but rather this soul-searching process is what defines him as a writer. THEMES - THEME ANALYSIS The Power of Language The emotional immaturity of the GI s in Vietnam makes it imperative that they find ways to cope with the killing of enemies and the dying of friends. O Brien writes, They used a hard vocabulary to contain the terrible softness. (Page 20) The soldiers within a platoon formed intimate relationships, but when death occurred language helped trivialize those bonds to make the separation less painful. They used words like greased, zapped, offed, lit up, to describe the deaths of their friends. When Ted Lavender died, the soldiers in his platoon talked as if it were the tranquilizers that had killed him - blew his mind. They way they described it in the stories he didn t feel a thing. O Brien remembers how, earlier in his life when Linda had died, Nick Vorheen had described it as kicking the bucket. Language is a coping mechanism, a way of making things less painful, or less real. The Nature of Courage When he is forced into a decision over whether to report for the draft of run to Canada, O Brien discovers that his understanding of courage is not quite correct. He had believed that courage was of a finite quantity, something that accrued at a fixed rate. If you emptied your account on one occasion, you would immediately have to begin saving for the next. Thus, he is surprised that the courage he had saved over the years is insufficient to carry him through his test of
Tim O Brien The Things They Carried Study Guide Page 2 of 6 will on the Rainy River. Later, he reflects back on Nick Vorheen trying to steal away Linda s red stocking cap, saying that he should have intervened, if only to practice being brave for future reference. Courage, he concludes, is a skill that must be learned like everything else. Courage is also interlocked with fear and shame. O Brien believes many of the things we do are not motivated by courage, but by shame. Men killed, and died, he writes, because they were embarrassed not to. (Page 21) Men did not march up and down the mountains of Vietnam because they were brave, but because they were afraid to be cowards, afraid to be humiliated in the eyes of their peers. This notion is illustrated in the story about Curt Lemon, where he has the dentist pull out a perfectly good tooth just to prove he s not afraid of the drill. But when Rat Kiley finally shoots himself out of desperation, no one in the platoon labels him a coward. Perhaps O Brien feels that his action required more courage than to mutely continue marching through the brush. O Brien revels in the ironical notion that the decisions which require the greatest courage are those that will cause others to label you a coward. This is the test that he himself cannot pass, the reason he s so disappointed with himself. He allows fear of ridicule from his parents, his friends, and the townspeople dictate his decision instead of following his conscious. Happening Truth vs. Story Truth O Brien wants his stories to more than inform or educate. His writing style requires an emotional investment from the reader in order to understand the meaning. As such, when he tells a story he doesn t feel bound by objectivity, or chronology, or even truth. The reader is often left wondering what really happened and what is invented. If you feel cheated because the story is fabricated, you re missing the point - there are true war stories that never happened. They are parables, in a sense, conveying a message in a way so that the reader can feel it. For example, the blurb about a soldier who falls on the grenade trying to save his buddies, but they all die anyway. (Page 83) The story asserts the unspoken rule that acts of heroism do not always save lives. Sometimes they are not even remembered at all. This is contrary to what we would like to believe about war, and therein lies the truth. A true war story, if truly told, makes the stomach believe. (Page 78) But he also points out many people cannot listen or read with their stomachs, they want stories with heroic plots and happy endings. After one reading, a lady approaches him and suggests he put away the sad memories and find new stories to tell. This lady didn t understand the underlying message of the story. They aren t really war stories at all, they re stories that use war as a vehicle for insights about life. None of the stories are true because they never really happened; yet there is truth in the stories that somehow makes them more real than an actual occurrence. Redemption O Brien s character is only one of a few characters searching for a way of unloading the emotional gear picked up during the war. His sense of guilt is two-fold. He never completely forgives himself for failing to take a moral stand against the war instead of enlisting. Compounding this original sin are the deaths of the soldiers around him, be they friend or foe, while he somehow survives the war. He obsesses over a young Viet Cong soldier he killed with a hand grenade, imagining the boy to be just like himself. Kiowa s death is written in such a way as to lead us to believe that he was the young soldier who turned on the flashlight at night, causing the platoon to be mortared. Whether or not this is the case, Kiowa s death has such a profound affect on him that he returns to the spot twenty years later in an attempt to find closure. O Brien s re-immersion back the muck of the shit field is a type of baptism. Though he emerges stained with sewage, he is somehow cleansed within. To further emphasize the chapter as a transitional point in the author s life, he buries Kiowa s sandals deep in the mud. For other characters, the search for redemption is not as successful. Lt. Cross spends most of the war carrying around guilt for the lives lost because he was thinking about Martha instead of watching for ambushes. Each time a member of the platoon dies he takes personal responsibility. When he visits O Brien s home after the war, he asks O Brien to portray him as a heroic leader. He hopes to find deliverance in O Brien s writing. Norman Bowker, on the other hand, never finds a release from the painful memories of the war. When he returns home he s unable to break free from the gravitational pull of the war, a metaphor beautifully captured in the image of driving endlessly in circles around the lake. Unable to move forwards into a new life or return to the war, he eventually commits suicide. INSTRUCTIONS As you read the novella, answer ANY 3 Questions PER excerpted chapter provided, from the following selection of questions by the due dates provided- for the Things They Carried. Answer should be WELL-DEVELOPED, Free-Writes ALSO REMEMBER Literary analysis is ALWAYS written in PRESENT TENSE Reading Questions for The Things They Carried Please indicate the Question #s you chose to develop.
Tim O Brien The Things They Carried Study Guide Page 3 of 6 (Ex: -Ch1 Q# 2, 3& 4) should you desire to read the entire novel, I have linked an edited version (profanity removed) on the class webpage 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? What has 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 43-year-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?
Tim O Brien The Things They Carried Study Guide Page 4 of 6 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 doeso 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. Look up the definition of the word metamorphosis. In what ways (note that this a plural noun) does this word 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
Tim O Brien The Things They Carried Study Guide Page 5 of 6 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
Tim O Brien The Things They Carried Study Guide Page 6 of 6 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: ANSWER BOTH #1 & 2 BELOW 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?