THE THINGS THEY CARRIED

By the end of this unit, students will be able to: outline the influence of the Vietnam War on the characters and events in the novel; describe and analyze the interplay between truth and fiction within the context of the novel; explore narrative techniques, particularly the effects of shifting points of view throughout the novel; discuss the text as a coherent novel or as a collection of loosely connected short stories and recollections about the war; analyze the novel as social commentary on American involvement in the Vietnam War; study the relationship between writing and reality as modeled by Tim O’Brien; evaluate and analyze the novel as an example of the "war literature" genre; analyze the novel as an instructional manual for how to write well; trace the connection between names and identity in the novel; consider the interplay between death/loss and love/intimacy/romance within the context of the novel; analyze the complex and ambiguous meanings of "to carry"; and study the powerful emotions of guilt and shame for the characters in the novel. 55 pages. ©2008.