The Things They Carried--test review

Jimmy Cross

First Lieutenant, platoon leader; carried letters from Martha and 2 photographs of her (one yearbook volleyball shot and the other she stood against a brick wall), compass, maps, code books, binoculars, .45-caliber-pistol, strobe light and responsibility for the lives of his men, good-luck pebble from Martha; in love with Martha

Martha

obsession of Jimmy Cross; junior at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey; english major; wrote beautifully; respect for Chaucer and great affection for Virginia Wolf; often quoted poetry; became Lutheran missionary, trained nurse, served in Ethiopia, Guatemala and Mexico, never married and never wanted to

Henry Dobbins

machine gunner; big man; carried extra rations (especially fond of canned peaches in heavy syrup over pound cake), M-60 and 10-15 lbs of ammunition draped in belts across his chest and shoulders, black flag insecticide, girlfriend's pantyhose wrapped around his neck as a comforter; always excused from tunnel duty due to big size

Dave Jenson

practiced field hygiene; carried a toothbrush, dental floss, and several hotel-sized soap, 3 pairs of socks and can of Dr. Scholl's foot powder, rabbit's foot, empty sandbaags (filled for added protection), night-sight vitamins high in carotene, ear plugs

Ted Lavender

was scared; carried tranquilizers until he was shot in the head outside the village of Than Khe in mid-April and then carried in a poncho; carried 6 or 7 oz of premium dope, starlight scope; adopted an orphan puppy until Azar blew it up

Mitchell Sanders

RTO (radio telephone operator); carried condoms, PRC-25 radio, starched tiger fatigues (for special occasions), brass knuckles; tried to find a moral out of everything; once pryed off body lice, put them in blue USO envelope, sealed it up, wrote FREE in upper right-hand corner, addressed it to draft board in Ohio; tells stories (like man who hooks up with Red Cross nurse but got back into action because peace felt so good it hurt)

Norman Bowker

gentle person; carried a diary, thumb (gift from Mitchell Sanders; dark brown, rubbery to the touch, from 15-16 year old burned VC corpse); hates a silent Indian; wished his dad would write him a letter saying it's ok if he doesn't win any medals

Rat Kiley

medic; carried comic books, morphine, plasma, malaria tablets, surgical tape, M&M's, brandy

Kiowa

Indian; devout Baptist; carried an illustrated New Testament from his father who taught Sunday school in OK City, OK; also carried grandmother's distrust of white men and grandfather's old feathered hunting hatchet; watched Ted Lavender die "Boom-down, like cement"; carried moccasins for silence; taught Rat Kiley and Dave Jensen a rain dance

Lee Strunk

carried tanning lotion, sling shot (as last resort); once drew 17 and went in tunnel

to carry something

to hump

soldiers were called

legs of grunts

What they carried was based on rank and field specialty. (T or F)

True

Lieutenant Cross blamed himself for Ted's death (T or F)

True

Why did Lieutenant Cross blame himself for Ted's death?

he loved Martha more than his men and could not stop thinking about her

What they carried was based on mission (T or F)

True

Why did Martha pick the pebble?

found on Jersey shoreline where things came together but also separated which inspired her to mail it to him (no romance intended)

Why did they carry the mine detector?

was heavy and awkward to handle and often useless because of shrapnel in the earth but they carried for safety and illusion of safety

Why is # 17 important?

number of men in platoon (before Lavender died) and whoever drew 17 would go in tunnel

They used hard vocabulary to contain terrible softness (T or F)

True

Sanders moral about Ted's Death

stay away from drugs

Soldiers just wished to be free with no burdens (T or F)

True

Jimmy Cross burned Martha's letters and photographs (T or F)

True

Cross wanted to do what after burning Martha's items?

forget her, perform duties firmly, dispose of pebble, be strict and efficient, accept blame for Lavender's death, take dope away, use impersonal lieutenant's voice, not tolerate laxity, show strength and distance himself

Point of View shift

3rd person to O'Brien

Tim O'Brien

lives in Massachusetts; visited by Jimmy Cross one day years after war and drank and discussed old times; 43 and writer, writes war stories, daughter Kathleen doesn't want him to

Azar

gave one legged boy chocolate; blew up Ted Lavender's orphan puppy

Dobbins and Bowker play checkers every night, what's the irony?

checker's playing field was always laid out, no surprises, you knew score and where you stood, enemy was visible, winner and loser, there were rules, unlike Vietnam War

Old poppa-san

guide platoon through mine fields on Batangan Peninsula, "Step out of line, hit a mine; follow the dink, you're in the pink"

Average age of platoon

19 or 20

How was the platoon's atmosphere?

curiously playful, like a sportin event at some exotic reform school

What are stories for?

Stories are for joining the past and the future; Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there inothing to remember except the story

Tim O'Brien wanted to be....

wanted to be a secret hero/The Lone Ranger;

Tim O'Brien philosophy on courage

believed courage could be received and stashed away like inheritance until one day you can just draw it all out

Did Tim O'Brien support war?

no, he believed US had no reason to fight war

Why did Tim O'Brien think he was not soldier?

was too smart and compassionate; Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude, president of student body, full ride scholarship for grad school at Harvard; hated Boy Scouts, camping out, dirt, tents, mosquitos, sight of blood makes him queasy, can't tolerate authority, didn't know rifle from sling shot

What is the story O'Brien never told before?

His attempt to run away to Canada

What is the Rainy River?

border between Minnesota and Canada

When did Tim O'Brien receive his draft letter?

June 17, 1968

Where did Tim O'Brien work in the summer of 1968?

Armour meat packing plant in Worthington, Minnesota as pig "Declotter"

Why didn't Tim O'Brien flee officially to Canada?

he was embarrassed and couldn't stand the shame

Where did Tim O'Brien take refuge for 6 days?

old fishing resort called Tip Top Lodge

Elroy Berdahl

eighty-one year old, skinny and shrunken, mostly bald, he was a witness like or or Gods "who look on in absolute silence as we live our lives, as we make our choices or fail to make them"; never asks O'Brien personal questions, gives O'Brien money, owns Tip Top Lodge

Did O'Brien take the money from Berdahl?

no

Who got in a fist fight?

Dave Jensen and Lee Strunk

Why was there a fist fight?

Lee Strunk stole Dave Jensen's jackknife

What happened to Strunk after the fist fight?

nose was broken, bandaged up, and returned to the platoon

What happened to Jensen after the fist fight?

went crazy over the fear of Strunk seeking revenge and broke his own nose to be "square"

What was the pact between Jenson and Strunk?

If one was seriously injured (like stuck in a wheelchair for life) the other would kill him

Was the pact between Jenson and Strunk upheld?

no

What did Strunk and Lemon like to do?

play chicken by tossing a smoke hand granade

How was Strunk injured? Did he die?

stepped on a rigged mortar round (mine) and leg was blown off; not immediately but yes

What happened to Lemon's best friend after he died?

wrote a terrific, heartwrenching letter to Lemon's sister and she never replied

How did Jenson react to Lemons' death?

cleaned up his body while singing the Lemon Tree Song

How did Kiley react to Lemon's death?

cried profusely and tortured a baby water buffalo

According to O'Brien, do war stories have a moral?

no

How do you generalize?

War is hell

The truths of war are ____

contradictory

Who told the story of the music in the foggy mountains?

Mitchell Sanders

What is the moral of the music in the foggy mountains story according to Sanders?

"Nobody listens. Nobody hears nothin'...Trees and rocks-you got to listen to your enemy."

"That quiet-just listen. There's your moral"

What did O'Brien believe Sanders in the music in the foggy mountains story?

"war has the feel...of a great ghostly fog...There is no clarity...The vapors suck you in. You can't tell where you are, or why you're there, and the only certainty is overwhelming ambiguity."

What is Nam?

Vietnam, Garden of Evil

What type of story is the one about Lemon and Kiley?

love story (not war)

True war story

is never about war

Curt Lemon

tendency to play tough soldier role, pulled off some dangerous stunts, once he painted his body, put on a ghost mask and trick-or-treated on Halloween, high opinion of himself (or maybe low opinion he was trying to erase), dentist gave him the creeps and fainted before the dentist even got to him, but he was so embarrassed he lied to the dentist saying he was having a terrible toothache and the dentist yanked out the perfectly good tooth and then he was happy again

who had a reputation for exaggeration and overstatement

Rat Kiley; facts formed by sensation not the other way around

What is the name of the men's platoon

Alpha company

Who doubted Rat's stories

everyone

Before assigned to Alpha Company, where was Rat?

small medical detachment up in the mountains west of Chu Lai near village fo Tra Bong with 8 other enlisted men and tehy ran an aid station providing for basic emergency and trauma care; area heavily mined

what made this place an ideal duty

no humping, no officers, lots of cold beer, 3 hot meals a day, tin roof over head, do what you want, hardly field inspection, no military discipline

who was Eddie Diamond

highest ranking NCO (non-commissioned officer) whose pleasures ran from dope to Darvon (he likes drugs)

Who are the Greenies

special forces, six green berets, not social animals, fortified base with sandbags and metal fence, don't make contact with medical detachment unless necessary, secretive and suspicious, loners by nautre, sometimes vanish for days or weeks at a time

Who brought his girlfriend over?

Mark Fossie

Who was the girlfriend in Nam?

Mary Anne Bell; blue eyes, white, 17, really pretty, bubbly personality, curious; sweethearts with Fossie since 6th grade

What happened to Mary Anne according to the Greenies?

she walked off into the mountains and never came back; declared missing; still somewhere out there in the dark; she became a part of the land

Henry Dobbins

superb solider, good man, not sophisticated, ioronies went beyond him, like America big and strong with full intentions but slow of foot but always going along; there when needed, believed simplicity, directness, hard labor, drawn to sentimentality, wear girlfriend's pantyhose around the neck like talisman, he never was injured while wearing stockings; superstitious

Monks gave a chair to who as if they were proud

Lieutenant Cross

Monks gave what fruit to soldiers

4 watermelons

Who wanted to join up with monks and "wear robes. Take the pledge" after war? why?

Dobbins; free house, free car, lots of potlucks, pretty good life, believed in God, being nice and decent to people, visit the sick

why didnt dobbins want to be a preacher?

had to be super sharp and explain hard stuff

did kiowa ever want to be a minister?

no

what was dobbins idea of being "decent" to the monks?

telling them to beat it

who wore a gold ring on the 3rd finger of his right hand?

the man O'brien killed

the man O'brien killed

eyebrows thin and arched like a woman, bony legs, narrow waist, dainty man, long shapely fingers,

How did O'brien imagine the man he killed?

born 1946, village of My Khe, family lived their for centuries and his elder family fought in the struggle for independence, not communist, citizen and soldier, but for tradition had to be patriotic but he didnt want to fight although considered highest duty/privilege; he wanted to be scholar and teach math; eventually found a woman who loved his quirks and they got married

who was joking the O'brien about the man he killed

Azar

who tried to console Tim

Kiowa

who asked if O'brien ever killed someone? did he tell the truth?

O'brien's daughter Kathleen when 9; no

has o'brien completely forgiven himself for killin the man?

no

Who was dancing eyes half closed and bare foot?

14 year girl with dead family

who imitated/mocked her dancing?

Azar

what was dobbins explanation to azar why the girl was dancing?

it doesnt matter why, she is just dancing; she just liked to dance

what did dobbins do in response to azar's show?

picked him up, lifted him high, carried him to the deep well, asked if he wanted to be dumped, and then let him go with saying "dance right"

During Rat's story about Mark Fossie and Mary Ann, Mitchell Sanders becomes upset with Rat because

Mitchell enjoys stories with morals, and Rat does not know for sure how this story ends

Tim is able to confide in Kiowa, telling him how he feels after killing a man. (T or F)

False

Why did O'Brien find it difficult to mourn for Curt Lemon? I. He only knew him slightly. II. He was not impressed by what he knew about him. III. He had a tendency to pull off some dangerous stunts and brag about them.

I, II, and III

From the selection on Henry Dobbins and his girlfriend's stockings, the author writes that the stockings were "a talisman for (Henry)." You can infer this means

something that has magical powers

When Rat first came to Vietnam, a guy named Mark Fossie decided to ship his girlfriend over to where he was stationed after hearing one of Rat's stories. (T or F)

False

When Mark asks Rat to do something because he can't just let Mary Ann go like that, Rat's response is what?

She is already gone

After Mary Ann did not return home that night, she and Mark came to a new understanding and

they became engaged, but she later disappears