Essay Topics for The Things They Carried

Essay topics for THE THINGS THEY CARRIED:

1. "The Man I Killed" is the only story that focuses primarily on a Vietnamese character. Why does this shift in focus occur in this particular story? Why are Vietnamese characters largely absent from the rest of the text?

2. Although the work is supposedly about the Vietnam conflict, the final story focuses not on the war but on an episode from O'Brien's childhood. Discuss how this story relates to the stories of the war. What is O'Brien's purpose in ending his collection of stories this way?

3. What do the terms "story-truth" and "happening-truth" mean in the context of the book? How do they differ?

4. Although THE THINGS THEY CARRIED contains a story called "The Man I Killed", it is unclear whether O'Brien actually killed anyone in Viet Nam. What purpose does this ambiguity serve?

5. How does shame fit into O'Brien's portrayal of the war experience?

6. Discuss the structure of the work. Do the stories progress in a linear manner? How does the work's fragmented style contribute to the themes that run through the stories?

7. Compare and contrast Tim O'Brien's and Dang Thuy Tram's attitude towards the war. Dang Thuy Tram was the North Vietnamese doctor who died, along with her patients, in a remote medical camp in a firefight with the Americans. Her journal, which chronicled Dang Thuy Tram's daily struggles of trying to heal the sick and wounded while under constant bombardments, with constant traveling, and inadequate medical supplies, was recovered after the firefight, and after many years of great effort by many people both in the U.S. and Vietnam, was translated and published under the title of Last Night I Dreamed of Peace.