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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. Who do the platoon meet in the village?

2. Which is NOT a way the men react to Rat Kiley's injury?

3. What activity does Norman Bowker do to avoid his troubles?

4. What medal did Norman Bowker almost win?

5. What is not a phrase used by the men to describe the dead?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did the men recover Kiowa's body?

2. What two types of truth are there for the author and reader?

3. How do Henry Dobbins and Azar disagree about the girl's motive to dance?

4. What does the dancing girl symbolize to you?

5. How is Norma Bowker's life before the war and after the war contrasted?

6. What does Tim invent about the man he killed?

7. What happens to Tim after he kills the man in the path with a grenade?

8. What is the purpose of the visit to the battlefield where Kiowa was killed?

9. How does Norman Bowker ultimately cope with returning home?

10. Explain who feels blame for Kiowa's death.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The full stories of the men of Alpha Company in "The Things They Carried" are divided amongst the chapters. As the reader progresses, more details of events are given, and multiple points of view of identical events are written. Choose one main character from the company, and give a full accounting of the character's war experience. How can a reader identify with this character's experience, and what part of the man's story is the hardest for the reader to bear? What was the intent of the author when he divided up the character's story? Was there foreshadowing, irony, or any other literary element employed in the character's war experience?

Essay Topic 2

The "Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong" addresses the theme of acceptance and persons becoming a product of their environment. Explain the transformation Mary Anne Bell goes through from her arrival in Vietnam until her ultimate disappearance, and compare it to some other experience of characters or real-life people becoming the product of their environment.

Essay Topic 3

Can you identify with Kathleen's struggle to understand the war? She asks in the chapter titled "Field Trip" why her father had to fight in the Vietnam War, and what made everyone mad at each other? Do you think wars are generally started over clear issues of disagreement? In either case, do you think that affects the ability of the war to have a resolution?

(see the answer keys)

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