Use the following questions to guide your journal entries and discussions of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried.  Some of the questions in this study guide come from a web page on the novel.  In addition to this site, I recommend a web site called “Tim O’Brien on the World Wide Web”.

1. Before reading a book, you should read the prefatory material, which may offer clues for understanding the book.  Examine the reverse side of the title page, specifically the publication history of the stories in the book. What does this information tell you about the writing of the book? How did O'Brien assemble his novel? Or is it a collection of short stories? Or is it a collection of non-fiction essays?  (This question is about the composition of the book, both as written and as read.)
   
   
2. Who does O’Brien dedicate this book to?  Since the people named appear in the book, does that mean that they are not fictional characters?
   
   
3. Read the epigraph to the book, taken from John Ransom’s Andersonville Diary.  What was Andersonville?  What war is this passage referring to?  What does this epigraph say about the truthfulness and accuracy of O’Brien’s story?  How are we to read The Things They Carried, according to this epigraph—as truth or as fiction?
    
   
4. Chapter 12, “Analyzing a Short Story,” in Allyn & Bacon Guide to Writing distinguishes between reading a short story “literally” versus reading it “literarily.”  How would you read the story “The Things They Carried” literally?  How would you read it “literarily”?
    
5. Explain the meaning of the title, “The Things They Carried.” What is the first item listed as a carried thing? Why? Think about the metaphors of “weight.”  List a few main characters, including the literal and figurative things they carried.
   
   
6. Why is the first story, "The Things They Carried," written in third person? How does this serve to introduce the rest of the novel? What effect did it have on your experience of the novel when O'Brien switched to first person, and you realized the narrator was one of the soldiers?
   
   
7. In the list of all the things the soldiers carried, what item was most surprising? Which item did you find most evocative of the war? Which items stay with you?
   
   
8. Explain the passage about death on page 20.
   
   
9. Read pp. 11-12 (a tunnel episode). What are the energies in this passage? How do you feel as you're reading it? Try to trace and name all the feelings.
   
   
10. Why does Jimmy Cross burn Martha’s letters and photos?  How does he change after he burns them?  Is this change good?
    
    
11. On page 27 we read about "me" (line 1). Who is this?
    
    
12. At the beginning of the story, "On the Rainy River," O’Brien lists a number of problems with the war, but draws no conclusions about them.  What is it about these issues that makes him oppose the war?
    
    
13. "On the Rainy River" is perhaps the moral center of the book. In this section we meet Elroy Berdahl. Do you think he existed in O'Brien's life? What does he represent? What does Elroy Berdahl do that leads O’Brien to call him “the hero of my life”? Why doesn’t Berdahl ask O’Brien why he’s there?
    
    
14. In "On The Rainy River," (p. 39) we learn the 21-year-old O'Brien's theory of courage: "Courage, I seemed to think, comes to us in finite quantities, like an inheritance, and by being frugal and stashing it away and letting it earn interest, we steadily increase our moral capital in preparation for that day when the account must be drawn down. It was a comforting theory" (40). What might the 43-year-old O'Brien's theory of courage be? Were you surprised when he described his entry into the Vietnam War as an act of cowardice? Do you agree that a person could enter a war as an act of cowardice?
    
    
15. P.52 O’Brien says “What it came down to stupidly was a sense of shame.”  What is the role of shame in the lives of these soldiers? Does it drive them to acts of heroism, or stupidity? Or both? What is the relationship between shame and courage, according to O'Brien?
    
    
16. Read pp. 56-61, on the edge of the Canadian border. O'Brien asks, "What would you do?" (p. 56). Well, what would you do? Why doesn’t O’Brien go to Canada?
    
    
17. O'Brien calls himself a coward (p. 61). How do you understand this self-judgment? Do you agree with it? If he had made another decision, what would he have been?
    
    
18. Why is O’Brien ashamed of this story?  Why has it taken him so long to tell it?
    
    
19. Read pp. 42-43, then read pp. 78-79. What connections do you see? Expand them.
    
    
20. O’Brien defines a “true war story” throughout “How to Tell a True War Story.”  What are the qualities of a “true war story,” according to O’Brien? What do you make of O'Brien's definition of "truth"?  What does he mean when he writes of one story, "That's a true story that never happened"? (p. 84).
    
    
21. Which of the stories that are told in this story qualify as “true war stories”?  Which do not qualify?
     
22. How many times are we told the story of Curt Lemon’s death? What are the differences in the way the story is told?
    
    
23. Explain the last paragraph of the story.
    
    
24. Read pp. 80 - 82, O'Brien's generalizations about war and how it can be experienced. Can you relate to any of this? If so, to what parts of your life do these comments connect?
    
    
25. The Dentist:  What do you make of Lemon and the incident with going back to the dentist?
    
    
26. Mary Anne, "the Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong," is obviously an important and emblematic character. What is O'Brien doing with her? Do you find this a believable story? Could it be true?   About Mary Anne, Pat Riley says that “at least she was real.”  Do you agree with him?
    
    
27. In "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong," what transforms Mary Anne into a predatory killer? Does it matter that Mary Anne is a woman? How so? What does the story tell us about the nature of the Vietnam War?
    
    
28. The story Rat tells in "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" is highly fantastical. Does its lack of believability make it any less compelling? Do you believe it? Does it fit O'Brien's criteria for a true war story?
    
    
29. Why does O’Brien tell the story about Dobbins and the panty hose (p, 117)?
    
    
30. Who tells the story in "The Man I Killed"? (This is not a simple question.)
    
    
31. “The Man I Killed” is the only story that focuses primarily on a Vietnamese character. Why does this shift in focus occur in this particular story? Why are Vietnamese characters largely absent from the rest of the text?
    
    
32. Although The Things They Carried contains a story called “The Man I Killed,” it is unclear whether O’Brien actually killed anyone in Vietnam. What purpose does this ambiguity serve?
    
    
33. Read "Style" (pp. 135). Trace all your responses. What is this about?
    
    
34. Aside from "The Things They Carried," "Speaking of Courage" is the only other story written in third person. Why are these stories set apart in this manner? What does the author achieve by doing so?
    
    
35. What is the effect of "Notes," in which O'Brien explains the story behind "Speaking Of Courage"? Does your appreciation of the story change when you learn which parts are "true" and which are the author's invention?
    
    
36. In "In The Field," O'Brien writes, "When a man died, there had to be blame." What does this mandate do to the men of O'Brien's company? Are they justified in thinking themselves at fault? How do they cope with their own feelings of culpability?
    
    
37. In "Good Form," O'Brien casts doubt on the veracity of the entire novel. Why does he do so? Does it make you more or less interested in the novel? Does it increase or decrease your understanding? What is the difference between "happening-truth" and "story-truth?" (p 179)
    
    
38. How is the field he and Kathleen visit symbolic?  What does it represent for Tim?  Why does he take Kiowa’s moccasins back to the river?
    
    
39. Does your opinion of O'Brien change throughout the course of the novel? How so? How do you feel about his actions in "The Ghost Soldiers"?
    
    
40. Often, in the course of his stories, O'Brien tells us beforehand whether or not the story will have a happy or tragic ending. Why might he do so? How does it affect your attitude towards the narrator?
    
    
41. "The Ghost Soldiers" is one of the only stories of The Things They Carried in which we don't know the ending in advance. Why might O'Brien want this story to be particularly suspenseful?
    
    
42. Linda, Tim's "first date" (in "The Lives of the Dead") is another emblematic character. What do you make of her? What does she represent in the novel?
    
    
43. Explain what you think the last line of the book means
    
    
44. Why do you think Tim O'Brien wrote this book? (The sections on "Notes" and "Good Form" are useful places to investigate this question--and of course the last section, "The Lives of the Dead.")
    
    
45. On the copyright page of the novel appears the following: "This is a work of fiction. Except for a few details regarding the author's own life, all the incidents, names, and characters are imaginary." How does this statement affect your reading of the novel?