The Things They Carried Test

This is false because none of these characteristics apply to a true war story.

Is this true or false: A true war story instructions, encourages virtue, or suggests models of proper human behavior

This is true, a war story is meant to be embarrassing.

Is this true or false: A true war story will embarrass you

This is true when it's dreamlike it can demonstrate how brutal war truly is.

Is this true or false: In a true war story, there is always a dreamy quality, which makes the story seem unique, but actually is actually is what helps deliver the hard and exact truth as it seemed.

This is true because often after the trauma that the soldiers endure, it can go on for a very long time, making it feel never-ending.

Is this true or false: a true war story never seems to end.

This is true, because the effect of a true war story can engage all your senses.

Is this true or false: a true war story makes the stomach believe.

This is true oftentimes when talking about war. The truth can be very ugly.

Is it true or false: A true war story will tell you the truth, though the truth is ugly.

This is true. There are often embellishments in war stories to drive the point home.

Is this true or false: It's safe to say that in a true war story, nothing is ever absolutely true.

This is true many tellers do this because their audience is unfamiliar with war and may downplay their pain.

Is this true or false: You can tell a true war story by the fact that the teller makes up a few things to get at the real truth.

This is true. Sometimes the dramaticized truth may be more accurate to what the soldiers are feeling. Instead of the happening truth

Is this true or false: the story-truth is sometimes truer than the happening- truth.

This is true, most of the time, they will have some sort of moral or effect on people that may change the way they would usually do things.

Is this true or false: A true war story will refrain men from doing things that men have always done.

C. Humpers

The infantry, or foot soldiers, were called all of the following except:

A. Legs

B. Grunts

C. Humpers

D. Infantry

A. Photographs

“To hump it” meant to carry something. What did “almost everyone [hump]” (3)

A. Photographs

B. Chewing-gum

C. Rocket-propelled grenades

D. Souvenir necklaces of severed tongues or ears

A. Ted Lavendar

Which characters are we told will die in combat eventually?

A. Ted lavender

B. Kiowa

C. Tim O'brien

D. Henry Dobbins.

D. All of the above

Why do the soldiers and our narrator use such coarse and foul language at times?

A. To dehumanize their enemy

B. “ They were afraid of dying, but they were even more afraid to show it” (19).

C. To help them deal with the “burden of being alive” after a moment of panic and to help them “reassemble themselves… becoming soldiers again” (18).

D. All of the above

E. None of the above.

D. The girl Martha, back in the states.

What or whom is lieutenant?Jimmy cross obsessed with?

A. Dying in a tunnel search-and -destroy mission.

B. His men following orders

C. Venereal disease

D. The girl Martha, back in the states.

B. Tim struggles with the fact that he destroyed the man, that the man was O’ Brien's victim.

After the death, O'Brien tells us that the man “lay face-up in the center of the trail, a slim, dead, almost dainty young man” (118). Why do you think he uses such delicate diction, even diction of weakness. (e.g., “slim,” dainty,” “young”)?

A. The man was not strong and was actually not a threat.

B. Tim struggles with the fact that he destroyed the man, that the man was O'Brien's victim.

C. Because the “man” was actually just a child.

D. To reinforce the fact that the man has been killed

E. To highlight the fact that this man is O'Brien's enemy.

D. O'Brien needs to see this man as a person like himself, not an animal, so that he can face his own guilt full-on and take responsibility for killing him.

Infer why O'Brien gives readers an imaginary backstory for the man he kills?

A. O'Brien recognizes the man and knows his history

B. The rest of the platoon wants O'Brien to talk about it, so he makes it up

C. O'Brien dehumanization of the man makes it psychologically easier to face the fact that he killed him

D. O'Brien needs to see this man as a person like himself, not an animal, so that he can face his own guilt full-on and take responsibility for killing him.

E. Feeling like he knows the man as the enemy makes O'Brien feel better about killing him.

E. Nothing; he simply stares at the corpse until Kiowa covers it with a poncho.

Kiowa tells O'Brien to “just forget that crud…No sweat, man. What else could you do?” (120). Kiowa goes on throughout the chapter to try to make O'Brien talk about the options that O'Brien had instead of killing the man. What option does O'Brien speak about?

A. He could have let him pass by unharmed toward the rest of the Americans so that someone else would have to deal with him

B. He could have killed the man less painfully

C. He could have taken the man prisoner and sent up a signal flare

D. He could have traded places and let the man kill him

E. Nothing; he simply stares at the corpse until Kiowa covers it with a poncho.

C. Nothing - “It was entirely automatic” (126).

What was Tim being during the encounter with the young man he kills?

A. Excitement- “No sweat…The magic doesn’t go away” (112).

B. Fear- “His jaw was in his throat. His one eye was shut and the other was a star-shaped hole” (120).

C. Nothing- “It was entirely automatic” (126).

D. Confusion - “He often wanted to, but he was afraid, and this increased his shame” (121).

E. Hatred - “It's a war…he had a weapon, right? (120).

A. Because this truth is too complicated for a child to understand.

Years later, O'Brien's daughter asks him if he had ever killed anyone in the war. Lying, he tells her “of course not” (123), but he admits to the readers that he hopes she will ask again someday. Why?

A. Because this truth is too complicated for a child to understand.

B. Because he wants her someday to be proud of his bravery.

C. Because he is truly proud of his actions.

D. Because he needs time to create a fantasy version she can understand soon.

E. Because he wants to defer dealing with the truth in the hopes that you will not ask again.

B. Norman Bowker's best friend who drowned in the lake before the war.

O'Brien writes, “But now Max was just an idea” (133). Who is Max?

A. Tim O'Brien's closest war buddy who drowned in a lake in Vietnam

B. Norman Bowker's best friend who drowned in a lake before the war

C. The lieutenant in charge of O'Brien's unit

D. Mary Anne Bell's boyfriend who received a medal of honor

E. Tim O'Brien's father who died before the war

D. The sewage field that Kiowa died in.

To what is this quote referring: “But the worst part,” he would have said quiet, “ was the smell. Partly it was the river — a dead fish smell—but partly is was something else, too” (139)?

A. A river that fed the lake Norman Bowker drove around.

B. A river that Ted Lavender died in.

C. The smell of the Curt Lemon after he died.

D. A sewage field that Kiowa died in.

E. The place where Mary Anne Bell was found.

A. Drive in circles around a lake.

What did Noman Bowker do instead of talking about his grief and guilt?

A. Drive in circles around a lake.

B. Drive north to Canada to run away.

C. Swim in circles in a river.

D. Visit a grave of his dead army buddy.

E. All of the above

F. None of the above

C. The inescapable grief that many soldiers continue to live with after the war.

What do circles symbolize in this story?

A. The circular river that the character died in.

B. The wedding ring that Norman gave his wife.

C. The inescapable grief that many soldiers continue to live with after the war.

D. The circle of life that brings new babies into the world.

E. There's circuitous route that the men keep walking through in the jungle that night

E. Writing stories to work through what happened and “separate it from yourself.”

What does Tim O'Brien think helps him survive after the war?

A. Telling his young daughter exactly what he did during the war.

B. Talking to a therapist weekly.

C. Routinely visiting vietnam with other soldiers from his company.

D. Never telling anyone exactly what happened.

E. Writing stories to work through what happened and “separate it from yourself”

C. “ I felt no personal danger; I felt no sense of impending crisis in my life” (39).

When O'Brien's draft notice arrives, he rants about all the reasons that he should not have to go to war. Which reason below is not something that he noted as a reason for staying out of the war?

A. “I was too good for this war” (39).

B. “[I was]too smart, too compassionate, too everything.” (39).

C. “I felt no personal danger; i felt no sense of impending crisis in my life” (39).

D. “ The sight of blood made me queasy” (39).

E. “And I couldn't tolerate authority.” (39).

A. He walks off the job and drives north towards Canada

O'Brien relates how while at work, “ standing on a pig line, [he] felt something break open in [his] chest” (44). What does he do after he feels this physical response to his inner struggle?

A. He walks off the job and drives north towards Canada

B. He walks off the job and heads south towards Mexico

C. He goes out to the lake and drives in circles for a while.

D. He writes his parents a long note and then moves into his own place

E. He visits the local tavern and gets drunk.

E. All of the above.

In literature, if a scene is foggy or misty or smoky, readers get a feeling of confusion. O'Brien tells us, in fact, that “the only certainty that summer was moral confusion” (38). However, the day that elroy takes tim fishing was a sunny afternoon - no sense of confusion in the description. This builds a sense of irony for us, because Tim sure does seem confused about what to do; maybe he already knows but just won't admit it to himself.He ends up deciding to go to war, ironically, out of sheer cowardice, why is he afraid of staying out of the war.

A. His own embarrassment

B. People mocking him.

C. A personal sense of disgrace

D. Patriotic ridicule.

E. All of the above

C. He can decide whether or not to swim to Canada.

By taking tim fishing in the boat, Elroy is giving him an opportunity to do what?

A. He can talk about his feelings

B. He can take his mind off of worrisome things by fishing

C. He can decide whether or not to swim to Canada.

D. He can take some pictures of the beautiful scenery

E. He can accept Elroy's offer to work for him.

B. He gives Tim an “emergency fund” of cash to use in his travels

Of the following, how does Elroy empower tim to make his own decision about the war?

A. He gives Tim a gun to defend himself.

B. He gives Tim an “emergency fund” of cash to use in his travels.

C. He offers to hide Tim in the barn over the winter so that he can have time to decide.

D. He fixes Tim’ truck so that he can move on.

E. He tells tim his own story of his experience in WW1

B. He has his girlfriend flown in from the States to stay with him.

Mark Fossie does the unbelievable; what is it?

A. Pulls all of his teeth out with a rusty pair of pliers

B. He has his girlfriend flown in from the States to stay with him.

C. Deserts by walking out of Vietnam only by night

D. Shoot himself in the foot to stay out of combat.

E. Accidentally kills one of his own fellow soldiers.

B. She walks off into the mountains and did not come back, becoming a part of the jungle.

Orion tells us that the “stories that will last forever are those that swirl back and forth across the border between trivia and bedlam, the mad and mundane” (85). The story of Mary Anne Bell is one such a tale. What is the most outlandish or unbelievable detail of her tale?

A. She cooks a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for the men every Thursday.

B. She walks off into the mountains and did not come back, becoming a part of the jungle.

C. She arrives as a naive girl, but ends up prostituting herself to the men.

D. And a way living contest, she proves to be stronger than most of the men.

E. She insists on having a traditional Vietnamese wedding ceremony.

A. 17

How old was Mary Anne Bell?

A. 17

B. 21

C. 25

D. 30

E. 14

D. All of the above

Of the following, what did Mary Anne Bell have?

A. Terrific legs

B. A bubbly ppersonality

C. Blue eyes and a complexion like strawberry ice cream

D. All of the above

D. The Green Berets

What group does Mary Anne Bell start spending time with?

A. Mark, Tim, Ted

B. The Screaming Eagles

C. Eddie, Ratio, Mitchell

D. The Green Berets

E. Tim, Mitchell, Ratio