The Things They Carried Discussion Questions: Set 3

[Mrs. C]

Please make sure you review the handout for Online Etiquette that is part of your summer assignment packet before engaging in discourse with your peers.

The last set of discussion questions is below. Do not feel as though you need to respond to every question, but do not focus all your responses on just a few questions; spread them out. Also, feel free to respond more than ten times.

**Make sure you read all student responses to the question you are responding to. You can respond to the question or to a student in particular--maybe you would like to address a point he or she has made. Use the "Reply to This" tag found at the bottom of each question and student response, and make sure you click on the right one for the particular question or student response you would like to reply to.

Make sure each posting is a suitable length, not too long and not too short. Each of your responses should be approximately five sentences long.

Let the discussion continue!

Sincerely, Mrs. Cohen

[Celine S.]

This statement affected my reading on how literal I took it. In my mind I was reading the book for some reason with the thought that some of it was real. He wrote it so well that I almost mistook it for being real. I mean the Vietnam war was real so maybe thats why I thought so. But either way it didn't necessarily change my view. After figuring that out I realized, isn't that what O'Brien's interpretation of a true war story is? So I read on like I would read any other book. As I read the book I looked instead for the deeper meaning of the story. And it made me wonder, which parts of the story were true? Now im curious to know which parts of the story are from his own life.

[Greg S]

After reading this novel, I have been surprised by the amount that I was able to connect with it, despite knowing that much of it was fictional during my reading. Therefore, when I read this final caption, I was not overly surprised. In the end, I feel that whether the story was true to actual events or not, it expressed a very meaningful theme that has seemed to really stick to me. In an earlier entry, I commented that the small “happening truths” made the story even more real to me. Now, I realize that these small truths still exist, but in the form of morals and lessons that I can choose to carry on with in my life. For this, I can do nothing more but appreciate O’Brien’s storytelling ability that much more.