The Things They Carried Questions and Answers
In The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, how does Kiowa feel about Lavender's death?
What is Tim O'Brien's purpose in writing The Things They Carried?
In "The Things They Carried", why does O'Brien relate his experience as a pig declotter?
How is the war like a Ping-Pong ball? I was reading the third chapter ("Spin"), and I saw this quote: "On occasions the war was like a Ping-Pong ball. You could put fancy spin on it, you could make it dance." What does O'Brien mean by this?
Why did Azar kill the puppy?
What spin is Tim O'Brien putting on the war in the chapter "Spin"?
In "The Things They Carried," what did the platoon do in the village of Than Khe?
In the last two sentences of "On the Rainy River," the narrator writes, "I was a coward. I went to war." What does he mean? What does this tell us about choices and consequences?
Who were the greenies and what were they like?
What does the title mean in "The Things They Carried"? Explain the meaning of the title.
Why does Rat Kiley kill the baby water buffalo?
What does the soldier in chap. 3 mean by the statement, "All that peace, man, it felt so good it hurt. I want to hurt it back" (p.35)?
I need to write a thesis for my essay about Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. Can someone please help me and give me an example of a thesis? I don't know how to write one or what a thesis looks like.
What kind of job did Tim have during the summer of 1968 in "On the Rainy River" in The Things They Carried?
What are the "M and Ms" the medic carries for pain--we are assuming the author does NOT mean the candy?
What does Martha represent to Cross in "The Things They Carried"?
In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, who is Elroy Berdhal, and how did O’Brien come to know him?
On The Rainy River Quotes
Why does Tim O'Brien, as the writer, "kill" Ted Lavender and not any other character in The Things They Carried? What is significant of his death?
Why does Rat Kiley carry M&Ms?
In The Things They Carried, what were the soldiers more afraid of than dying?
What does Sanders say about the thumb in The Things They Carried?
In Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, why is it important to specify the weight of the equipment each man is carrying?
Why is the baby water buffalo scene more disturbing than the death of one of O’Brien’s platoon mates, Curt Lemon?
Why does Tim O'Brien insist that war stories are not moral?
Why does O'Brien lie to his daughter?
Why did Lieutenant Jimmy Cross feel guilty about Ted Lavender's death?
The Things They Carried has several different accounts of Kiowa's death. How does this relate to the themes of memory, truth, and story telling?
What expressions do the men in The Things They Carried use instead of the word “death”? Why might they use these words? What are some euphemisms (other terms) that people use in our culture relating to death?
What does Rat Kiley carry emotionally?
What was the symbolism of the field where Kiowa died in The Things They Carried?
When the narrator describes the experiences of Norman Bowker ("Speaking of Courage") after he returned from fighting in Viet Nam, what points are being made about veteran's lives after the war in The Things They Carried?
In "The Things They Carried", the soldiers are all said to carry ghosts. What "ghosts" do you think they carried?
In The Things They Carried, why does the lieutenant burn the letters he has been carrying?
What kind of motion did the younger monk perform in The Things They Carried?
According to O'Brien, in The Things They Carried, why are stories important? What do we, as people, need from stories-both reading them and telling them?
What is the effect of the opening sentences of Tim O'Brien's story "On the Rainy River" from The Things They Carried: "This is one story I've never told before. Not to anyone."
What are some examples of imagery in The Things They Carried?
What does it mean that the men use a "hard vocabulary to contain the terrible softness"? Why is it terrible to be internally soft?
What is O'Brien's concept of love and war in his story "The Things They Carried"?
In the novel "The Things They Carried," what does Martha stand for or symbolize?
What does Jimmy ask Tim to do when he writes the story?
Why does Tim call himself a coward for choosing to go to war in The Things They Carried?
In "The Man I Killed," the narrator repeatedly describes details about his victim. What point do you think is made here and elsewhere about the humanity of casualties?
What are some rhetorical strategies or literary techniques that Tim O'Brien uses in paragraph 64 of the "On the Rainy River" chapter of his book The Things They Carried?
Why does O'Brien end The Things They Carried with a story about his childhood? Although the work is supposedly about the Vietnam war, the final story focuses on O'Brien's childhood. What is his purpose for ending it this way? Discuss how this story relates to the stories of war.
In The Things They Carried, why does Norman Bowker carry a thumb and what does it symbolize?
Why did Ted Lavender carry tranquilizers?
Why does O'Brien include the story about Linda?
What does everyone carry in The Things They Carried?
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