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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. Mitchell Sanders sent what in his letter to the Ohio Draft Board?

2. How does Lee Strunk think the doctors will treat the wound?

3. What is the name of the area the men are in?

4. How does Kiowa describe Ted Lavender's death?

5. How is Lee Strunk medically treated?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Dave Jensen do to make himself square with Lee Strunk?

2. Why was Curt Lemon afraid of the dentist?

3. Give an example of a stark contrast between how the men normally behave, and how the war changes their behavior.

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

5. Explain how the rhyme "Step out of line, hit a mine; follow the dink, you're in the pink." changed meanings?

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

7. How does Curt Lemon recover from his personal failure at the dentist?

8. How did things start when Mary Anne first arrived, and how did they change?

9. Why do Jimmy Cross and Tim O'Brien stop drinking coffee, and what do they switch to?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explain Lieutenant Cross's responsibility or perceived responsibility in the various deaths of his men. How does he react to each one? Do his actions live up to his words and thoughts of improvement as a leader?

Essay Topic 2

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' ?

Essay Topic 3

Most novels have critic blurbs on the cover or in media advertising for the book. Choose one critic's blurb about "The Things They Carried" and respond to the quote. Do you agree or disagree with the critic's assessment of the novel, and where is there evidence in the novel to support your point of view?

(see the answer keys)

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