plots & events
This is the weapon the narrator uses to kill the young Vietnamese soldier
What is a hand grenade?
This fellow soldier tries to comfort the narrator after the killing.
Who is Kiowa?
O'Brien uses this storytelling structure, beginning and ending with the daughter's question
What is a frame narrative?
This emotion haunts the narrator years after the incident.
What is guilt?
The ambush takes place in this Southeast Asian country.
What is Vietnam?
This person asks the narrator if he ever killed anyone in the war.
Who is his daughter Kathleen?
The narrator emphasizes this characteristic about the Vietnamese soldier.
What is young/being a teenager?
O'Brien shifts to this point of view when describing throwing the grenade
What is second person ("you")?
The story explores the lasting effects of this on soldiers.
What is trauma/PTSD?
The story is set during this major 20th century conflict.
What is the Vietnam War?
The narrator was doing this activity when the enemy soldier appeared on the trail.
What is standing guard/keeping watch?
This is the age of the narrator's daughter when she asks about his war experience.
What is nine years old?
he story jumps between past and present using this literary technique.
What is flashback?
The narrator struggles with this moral concept about taking a life
What is right vs. wrong/morality?
The present-day scenes take place this many years after the war.
What is about 20 years?
This is what the narrator imagines the young soldier was doing before the ambush
What is going to visit his girlfriend/sweetheart?
Kiowa tells the narrator that this person would have done the same thing
Who is anyone/any soldier?
O'Brien uses this technique by imagining details about the enemy soldier's life.
What is characterization/humanization?
O'Brien examines how this can be both factual and emotional.
What is truth?
he ambush occurs along this type of pathway.
What is a trail/footpath?
The narrator says he would give this response to his daughter's question about killing.
What is "Of course not" or "No"?
The narrator imagines the dead soldier had this type of person waiting for him.
What is a girlfriend/sweetheart?
The repeated phrase "I was terrified" is an example of this literary device.
What is repetition?
The story shows how war strips away this quality from both sides.
What is humanity/innocence?
"Ambush" is part of this larger collection by O'Brien
What is "The Things They Carried"?