The Things They Carried help with homework: Assignment #1 (“The Things They Carried” and “Love,” pp. 1-29)

Assignment #1 (“The Things They Carried” and “Love,” pp. 1-29)
1. Notice the title page of the novel stating “A Work of Fiction.” As you read, think about Tim O’Brien the character as distinct from Tim O’Brien the author.
2. Discuss the items that the soldiers actually carry and the intangible items that they carry as well.
3. Talk about how O’Brien begins to individualize the soldiers by listing what they carry.
4. Discuss Ted Lavender’s death and the way that O’Brien describes it.
5. What does the narrator mean when he says “the hump was everything”?
6. Discuss the implications of “Love.”