We are finishing the book “The Things They Carried.”

As we read “The Lives of the Dead” we focused on:

Chapter 22 “The Lives of the Dead”

1. O’Brien spends a long time telling about his childhood friend, Linda, who died of cancer. When a schoolmate keeps trying to yank off Linda’s red hat, O’Brien wants to intervene, but he doesn’t. He says:

“For me, though, it did matter. It still does. I should’ve stepped in; fourth grade is no excuse. Besides, it doesn’t get easier with time, and twelve years later, when Vietnam presented much harder choices, some practice at being brave might have helped.” (234)

Discuss what O’Brien means by this passage. Where else in the novel does he show it?

2. Was this chapter a good finishing chapter for this book and why?

When we finished (it took most of the period), we filled in character charts and turned in answers to the two questions above.

Questions were collected (but NOT the character charts) at the end of the period.

Reminder: character notes and books will be turned in on Thursday, the day of the test.