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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Dave Jensen borrow?

2. Where does Jimmy Cross stay while he visits Tim?

3. What happened in October to change things for Dave Jensen and Lee Strunk?

4. Who began to tense up in the line waiting for an examination?

5. What is another name for a land mine?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the incident of the broken noses affect the relationship between Dave Jensen and Lee Strunk?

2. Explain your thoughts on this quote: "I was a coward. I went to war."

3. How would you describe Martha's "separate-but-together quality" her and Lieutenant Cross share? What does she send to represent this quality?

4. What happens to make the platoon believe in the good luck provided by the pantyhose?

5. What are Henry Dobbins' tentative plans for after the war?

6. How does the narrator feel about the war in Vietnam?

7. Why do the men like checkers?

8. What would you guess happened during the war that Jimmy asked Tim to leave out of his book?

9. Why does the narrator he is a bad fit to be drafted into the war?

10. When Lee Strunk returns from sick bay, how does Dave Jensen react?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

As a new book critic for a top national newspaper, you have just been assigned the novel "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien. Give a full critique of the story and evaluation of the text for other potential readers. What is significant about the novel that makes it a good recommendation for readers? What detracts from the novel's appeal and makes it not a book you would recommend? Finally, is there any way the book ties into modern life and current events to make it timely?

Essay Topic 2

"The Things They Carried" tackles the theme of death in numerous ways. There are accountings of anticipated deaths, surprise deaths, and even brushes with near-death. Explore how the novel handles each type of death, and the overall message the book communicates about this universal theme. Be sure to cite specific textual evidence.

Essay Topic 3

Identify and analyze how we can tell the author has cleaned up or edited the story in one of the following cases: Curt Lemon going trick-or-treating on Halloween, the death of Kiowa, the story of Morty Phillips, the story of the sweetheart of Song Tra Bong. What additional details can the reader assume from the information contained in the text? What was likely to be the 'truth' ?

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