Help with Questions to The Things They Carried: Love (pages 27-30)
Love (pages 27-30)
1. Why is the first story, “The Things They Carried,” written in third person? How does
this serve to introduce the rest of the novel? What effect did it have on your experience of
the novel so far when O’Brien switched to first person, and you realized the narrator was
one of the soldiers?
2. What is the setting of this chapter?
3. What does Jimmy Cross confess to Tim O’Brien when he comes to visit him after the
war? What was O’Brien’s response?
4. During the war, Jimmy Cross survived by fantasizing. Explain what happened to
Jimmy Cross’s dream after the war.
5. O’Brien reveals that he has guilt that he cannot get over too, but he does not tell us
what happened that makes him feel this way. How does this make you feel a
bout O’Brien and his stories when he leaves you with unanswered questions?
