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The Things They Carried Reading Schedule, Journal Assignments, and Selected Notes
AP English Language and Composition
“Metafiction is a term given to fictional writing which self-consciously and systematically draws
attention to its status as an artifact in order to pose questions about the relationship between fiction
and reality. In providing a critique of their own methods of construction, such writings not only
examine the fundamental structures of narrative fiction, they also explore the possible fictionality
of the world outside the literary fictional text.” – Catherine Colloway
“Deconstruction is a literary theory that contends that although readers and writers may seek the
truth through writing, what they will have in the end is a literary construction, not the truth, even
though sometimes it seems like the truth.” – Diane Andrews Henningfeld
“In war, you lose your sense of the definite, hence your sense of the truth itself, and therefore, it’s
safe to say that in a true war story nothing is ever absolutely true.” – Tim O’Brien
“One could argue, as Plato does, that truth is something abstract, just floating out there. Whether
we remember a thing, imagine it, or know anything about it, is irrelevant; it’s just out there. There
are others who would argue – as I guess I do…. that the human being shapes and determines what
we call truth. Truth is ultimately a statement. It’s an issue of language.” – Tim O’Brien
Reading Schedule
1. “The Things They Carried” – “How to Tell…” (pp. 1 – 85)
2. “The Dentist” – “Notes” (pp. 86 - 161)
3. “In the Field” – “The Lives of the Dead” (pp. 162 – 246)
Due Date
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Journal Assignment – Must be typed
For each set of chapters / vignettes, answer the following. Each response should be one – two
well-organized paragraphs with relevant textual support (approximately ¾ to one page per
item). Be sure to use MLA format for citing all quotations. You may use ellipsis for passages
longer than two sentences.
1. O’Brien writes that “story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth.” What is O’Brien
claiming about the nature of Truth? How is this idea revealed in this section of the book?
Choose at least one passage to substantiate your claims.
2. Choose a passage which represents O’Brien’s style, his characterization, or his use of
literary or rhetorical devices. Analyze what makes the passage effective. Make sure to
explicitly connect the particular strategies or devices to the meaning of the overall passage
/ novel.
3. What passage from this section of the book stands out the most in your mind? What makes
it stand out? Cite the passage and explain your reaction to it.
“My hope is that when you finish the last page of this book, or any book, there is a sense of having
experienced a whole life or a constellation of lives; that something has been preserved which, if the
book hadn’t been written, would have been lost, like most lives are.”
- Tim O’Brien on The Things They Carried