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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 makes the decision to NOT alert Lt. Cross about finding the body?

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

3. How does Rat Kiley deal with the mission at first?

4. What is Tim trying to save with a story?

5. Who does Rat Kiley accuse of whispering his name?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the main struggle for the narrator/author in the chapter "Good Form?"

2. What is unique about the movements required of Alpha Company for this chapter's mission?

3. What was Tim's first experience with death?

4. How does Tim react to Bobby Jorgenson's failings as a medic?

5. Do you agree with Kiowa or Tim's point of view about the kill? Why?

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

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

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

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

10. Who does Tim go on a trip with and where do they go?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Chronicle the beginning, growth, and ultimate end of the one of the following relationships: Curt Lemon/Rat Kiley; Dave Jensen/Lee Strunk. Be sure to explain how major and minor events affected the relationship, and how the surviving party handled the loss of a friend.

Essay Topic 2

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 3

The chapter titled "How to Tell a True War Story," gives very specific advice on what constitutes a war story and how lessons or morals should be pulled from a war story by the listener. Using the principles in this chapter given by the author, analyze any of the war stories told in another chapter of the book "The Things They Carried." Be sure to identify the main components of the war story, and how the war story complies or deviates from the principles in the chapter "How to Tell a True War Story."

(see the answer keys)

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