The Things They Carried Exam Topics Flashcards
The things they carried, literally and metaphorically
Literally carried guns, pantehose, drugs, etc.
Metaphorically carried fear, confusion, guilt, etc.
Why is Martha so important
She did not love him and never would
Was a fantasy
Represents the american dream and perfect american family back home
“They died so as not to die of embarrassment”
They had to look strong and courageous
Ted Lavender
Got killed by a grenade
Cross feels guilty because he thinks about martha
Checkers
It made sense
There was a winner and a loser
There were rules
Contrast to Vietnam
“He can’t wait to see my goddamn medals”
Norman Bowker’s dad who got medals in world war II because it was the good war
Stories
All that matters is the story
Ho Chi Minh and the dominoes
Ho Cho Minh was the leader of the north vietnamese
The dominoes was the domino effect that if one country falls to communism then the rest will follow
Elroy Berdahl
Gave O’Brien time and he decided to go to war
Canada/Massapequa and the little league shortstop/the wrestling meet
A little league shortstop would have gone to the war and the coaches would have wanted you to go to war Massapequa would have wanted you to go to war and Canada is where you go to flee the war
“I was a coward; I went to war”
It would have taken courage to go to Canada
The jackknife
The fight between Strunk and Jensen
A weird relationships
“The dumb cooze never writes back”
Curt Lemon’s sister never wrote back Rat Kiley
“A true war story is never moral”
Pretty much everything that happens is immoral
Curt Lemon and the smoke grenades
Dave Jensen singing “Lemon Tree”
Dave was singing this when he was getting Lemon’s guts out of the tree
Playing with smoke grenades until he gets blown up
The music in the mountains
It’s weird
Mary Anne and Cleveland Heights
Donna and Massapequa
The war ruined the american dream
Mary Anne came to the war and was lost to the jungle
The Green Berets and Mary Anne “she wasn’t even the same person”
The necklace of tongues
Donna (4th of July) and the girls back home
The girls kept them going
Gave them something to live for
The monks cleaning the machine gun
Weird
Sally (Kramer) Gustafson
“She looked happy”
Norman Bowker’s exgirlfriend
Married and loving life
She wants to listen to the high school band on the 4th of july and he wants to talk to her but she wouldn’t understand
Shitfield metaphor
Vietnam was one big shitfield
The seven medals, the dad, and the burger intercom guy
They wouldn’t understand because they weren’t there
Tim trying to save Timmy
Trying to save his childhood innocence
But Timmy becomes Tim when linda dies
