Ch. 5-13 The Things They Carried

Who are the enemies in the title of chapter 5?

• The Viet Cong and the Americans

• The North Vietnamese and the South Vietnamese

• Dave Jensen and Lee Strunk

• Dave Jensen and Tim O'Brien

What does Dave Jensen do to Lee Strunk?

• Breaks his jackknife

• Break his nose

• Steals his canteen

• Burns his girlfriend's letters

What does the narrator mean when he says “in any other circumstance [the fight] might’ve ended there. But this was Vietnam...” with regards to the fight between Lee Strunk and Dave Jensen?

• The stress and paranoia caused by the Vietnam War escalated the conflict.

• The lawlessness of Vietnam meant that the men faced no consequences for their violence.

• The violent hatred the two felt for each other was soothed by the circumstances of soldiers fighting on the same side.

• The fight never ended; it only transitioned to a larger scale.

What does Jensen do a few nights after the fight?

• Sets booby-traps around his camp

• Abandons his own post

• Breaks his own nose

• Writes a letter to his girlfriend

Mitchell Sanders tells a story about...

• A soldier who shot himself in the foot to get out of his unit

• A lieutenant who blames himself for the death of his soldier, and eventually goes mad

• A unit that is driven mad by the sounds of the jungle; in a paranoid frenzy they fire on an imaginary enemy

• a girl who writes to her soldier every day; she is devastated when her "Dear John" dies in combat

On page 73, Sanders puts words to the moral he finds in a story about the six-man listening-post operation: “Nobody listens. Nobody hears nothin’. Like that fatass colonel. The politicians, all the civilian types. Your girlfriend. My girlfriend. Everybody’s sweet little virgin girlfriend.” What is the lesson Sanders is pointing out to O’Brien?

• No one can possibly understand Vietnam until he or she experiences it for him or herself.

• Only a true friend listens to one's most troubling stories.

• Sometimes there are no words to describe the horrors of war.

• Only the most courageous men can come through war mentally and physically unscathed.

What did Curt Lemon and Rat Kiley play with?

• A dog

• A roll of twine

• A discarded Frisbee

• A smoke grenade

In what way did Rat Kiley show the depth of his friendship with Curt Lemon?

• He wrote a heartfelt letter to Curt’s mother.

• He climbed the tree with O’Brien to help pick Curt’s body parts from the branches.

• He maimed a baby water buffalo.

• He went to visit Curt's sister after the war?

How does Rat feel about the first letter he writes?

• He is unsure that he has accurately conveyed his feelings

• He is nervous about how the recipient will judge his letters

• He feels his writing is personal and touching

• He hopes the recipient will not figure out that he is lying

According to the narrator, what did Curt Lemon believe was killing him?

• The sunlight

• The mud

• The moon

• The buffalo