THE THINGS THEY CARRIED --- Critical Analysis Writing Assignment

Ø Choose FIVE of the following prompts and write at least 2-3 well-organized, detailed, and well thought-out paragraphs for each.
Ø This is a paper that must be typed in double space, 12 point font, Times New Roman.
Ø Do not copy the question; merely include which number you are responding to.
Ø Each prompt is worth 10 points, making the entire assignment worth a whopping 60 points.
Ø DUE: TUESDAY, APRIL 21st, 2009

PROMPTS

1. At the end of "On the Rainy River," the narrator makes a kind of confession: "The day was cloudy. I passed through towns with familiar names, through the pine forests and down to the prairie, and then to Vietnam, where I was a soldier, and then home again. I survived, but it's not a happy ending. I was a coward. I went to the war" (61). What does this mean?

2. Why is the narrator of "On the Rainy River" concerned about what "the community" will think of him if he does not go to war? What is "community?" Why wouldn't anyone is Norman Bowker's town listen to him in the story "Speaking of Courage"?

3. In the set of review snippets on the front pages of our paperback edition of the book, the one from The New Yorker says that "...events are recalled and retold again and again, giving us a deep sense of the fluidity of truth and the dance of memory." What does this comment refer to? Are there examples in the text that gave rise to it? What makes truth fluid? And how can memories dance?

4. What do the following sentences mean? "I want you to know what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth" (179).

5. In "The Lives of the Dead," a nine year old friend of the narrator dies of cancer. How do children cope with death? Is the narrator's reaction typical, realistic, or merely a literary device? What effect does the narrator's behavior have on his daughter? How does this chapter relate to the other sections of the book?

6. Re-read the long discussion of emergency medical procedures in "The Ghost Soldiers" (189). What accounts for the failed response of Bobby Jorgenson in that story?

7. How and why do people cope with war differently? What happened to Mary Anne? (114). Why did Norman commit suicide? ("Notes" 154). Why did Rat Kiley shoot his foot? (220).

8. "I watched Lemon turn sideways. He laughed and said something to Rat Kiley. Then he took a peculiar half step,... and the booby-trapped 105 round blew him into a tree. The parts were just hanging there, so Dave Jensen and I were ordered to shinny up and peel him off. The gore was horrible, and stays with me. But what wakes me up twenty years later is Dave Jensen singing 'Lemon Tree' as we threw down the parts" (83). What is the significance of this passage?

9. Faced with the decision of going to Vietnam or evading the draft by fleeing to Canada, the narrator says, "I would go to the war -- I would kill and maybe die -- because I was embarrassed not to... I was a coward. I went to the war" (59-60). What ethical principles appear to govern the narrator's decision?

10. "Enemies" (62), "How to Tell a True War Story" (67), "Style" (135), and "Ghost Stories" are chapters that deal with difficult situations. Analyze these situations from an ethical perspective taking into account, "did they do the right thing, a good thing, what causes this behavior, what would happen if everyone did this" and so forth.

11. How does the landscape and physical setting of Vietnam play a role in these stories? Give examples.

12. Describe three actions that led to deadly consequences and explain how the characters involved were affected by those actions.

13. Find at least three examples of juxtaposed images of beauty and horror. What can you conclude from these examples?

14. Choose three of the most important characters from the book. Choose one key action for each of those characters. What does that action tell you about the kind of person he or she is?

15. O’Brien provides only a few female characters in the book. List them and describe their role or purpose in the narrative. What conclusions can you draw based on the evidence you discover?

16. Why did O’Brien write this book? Why do you think he wrote it as a "work of fiction" rather than as an autobiographical work, or a memoir?