The Things They Carried quotes by chapter Flashcards
Preface
“Dedicated to the men of Alpha Company”
The Things They Carried
“They carried the sky. The whole atmosphere, they carried it, the humidity, the monsoons, the stink of fungus and decay, all of it, they carried gravity. They moved like mules.”
Love
“Well, I did – I burned it. After Lavender died”
“The way Henry Dobbins carried his girlfriend’s pantyhose around his neck like a comforter”
“‘And do me a favor. Don’t mention anything about –’ ‘No,’ I said, ‘I won’t.’”
Spin
“I’m 43 years old and I’m a writer now”
“The bad stuff never stops happening: it lives in its own dimension, replaying itself over and over. But the war wasn’t all that way”
“Lavender went too heavy on the tranquillizers”
“Hey Lavender, how’s the war today? Mellow, somebody said”
“Stories are for joining the past with the future”
On the Rainy River
“Once people are dead, you can’t make them undead”
“If you support a war (…) that’s fine (…) put your own precious fluids on the line”
“A draft board did not let you choose your war”
“Beyond all this, or at the very center, was the raw fact of terror. I did not want to die. Not ever. But certainly not then, not there, not in a wrong war.”
“Run, I’d think. Then I’d think, impossible”
“I feared losing the respect of my parents. I feared the law. I feared ridicule and censure”
Friends
“Strunk died somewhere over Chu Lai, which seemed to relieve Dave Jensen of an enormous weight.”
How to Tell a True War Story
“This is true. (…ALMOST ENTIRE CHAPTER) None of it happened.”
“A true war story is never moral”
“It’s difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen”
The Man I Killed
“What else could you do?”
“He had no stomach for violence. He devoted himself to his studies”
“He was afraid of disgracing himself”
Ambush
“”Daddy, tell the truth,” Kathleen can say, “did you ever kill anybody?” And I can say, honestly, “Of course not.” Or I can say, honestly, “Yes.””
Notes
““By telling stories, you objectify your own experience. You separate it from yourself. You pin down certain truths. You make up others”
The Lives of the Dead
“But this too is true: stories can save us”
“How-de-doo”
“All badly bloated”
“Death sucks”
“Tim trying to save Timmy’s life with a story”
