Names
This platoon leader takes on a tremendous amount of guilt after the passing of Ted Lavender.
Who is Lt. Jimmy Cross?
This is the most obvious type of burden that the soldiers carry, such as weapons, food and other equipment.
What are tangible things?
Tim O'Brien uses this literary device when recalling an event from the past.
What is a flashback?
This motif describes the emotional and psychological effects of war on soldiers.
What is trauma?
O'Brien calls himself this after deciding to join the war effort.
What is a coward?
This soldier is deeply connected to his Native American heritage.
Who is Kiowa?
This is a less obvious thing that soldiers carry, such as trauma and memory.
What are intangible things?
O'Brien suggests that stories can preserve the memories of people who died through this process.
What is storytelling?
This theme describes the guilt a person feels after surviving when others do not.
What is survivor's guilt?
What is shame?
This medic wrote letters to Curt Lemon's sister after Curt Lemon passed.
Who is Rat Kiley?
Kiowa carries this religious text.
What is a Bible?
In "How to Tell a True War Story," O'Brien states a true war story is deprived from this.
What is a moral or lesson?
The title of the novel refers to both physical equipment and this type of burden.
What are emotional burdens?
What is "In the Field," and "Speaking of Courage."
Who is Mary Anne Bell?
The pebble was given to Jimmy Cross by this long-distance partner.
Who is Martha?
O'Brien discusses Linda in the ultimate chapter to suggest that stories can do this.
What is keep the dead alive?
The soldiers tremendous bond by the end of the story represent this motif.
What is brotherhood?
This literary device happens when two contradictory ideas are placed next to each other.
What is Juxtaposition?
This character represents a crossroads for the narrator of the story, Tim O'Brien.
Who is Elroy Berdahl?
What does the continuous description of what the soldiers carry reveal about them?
Answers may vary.
What is memory?
The motif of water or river is most present in this chapter.
What is "On the Rainy River?"
This literary device is used when the readers can't trust the narrator.
What is an unreliable narrator?