"The Things They Carried" test review

Where does Jimmy carry Martha's pebble?

In is mouth

What does Mitchell Sanders take from a Vietnamese Communist corpse and give to Norman Bowker?

A thumb

How does Ted Lavender die?

Shot in the head while peeing

Kiowa carries a couple of things distinctive to his culture. What are they?

A hatchet, moccasins, and a Bible

What does Jimmy Cross bring down from the guest room when he stays overnight with Tim?

A framed volleyball picture of Martha.

Give one specific detail about Jimmy Cross's time with Martha at their college reunion.

(Answers vary). Jimmy told Martha that he almost tied her up in college so that he could keep his hand on her knee all night. Jimmy helped Martha's hand, but she didn't reciprocate. They spent eight or nine hours together.

What does Azar give the boy with the plastic leg?

Chocolate

What does Mitchell Sanders send to his draft board in Ohio?

Body lice in a blue USO envelope

What game do Norman Bowker and Henry Dobbins play every night?

Checkers

How do the men avoid land mines out on the Batangan Peninsula?

An "old poppa San" leads them

What does Norman Bowker want his father to say to him in a letter?

He wants to hear that it's okay if he doesn't win any medals because that's all his father talks about.

What does Azar do to Ted Lavender's puppy?

He straps the puppy to a Claymore anti personnel mine and squeezes the firing device

What is the average age in O'Brien's platoon?

The average is 19 or 20

What are Tim O'Brien's plans before he receives his draft letter?

He has a full ride for graduate school at Harvard

Describe in detail the authors's job at the Armour meat-packing plant.

(See pages 40-41)

At what board game does Elroy Berdahl often beat Tim O'Brien?

Scrabble

How does O'Brien spend his time at Tip Top Lodge?

He chops wood, winterizes the place, sweeps, hikes, sits in front of the fireplace, plays Scrabble, and talks little.

What is the Emergency Fund?

The emergency fund is the money Elroy Berdahl places in an envelope and pins to O'Brien's door. It is money Elroy claims he "owes" O'Brien for working that week. The envelope is the way O'Brien knows that Elroy knows why he is there.

Explain the importance of the Rainy River fishing trip.

Elroy takes O'Brien fishing and gives him the opportunity to get to Canada.

What do Lee Strunk and Dave Jensen fight over?

They fight over a missing jackknife

Why does Dave Jensen break his own nose?

Dave Jensen had broken Lee Strunk's nose during the fight and was paranoid about revenge.

Describe Lee Strunk's injury.

A rigged motar round took off his right leg and knee

What does Lee Strunk think Dave Jensen will do after the injury?

Because the two had made a pact not to let the other live with a serious injury, Lee Strunk is afraid Dave Jensen will kill him.

How does Rat Kiley's friend (Curt Lemon) go fishing?

Grenades

Specifically, how does Curt Lemon die?

He was blown up while goofing around with Rat Kiley. his body was blown up into a tree.

In the story Sanders tells about the six-men, one week listing post, what do the men hear?

The men hear chimes and xylophones; cocktail part sounds like music, chitchat, champagne corks, and , martini glasses; chamber music like violins and cellos; "a mama-san soprano, gook opera and a glee club and the Haiphong boys choir and a barbershop quartet and all kinds of funky chanting and Buddha- Buddha stuff;" "the trees talk politics, the monkeys talk religion."

Describe the baby water Buffalo incident.

Rat Kiley, after losing his best friend, slowly kills a baby water Buffalo by shooting it one body part at a time. The other soldiers watch, but no one intervenes.

What happens the first time Curt Lemon goes to the dentist?

He faints

How does Curt Lemons redeem himself later?

He goes into the dentist tent with a flashlight, complains of severe tooth pain, and has the dentist yank out a "perfectly good tooth"

How is Mary Anne Bell dressed when she arrives?

She is wearing culottes and a pink sweater

What is the military life like in the small medical detachment war the village of Tra Bong?

It is laid back. There are no officers and no humping. You can let your hair grow, and the men don't have to polish their boots or salute.

What medical procedure do the medics preform most often?

They amputate legs and feet

What are the Greenies and how many of them are there?

There are six green berets

How does Mary Anne respond to the casualties as they come in?

She jumps in, clips arteries, shoots morphine, and doesn't shy away from "ugly cases".

Where is Mary Anne the night Mark Fossie can't find her?

She is on ambush with the Greenies

What is the agreement that Mark Fossie and Mary Anne come to?

They get engaged, and she goes back to her old self (temporarily)

What is the Greenies' hootch like inside?

There are strong smells, candles, bones, a poster reading ASSEMBLE YOUR OWN GOOK!! FREE SAMPLE KIT!!, and a decayed leopard head on a post.

Describe Mary Anne's jewelry.

She is wearing a necklace made of human tongues.

Give two details about the pantyhose Henry Dobbins keeps.

They were his girlfriend's pantyhose, he sleeps with them, they keep him safe, he wears them around his neck, and they smell like his girlfriend.

Name one of the physical things the monks give the men.

The monks give he soldiers buckets of water for washing, a caned chair, and a watermelon.

With what task do the monks help Henry Dobbins?

They help him clean his gun.

Why had Henry Dobbins considered being a minister?

He was interested in the free car, free house, potlucks, and being nice/decent toward people. Students may mention that being a monk interests him because he would look spiffy in the robes.

What motion do both the monks and Henry Dobbins use?

They both use a washing motion.

List three details Tim O'Brien repeats in this chapter. "The Man I Killed"

Star-shaped hole, butterfly on his chin, his love for mathematics, his left cheek, earlobe tear, gold ring, sunken and poorly muscled chest, head wrenched sideways, bell-shaped flowers, clean fingernails, slim/dainty features, and his jaw in his throat.

Give two details about the actual act of O'Brien killing the soldier.

The fog, the fact that the grenade pins were already straightened, the man's calmness, or the fact that the man started to run away but turned and looked back at the grenade. Answers will vary.

Why does O'Brien question the kill?

In all probability, the man would have simply passed on by. He was not an immediate threat.

How does the village girl respond to her family's death?

She dances with the palms of her hands against her ears.

Give one detail about the lake itself.

It's the only body of water within 40 miles, that was formed by a glacier, that it's filthy and bad for swimming, that the road around it is 7 miles long, or that the affluent live on the lakeside of the road.

On what date does Norman Bowker drive around the lake.

It's July 4

Norman Bowker imagines stopping at Sally Gustafson's house and impressing her with what skill?

He imagines showing her that he can tell time by the sun without a watch.

What is the topic of conversation in his imagined conversation with Norman Bowker’s father?

He imagines discussing the medals he won and the one medal (the Silver Star) that he almost won.

Describe Kiowa's death

He died in a refuse field during a nighttime mortar attack.

Describe the encounter with the carhop

She is rude, that he misunderstands the ordering procedure; that he orders a Mama Burger, fries, and a small rootie tootie; that the guy on the intercom uses military radio language; or that Bowker almost tells the intercom guy his war story.

What does Norman Bowker do at the end of his drive around the lake?

He wades into the water fully dressed and watches the fireworks. Could infer that he commits suicide by drowning.

How does Norman Bowker die in real life?

He hangs himself in the locker room of a YMCA.

Explain the history of the chapter "Speaking of Courage"

Where does O'Brien get the ideas within it? Some details of the story were included in a17- page letter form Norman Bowker wrote to Tim O'Brien.

What of Kiowa's if found first?

One of the soldiers finds Kiowa's rucksack containing his moccasins and an illustrated New Testament.

Why do the men camp on the "Evil Ground" originally.

Lt. Jimmy Cross received orders to camp there. Cross regrets obeying the order and considers that he should have sought higher ground and called false coordinates.

What attracts the mortar fire?

A young soldier, Billie, switches on his flashlight to show Kiowa a picture of his girlfriend.

While the men were digging Kiowa out, what was Lt. Jimmy Cross doing?

He is searching for Billie's picture and composing the letter to Kiowa's father in his head. He then floats on top of the muck.

What is a story-truth?

It's fiction told to make a circumstance or event more real or present.

Describe O'Brien's return trip to Vietnam 20 years after he left.

He returns with his 10 year old daughter, Kathleen, and finds the field where Kiowa died. As an act of letting go, he wades into the River and puts Kiowa's moccasins in.

Why does Tim O'Brien want to get revenge on Bobby Jorgensen?

Sometime earlier, the new medic took ten minutes to get to him when he was shot, forgot to treat him for shock, and then botched the job dressing the wound. Tim O'Brien developed gangrene and was bedridden on his stomach for 2 months. O'Brien is also jealous that Jorgenson is now part of the group O'Brien can no longer claim because he is not on the front lines.

How does Morty use up his luck?

He catches a "VC virus" when he goes skinny dipping alone

Describe in detail how Tim O'Brien and Azar take revenge on Bobby Jorgenson.

While Bobby Jorgenson is on guard duty in a sandbag bunker, the 2 men use a rope pulley system complete with cartridges in metal cans, flares, and a sandbag painted white. The plan is carried out in several stages.

How do Henry Dobbins and Norman Bowker keep from losing each other in the dark?

They rig up a wire safety line tied to each other's belts.

What odd habits/tics does Rat Kiley develop?

He constantly scratches himself, claws at bug bites, makes big scabs and then rips them off, and scratches the resulting open sores.

How is Rat Kiley injured?

He shoots himself in the foot.

Recount the incident with the dead old man in the village

On Tim O'Brien's 4th day, all the men in his platoon greet or introduce themselves to an old man who is killed in an air attack. Mitchell Sanders gives him orange slices after they prop him up against a fence. They propose a toast, and O'Brien sees it as a sort of oddly reverent funeral.

Describe Tim O'Brien's 1st date with Linda

Tim O'Brien's parents drive them to the movies, they tide in the back seat, they see The Man Who Never Was, and Linda is wearing a new red cap.

Recount the incident with Linda, Nick Veerhoff, and the spelling test.

Nick breaks his pencil, gets up to sharpen it, and in his way back to his seat, takes Linda's hat off her head, revealing her balding head, stitches, and bandages.

How does young Timmy O'Brien find out about Linda's death?

Nick Veerhoff tells him on the playground that his girlfriend "kicked the bucket"

Give 2 details about Curt Lemon's experience trick-or-treating.

Students may list the spoils, details about his costume, or details about the village.

Why does young Timmy O'Brien go to bed earlier and earlier after the funeral?

He talks and skates with Linda in his dreams, and he wants to see her more.