Settings
This character carried around comic books and M&Ms to give to others when needed.
Rat Kiley
The names of Both Alpha Company medics who made an appearance in the novel.
Rat Kiley and Bobby Jorgenson
The firs death we hear about in the novel.
Ted Lavender.
Happening truth or story truth?
“The young, dead man was slim and around the age of twenty. He died in the center of the trail near My Khe. One eye was shut and the other had a star shaped hole. I killed him.”
Story truth
How does Norman feel about his hometown after the war?
He feels that nobody in his town wants to hear from him because his stories are not heroic, but they are real.
This character helped O'Brien come to a critical decision, but did not make it for him.
Elroy Berdahl
Describe the pact that Dave Jensen and Lee Strunk made.
If one of them were to get a serious injury (wheelchair wound), the other would put them out of their misery.
This character had the most significant development over the course of one chapter.
Mary Anne
This literary device is used to compare two contrasting things that are next to each other or occurring at the same time.
Identify one example as well.
Juxtaposition
Some examples:
Church w/ bullet holes used as a military base
Monk cleaning large machine gun
Butterfly on dead man's head
The river that overflowed.
The Song Tra Bong River.
Got in a fight over a pocketknife (2 names)
Lee Strunk and Dave Jensen
This character does not enjoy it when the others make jokes about serious things.
Kiowa
Identify two characters that had some sort of mental breakdown in the novel.
Rat Kiley, Norman Bowker, Dave Jensen, the unnamed soldier
How does O'Brien uses "projection" in the novel?
He projects life details onto the man he killed in order to make him a real person instead of just an enemy.
Where did O'Brien go after receiving his draft letter? (name of place & state)
Tip Top Lodge in Minnesota
This character was "zapped while zipping."
Ted Lavender
This soldier blames Kiowa's death strictly on Lt. Cross.
(Not Jimmy Cross himself)
Mitchell Sanders
This made O'Brien feel like a civilian; not a soldier.
Being in a safe location (headquarters base) separated from Alpha Company. Essentially replaced by Bobby Jorgenson.
Three different coping strategies in the novel:
Using humor, using drugs, avoidance/distraction/escapism, storytelling
Describe the setting (place and time). What is the figurative meaning of "worked my way out?"
In a way, maybe, I'd gone under with Kiowa, and now after two decades I'd finally worked my way out.
O'Brien says this when he revisits the field where Kiowa died 20 years after the war.
O'Brien has found closure on Kiowa's death and recovered the emotions/empathy that he lost.
Jimmy Cross and Martha serve opposite roles in some ways. Jimmy is a ________________ while Martha is a ________________.
Soldier; missionary/nurse
This character stepped on a land mine while playing with Rat Kiley.
Curt Lemon
The silent interaction between O'Brien and an older Vietnamese man at the end of "Field Trip" is supposed to represent what idea?
The war happened. It was violent and wasteful. These two were once enemies, but "all that's finished." (Time to move on)
Explain how O'Brien contrasts the war and a game of checkers.
"There was something restful about it, something orderly and reassuring... The playing field was laid out in a strict grid... you knew where you stood. You knew the score. The pieces were out on the board, the enemy was visible, you could watch the tactics unfolding into larger strategies. There was a winner and a loser. There were rules."