Thesis Statement: Write a thesis analyzing the decisions O’Brien makes to achieve a central purpose.

Body Paragraph: Write an assertion followed by embedded evidence and commentary in the style of a rhetorical
analysis body paragraph.
 Chapters - “Love” and “Spin”
Quote from O’Brien:

“ . . . and I didn’t meet any communists out there preaching Marxism, and Engels — you met poor
people who were trying to stay alive and feed their families and themselves, and where they may have
been indifferent 10 years before, they weren’t indifferent anymore, nor would anyone else be. It was
the way to lose a war. Because you take people out of their houses and you move them. And big
aggregates of people, and you boss them around, and you call all the shots, and you beat up on people,
and you trash everything that could be trashed — all in the name of searching for the enemy. The
consequences are you make enemies. You may kill a few Vietcong along the way, but you are making
enemies — just imagine one baby being shot by accident — it’s got a mother and a father and an uncle
and aunt and friends and brothers and sisters — and they may have been indifferent before that baby
died, but they’re not indifferent anymore and nor would you or anyone else.” (Interview with PBS)

Essential Terminology:
Batangan Peninsula – A heavily mined area in USO – United Service Organization –
Vietnam; was a Vietcong stronghold organization that aimed at raising the troop’s
morale through entertainment
GI – “Government Issue” – a soldier Poppa-san – Slang for an elderly Vietnamese
man
AWOL – Absent without Leave (gone without Paddy – A rice field
official permission)

Motifs/Major Ideas and Objects: Photographs, Memories, Talismans and Superstition, Nature
Guiding Questions:
1) Examine the titles of these two chapters. How do the titles connect to the content?
2) These two chapters provide time shifts. We see Jimmy Cross and O’Brien not as young soldiers
but now as older men reflecting on their experiences. What is the effect of this time shift?
3) Many of the chapters connect. The story is not a simple linear plot, but it bounces around. Each
chapter provides another layer and angle to various stories embedded within the novel. How do
“The Things They Carried,” “Love,” and “Spin” connect and offer different layers and angles
to the story?
4) Read the quote above by O’Brien. How do details ring true in his stories?
5) How has the Vietnam War still stuck with Jimmy Cross and Tim O’Brien?
6) In “Spin,” O’Brien details inhumane actions of some of the soldiers. What are some of these
actions? What might O’Brien’s purpose be in detailing
these events?
7) How does O’Brien dispel some romantic views of war in
these two chapters?
8) Examine each character. How do they differ? In what
ways do they adapt to or try to cope with their situations?
Some to consider: Azar, Ted Lavender, Kiowa, Jimmy
Cross.
9) Examine tone. What is O’Brien’s tone when reflecting on
the war in “Love” and detailing the soldiers’ burdens in
“The Things They Carried”? How might these different
 tones connect to O’Brien’s purpose in each of these chapters?
10) O’Brien includes episodes where the war wasn’t always the “bad stuff.” What purpose does
O’Brien’s outlining of more humorous or lighthearted events serve?
11) O’Brien devotes time to examining how his memory functions when thinking back on the war.
Review his descriptions of memory. Should we doubt his recollections?
12) What is the function of stories according to O’Brien?
13) Examine how the violence of the war is juxtaposed with peace and/or the beauty of nature. Find
examples of this juxtaposition and consider how they contribute to one or more of O’Brien’s
purposes. Use the table below to help organize your examples.

Beauty/Peace Violence/Brutality

Effect of these contrasts/juxtapositions?

Name: ____________________________________________ Period: ____ Date: ________________
“Love” and “Spin”
Steps:
1) In groups, select three questions you would like to discuss.
2) Individually, write a response to each question. Try to point to
specific examples in the text when writing your response.
3) When finished, discuss in groups. Afterwards, we will discuss as a
class.

Question Number: ___

Response 1: ________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Question Number: ___
Response 2: ________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Question Number: ___
Response 3: ________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Name: _______________________________________________ Period: ___ Date: ______________
Passage Analysis – “Love” and “Spin”
Directions: Closely read each excerpt from The Things They Carried. Next, examine O’Brien’s
diction, language, syntax, and any other rhetorical decision within the excerpt. Connect these decisions
to O’Brien’s purpose. Use analytical verbs in your analysis.

“The marched for the sake of the march. They plodded along slowly, dumbly, leaning forward
against the heat, unthinking, all blood and bone, simple grunts, soldiering with their legs, toiling up
the hills and down into the paddies and across the rivers and up again and down, just humping, one
step and then the next and then another, but no volition, no will, because it was automatic, it was
anatomy, and the war was entirely a matter of posture and carriage, the hump was everything, a kind
of inertia, a king of emptiness, a dullness of desire and intellect and conscience and hope and
human sensibility.” (O’Brien 14)

To begin, O’Brien establishes the seemingly This passage is all one sentence. O’Brien constructs a
purposeless actions the soldiers must endure. long sentence with multiple clauses, expressing the
As the passage progresses, he reduces the monotony and redundancy of their march. After
soldiers to “all blood and bone,” “simple describing the soldiers in almost lifeless terms, he
grunts,” who trod “dumbly.” These descriptions ends with an emphasis on the humanity that is
serve as a contrast to the romantic perspectives stripped from the soldiers through the process of the
of warfare and heroism. march. This emptiness and lack of purpose contrasts
with more romantic versions of warfare, thereby
dispelling romantic notions of war during Vietnam.

1) “But it was a strange boredom. It was a boredom with a twist, the kind of boredom that caused
stomach disorders . . . . You’d try to relax. You’d uncurl your fists and let your thoughts go. Well,
you’d think, this isn’t so bad. And right then you’d hear gunfire behind you and your nuts would
fly up into your throat and you’d be squealing pig squeals. That kind of boredom.” (O’Brien 33)
2) “You’re pinned down in some filthy hellhole of a paddy, getting your ass delivered to kingdom
come, but then for a few seconds everything goes quiet and you look up and see the sun and a few
puffy white clouds, and the immense serenity flashes against your eyeballs—the whole world gets
rearranged—and even though you’re pinned down by a war you never felt more at peace.”
(O’Brien 34)

Reading Questions:
1) Examine the buildup of the first passage to the final sentence. What is the effect of the different
tones in these sentences?
2) In the second passage, what might O’Brien’s purpose be in detailing the peaceful parts of
Vietnam mixed with the violence and helplessness of the soldiers’ situations?
3) Review the two quotes above once more. Examine the word choice (diction). In the chart
below, list words with similar connotation and write an adjective or descriptive phrase to
categorize these words.
Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase

EX: From Thatcher Prompt

Words connected to injury and

healing (to characterize Reagan
as . . . )

Words: Words: Words:

Mend

Wounded

Restore

Invigorating
Name: _______________________________________________ Period: ___ Date: ______________
Passage Analysis – “Love” and “Spin”
Directions: Find two quotes from this section that you find both meaningful and connect to each other
in some significant manner. Examine O’Brien’s diction, language, syntax, and any other rhetorical
decision within each quote. Connect these decisions to O’Brien’s purpose. Use analytical verbs in your
analysis, and then consider the connections between the two quotes.

1)

2)
Reading Questions:
1) Review the two quotes above once more. Examine the word choice (diction). In the chart
below, list words with similar connotation and write an adjective or descriptive phrase to
categorize these words.

Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase

Words: Words: Words:

Connotation(s): Connotation(s): Connotation(s):

2) Examine the connections between these two quotes and their overall purpose. What are these
connections and how do they contribute to O’Brien’s overall purpose? Do they provide a
contrast? Further characterization? Theme? Something else? Write your response below:
Thesis Statement: Write a thesis analyzing the decisions O’Brien makes to achieve a central purpose.

Body Paragraph: Write an assertion followed by embedded evidence and commentary in the style of a rhetorical
analysis body paragraph.
Thesis Statement: Write a thesis analyzing the decisions O’Brien makes to achieve a central purpose.

Body Paragraph: Write an assertion followed by embedded evidence and commentary in the style of a rhetorical
analysis body paragraph.
 Chapters - “Love” and “Spin”
Quote from O’Brien:

“ . . . and I didn’t meet any communists out there preaching Marxism, and Engels — you met poor
people who were trying to stay alive and feed their families and themselves, and where they may have
been indifferent 10 years before, they weren’t indifferent anymore, nor would anyone else be. It was
the way to lose a war. Because you take people out of their houses and you move them. And big
aggregates of people, and you boss them around, and you call all the shots, and you beat up on people,
and you trash everything that could be trashed — all in the name of searching for the enemy. The
consequences are you make enemies. You may kill a few Vietcong along the way, but you are making
enemies — just imagine one baby being shot by accident — it’s got a mother and a father and an uncle
and aunt and friends and brothers and sisters — and they may have been indifferent before that baby
died, but they’re not indifferent anymore and nor would you or anyone else.” (Interview with PBS)

Essential Terminology:
Batangan Peninsula – A heavily mined area in USO – United Service Organization –
Vietnam; was a Vietcong stronghold organization that aimed at raising the troop’s
morale through entertainment
GI – “Government Issue” – a soldier Poppa-san – Slang for an elderly Vietnamese
man
AWOL – Absent without Leave (gone without Paddy – A rice field
official permission)

Motifs/Major Ideas and Objects: Photographs, Memories, Talismans and Superstition, Nature
Guiding Questions:
1) Examine the titles of these two chapters. How do the titles connect to the content?
2) These two chapters provide time shifts. We see Jimmy Cross and O’Brien not as young soldiers
but now as older men reflecting on their experiences. What is the effect of this time shift?
3) Many of the chapters connect. The story is not a simple linear plot, but it bounces around. Each
chapter provides another layer and angle to various stories embedded within the novel. How do
“The Things They Carried,” “Love,” and “Spin” connect and offer different layers and angles
to the story?
4) Read the quote above by O’Brien. How do details ring true in his stories?
5) How has the Vietnam War still stuck with Jimmy Cross and Tim O’Brien?
6) In “Spin,” O’Brien details inhumane actions of some of the soldiers. What are some of these
actions? What might O’Brien’s purpose be in detailing
these events?
7) How does O’Brien dispel some romantic views of war in
these two chapters?
8) Examine each character. How do they differ? In what
ways do they adapt to or try to cope with their situations?
Some to consider: Azar, Ted Lavender, Kiowa, Jimmy
Cross.
9) Examine tone. What is O’Brien’s tone when reflecting on
the war in “Love” and detailing the soldiers’ burdens in
“The Things They Carried”? How might these different
 tones connect to O’Brien’s purpose in each of these chapters?
10) O’Brien includes episodes where the war wasn’t always the “bad stuff.” What purpose does
O’Brien’s outlining of more humorous or lighthearted events serve?
11) O’Brien devotes time to examining how his memory functions when thinking back on the war.
Review his descriptions of memory. Should we doubt his recollections?
12) What is the function of stories according to O’Brien?
13) Examine how the violence of the war is juxtaposed with peace and/or the beauty of nature. Find
examples of this juxtaposition and consider how they contribute to one or more of O’Brien’s
purposes. Use the table below to help organize your examples.

Beauty/Peace Violence/Brutality

Effect of these contrasts/juxtapositions?

Name: ____________________________________________ Period: ____ Date: ________________
“Love” and “Spin”
Steps:
1) In groups, select three questions you would like to discuss.
2) Individually, write a response to each question. Try to point to
specific examples in the text when writing your response.
3) When finished, discuss in groups. Afterwards, we will discuss as a
class.

Question Number: ___

Response 1: ________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Question Number: ___
Response 2: ________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Question Number: ___
Response 3: ________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Name: _______________________________________________ Period: ___ Date: ______________
Passage Analysis – “Love” and “Spin”
Directions: Closely read each excerpt from The Things They Carried. Next, examine O’Brien’s
diction, language, syntax, and any other rhetorical decision within the excerpt. Connect these decisions
to O’Brien’s purpose. Use analytical verbs in your analysis.

“The marched for the sake of the march. They plodded along slowly, dumbly, leaning forward
against the heat, unthinking, all blood and bone, simple grunts, soldiering with their legs, toiling up
the hills and down into the paddies and across the rivers and up again and down, just humping, one
step and then the next and then another, but no volition, no will, because it was automatic, it was
anatomy, and the war was entirely a matter of posture and carriage, the hump was everything, a kind
of inertia, a king of emptiness, a dullness of desire and intellect and conscience and hope and
human sensibility.” (O’Brien 14)

To begin, O’Brien establishes the seemingly This passage is all one sentence. O’Brien constructs a
purposeless actions the soldiers must endure. long sentence with multiple clauses, expressing the
As the passage progresses, he reduces the monotony and redundancy of their march. After
soldiers to “all blood and bone,” “simple describing the soldiers in almost lifeless terms, he
grunts,” who trod “dumbly.” These descriptions ends with an emphasis on the humanity that is
serve as a contrast to the romantic perspectives stripped from the soldiers through the process of the
of warfare and heroism. march. This emptiness and lack of purpose contrasts
with more romantic versions of warfare, thereby
dispelling romantic notions of war during Vietnam.

1) “But it was a strange boredom. It was a boredom with a twist, the kind of boredom that caused
stomach disorders . . . . You’d try to relax. You’d uncurl your fists and let your thoughts go. Well,
you’d think, this isn’t so bad. And right then you’d hear gunfire behind you and your nuts would
fly up into your throat and you’d be squealing pig squeals. That kind of boredom.” (O’Brien 33)
2) “You’re pinned down in some filthy hellhole of a paddy, getting your ass delivered to kingdom
come, but then for a few seconds everything goes quiet and you look up and see the sun and a few
puffy white clouds, and the immense serenity flashes against your eyeballs—the whole world gets
rearranged—and even though you’re pinned down by a war you never felt more at peace.”
(O’Brien 34)

Reading Questions:
1) Examine the buildup of the first passage to the final sentence. What is the effect of the different
tones in these sentences?
2) In the second passage, what might O’Brien’s purpose be in detailing the peaceful parts of
Vietnam mixed with the violence and helplessness of the soldiers’ situations?
3) Review the two quotes above once more. Examine the word choice (diction). In the chart
below, list words with similar connotation and write an adjective or descriptive phrase to
categorize these words.
Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase

EX: From Thatcher Prompt

Words connected to injury and

healing (to characterize Reagan
as . . . )

Words: Words: Words:

Mend

Wounded

Restore

Invigorating
Name: _______________________________________________ Period: ___ Date: ______________
Passage Analysis – “Love” and “Spin”
Directions: Find two quotes from this section that you find both meaningful and connect to each other
in some significant manner. Examine O’Brien’s diction, language, syntax, and any other rhetorical
decision within each quote. Connect these decisions to O’Brien’s purpose. Use analytical verbs in your
analysis, and then consider the connections between the two quotes.

1)

2)
Reading Questions:
1) Review the two quotes above once more. Examine the word choice (diction). In the chart
below, list words with similar connotation and write an adjective or descriptive phrase to
categorize these words.

Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase

Words: Words: Words:

Connotation(s): Connotation(s): Connotation(s):

2) Examine the connections between these two quotes and their overall purpose. What are these
connections and how do they contribute to O’Brien’s overall purpose? Do they provide a
contrast? Further characterization? Theme? Something else? Write your response below:
Thesis Statement: Write a thesis analyzing the decisions O’Brien makes to achieve a central purpose.

Body Paragraph: Write an assertion followed by embedded evidence and commentary in the style of a rhetorical
analysis body paragraph.
Thesis Statement: Write a thesis analyzing the decisions O’Brien makes to achieve a central purpose.

Body Paragraph: Write an assertion followed by embedded evidence and commentary in the style of a rhetorical
analysis body paragraph.
 Chapters - “Love” and “Spin”
Quote from O’Brien:

“ . . . and I didn’t meet any communists out there preaching Marxism, and Engels — you met poor
people who were trying to stay alive and feed their families and themselves, and where they may have
been indifferent 10 years before, they weren’t indifferent anymore, nor would anyone else be. It was
the way to lose a war. Because you take people out of their houses and you move them. And big
aggregates of people, and you boss them around, and you call all the shots, and you beat up on people,
and you trash everything that could be trashed — all in the name of searching for the enemy. The
consequences are you make enemies. You may kill a few Vietcong along the way, but you are making
enemies — just imagine one baby being shot by accident — it’s got a mother and a father and an uncle
and aunt and friends and brothers and sisters — and they may have been indifferent before that baby
died, but they’re not indifferent anymore and nor would you or anyone else.” (Interview with PBS)

Essential Terminology:
Batangan Peninsula – A heavily mined area in USO – United Service Organization –
Vietnam; was a Vietcong stronghold organization that aimed at raising the troop’s
morale through entertainment
GI – “Government Issue” – a soldier Poppa-san – Slang for an elderly Vietnamese
man
AWOL – Absent without Leave (gone without Paddy – A rice field
official permission)

Motifs/Major Ideas and Objects: Photographs, Memories, Talismans and Superstition, Nature
Guiding Questions:
1) Examine the titles of these two chapters. How do the titles connect to the content?
2) These two chapters provide time shifts. We see Jimmy Cross and O’Brien not as young soldiers
but now as older men reflecting on their experiences. What is the effect of this time shift?
3) Many of the chapters connect. The story is not a simple linear plot, but it bounces around. Each
chapter provides another layer and angle to various stories embedded within the novel. How do
“The Things They Carried,” “Love,” and “Spin” connect and offer different layers and angles
to the story?
4) Read the quote above by O’Brien. How do details ring true in his stories?
5) How has the Vietnam War still stuck with Jimmy Cross and Tim O’Brien?
6) In “Spin,” O’Brien details inhumane actions of some of the soldiers. What are some of these
actions? What might O’Brien’s purpose be in detailing
these events?
7) How does O’Brien dispel some romantic views of war in
these two chapters?
8) Examine each character. How do they differ? In what
ways do they adapt to or try to cope with their situations?
Some to consider: Azar, Ted Lavender, Kiowa, Jimmy
Cross.
9) Examine tone. What is O’Brien’s tone when reflecting on
the war in “Love” and detailing the soldiers’ burdens in
“The Things They Carried”? How might these different
 tones connect to O’Brien’s purpose in each of these chapters?
10) O’Brien includes episodes where the war wasn’t always the “bad stuff.” What purpose does
O’Brien’s outlining of more humorous or lighthearted events serve?
11) O’Brien devotes time to examining how his memory functions when thinking back on the war.
Review his descriptions of memory. Should we doubt his recollections?
12) What is the function of stories according to O’Brien?
13) Examine how the violence of the war is juxtaposed with peace and/or the beauty of nature. Find
examples of this juxtaposition and consider how they contribute to one or more of O’Brien’s
purposes. Use the table below to help organize your examples.

Beauty/Peace Violence/Brutality

Effect of these contrasts/juxtapositions?

Name: ____________________________________________ Period: ____ Date: ________________
“Love” and “Spin”
Steps:
1) In groups, select three questions you would like to discuss.
2) Individually, write a response to each question. Try to point to
specific examples in the text when writing your response.
3) When finished, discuss in groups. Afterwards, we will discuss as a
class.

Question Number: ___

Response 1: ________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Question Number: ___
Response 2: ________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Question Number: ___
Response 3: ________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Name: _______________________________________________ Period: ___ Date: ______________
Passage Analysis – “Love” and “Spin”
Directions: Closely read each excerpt from The Things They Carried. Next, examine O’Brien’s
diction, language, syntax, and any other rhetorical decision within the excerpt. Connect these decisions
to O’Brien’s purpose. Use analytical verbs in your analysis.

“The marched for the sake of the march. They plodded along slowly, dumbly, leaning forward
against the heat, unthinking, all blood and bone, simple grunts, soldiering with their legs, toiling up
the hills and down into the paddies and across the rivers and up again and down, just humping, one
step and then the next and then another, but no volition, no will, because it was automatic, it was
anatomy, and the war was entirely a matter of posture and carriage, the hump was everything, a kind
of inertia, a king of emptiness, a dullness of desire and intellect and conscience and hope and
human sensibility.” (O’Brien 14)

To begin, O’Brien establishes the seemingly This passage is all one sentence. O’Brien constructs a
purposeless actions the soldiers must endure. long sentence with multiple clauses, expressing the
As the passage progresses, he reduces the monotony and redundancy of their march. After
soldiers to “all blood and bone,” “simple describing the soldiers in almost lifeless terms, he
grunts,” who trod “dumbly.” These descriptions ends with an emphasis on the humanity that is
serve as a contrast to the romantic perspectives stripped from the soldiers through the process of the
of warfare and heroism. march. This emptiness and lack of purpose contrasts
with more romantic versions of warfare, thereby
dispelling romantic notions of war during Vietnam.

1) “But it was a strange boredom. It was a boredom with a twist, the kind of boredom that caused
stomach disorders . . . . You’d try to relax. You’d uncurl your fists and let your thoughts go. Well,
you’d think, this isn’t so bad. And right then you’d hear gunfire behind you and your nuts would
fly up into your throat and you’d be squealing pig squeals. That kind of boredom.” (O’Brien 33)
2) “You’re pinned down in some filthy hellhole of a paddy, getting your ass delivered to kingdom
come, but then for a few seconds everything goes quiet and you look up and see the sun and a few
puffy white clouds, and the immense serenity flashes against your eyeballs—the whole world gets
rearranged—and even though you’re pinned down by a war you never felt more at peace.”
(O’Brien 34)

Reading Questions:
1) Examine the buildup of the first passage to the final sentence. What is the effect of the different
tones in these sentences?
2) In the second passage, what might O’Brien’s purpose be in detailing the peaceful parts of
Vietnam mixed with the violence and helplessness of the soldiers’ situations?
3) Review the two quotes above once more. Examine the word choice (diction). In the chart
below, list words with similar connotation and write an adjective or descriptive phrase to
categorize these words.
Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase

EX: From Thatcher Prompt

Words connected to injury and

healing (to characterize Reagan
as . . . )

Words: Words: Words:

Mend

Wounded

Restore

Invigorating
Name: _______________________________________________ Period: ___ Date: ______________
Passage Analysis – “Love” and “Spin”
Directions: Find two quotes from this section that you find both meaningful and connect to each other
in some significant manner. Examine O’Brien’s diction, language, syntax, and any other rhetorical
decision within each quote. Connect these decisions to O’Brien’s purpose. Use analytical verbs in your
analysis, and then consider the connections between the two quotes.

1)

2)
Reading Questions:
1) Review the two quotes above once more. Examine the word choice (diction). In the chart
below, list words with similar connotation and write an adjective or descriptive phrase to
categorize these words.

Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase

Words: Words: Words:

Connotation(s): Connotation(s): Connotation(s):

2) Examine the connections between these two quotes and their overall purpose. What are these
connections and how do they contribute to O’Brien’s overall purpose? Do they provide a
contrast? Further characterization? Theme? Something else? Write your response below:
Thesis Statement: Write a thesis analyzing the decisions O’Brien makes to achieve a central purpose.

Body Paragraph: Write an assertion followed by embedded evidence and commentary in the style of a rhetorical
analysis body paragraph.
Thesis Statement: Write a thesis analyzing the decisions O’Brien makes to achieve a central purpose.

Body Paragraph: Write an assertion followed by embedded evidence and commentary in the style of a rhetorical
analysis body paragraph.
 Chapters - “Love” and “Spin”
Quote from O’Brien:

“ . . . and I didn’t meet any communists out there preaching Marxism, and Engels — you met poor
people who were trying to stay alive and feed their families and themselves, and where they may have
been indifferent 10 years before, they weren’t indifferent anymore, nor would anyone else be. It was
the way to lose a war. Because you take people out of their houses and you move them. And big
aggregates of people, and you boss them around, and you call all the shots, and you beat up on people,
and you trash everything that could be trashed — all in the name of searching for the enemy. The
consequences are you make enemies. You may kill a few Vietcong along the way, but you are making
enemies — just imagine one baby being shot by accident — it’s got a mother and a father and an uncle
and aunt and friends and brothers and sisters — and they may have been indifferent before that baby
died, but they’re not indifferent anymore and nor would you or anyone else.” (Interview with PBS)

Essential Terminology:
Batangan Peninsula – A heavily mined area in USO – United Service Organization –
Vietnam; was a Vietcong stronghold organization that aimed at raising the troop’s
morale through entertainment
GI – “Government Issue” – a soldier Poppa-san – Slang for an elderly Vietnamese
man
AWOL – Absent without Leave (gone without Paddy – A rice field
official permission)

Motifs/Major Ideas and Objects: Photographs, Memories, Talismans and Superstition, Nature
Guiding Questions:
1) Examine the titles of these two chapters. How do the titles connect to the content?
2) These two chapters provide time shifts. We see Jimmy Cross and O’Brien not as young soldiers
but now as older men reflecting on their experiences. What is the effect of this time shift?
3) Many of the chapters connect. The story is not a simple linear plot, but it bounces around. Each
chapter provides another layer and angle to various stories embedded within the novel. How do
“The Things They Carried,” “Love,” and “Spin” connect and offer different layers and angles
to the story?
4) Read the quote above by O’Brien. How do details ring true in his stories?
5) How has the Vietnam War still stuck with Jimmy Cross and Tim O’Brien?
6) In “Spin,” O’Brien details inhumane actions of some of the soldiers. What are some of these
actions? What might O’Brien’s purpose be in detailing
these events?
7) How does O’Brien dispel some romantic views of war in
these two chapters?
8) Examine each character. How do they differ? In what
ways do they adapt to or try to cope with their situations?
Some to consider: Azar, Ted Lavender, Kiowa, Jimmy
Cross.
9) Examine tone. What is O’Brien’s tone when reflecting on
the war in “Love” and detailing the soldiers’ burdens in
“The Things They Carried”? How might these different
 tones connect to O’Brien’s purpose in each of these chapters?
10) O’Brien includes episodes where the war wasn’t always the “bad stuff.” What purpose does
O’Brien’s outlining of more humorous or lighthearted events serve?
11) O’Brien devotes time to examining how his memory functions when thinking back on the war.
Review his descriptions of memory. Should we doubt his recollections?
12) What is the function of stories according to O’Brien?
13) Examine how the violence of the war is juxtaposed with peace and/or the beauty of nature. Find
examples of this juxtaposition and consider how they contribute to one or more of O’Brien’s
purposes. Use the table below to help organize your examples.

Beauty/Peace Violence/Brutality

Effect of these contrasts/juxtapositions?

Name: ____________________________________________ Period: ____ Date: ________________
“Love” and “Spin”
Steps:
1) In groups, select three questions you would like to discuss.
2) Individually, write a response to each question. Try to point to
specific examples in the text when writing your response.
3) When finished, discuss in groups. Afterwards, we will discuss as a
class.

Question Number: ___

Response 1: ________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Question Number: ___
Response 2: ________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Question Number: ___
Response 3: ________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Name: _______________________________________________ Period: ___ Date: ______________
Passage Analysis – “Love” and “Spin”
Directions: Closely read each excerpt from The Things They Carried. Next, examine O’Brien’s
diction, language, syntax, and any other rhetorical decision within the excerpt. Connect these decisions
to O’Brien’s purpose. Use analytical verbs in your analysis.

“The marched for the sake of the march. They plodded along slowly, dumbly, leaning forward
against the heat, unthinking, all blood and bone, simple grunts, soldiering with their legs, toiling up
the hills and down into the paddies and across the rivers and up again and down, just humping, one
step and then the next and then another, but no volition, no will, because it was automatic, it was
anatomy, and the war was entirely a matter of posture and carriage, the hump was everything, a kind
of inertia, a king of emptiness, a dullness of desire and intellect and conscience and hope and
human sensibility.” (O’Brien 14)

To begin, O’Brien establishes the seemingly This passage is all one sentence. O’Brien constructs a
purposeless actions the soldiers must endure. long sentence with multiple clauses, expressing the
As the passage progresses, he reduces the monotony and redundancy of their march. After
soldiers to “all blood and bone,” “simple describing the soldiers in almost lifeless terms, he
grunts,” who trod “dumbly.” These descriptions ends with an emphasis on the humanity that is
serve as a contrast to the romantic perspectives stripped from the soldiers through the process of the
of warfare and heroism. march. This emptiness and lack of purpose contrasts
with more romantic versions of warfare, thereby
dispelling romantic notions of war during Vietnam.

1) “But it was a strange boredom. It was a boredom with a twist, the kind of boredom that caused
stomach disorders . . . . You’d try to relax. You’d uncurl your fists and let your thoughts go. Well,
you’d think, this isn’t so bad. And right then you’d hear gunfire behind you and your nuts would
fly up into your throat and you’d be squealing pig squeals. That kind of boredom.” (O’Brien 33)
2) “You’re pinned down in some filthy hellhole of a paddy, getting your ass delivered to kingdom
come, but then for a few seconds everything goes quiet and you look up and see the sun and a few
puffy white clouds, and the immense serenity flashes against your eyeballs—the whole world gets
rearranged—and even though you’re pinned down by a war you never felt more at peace.”
(O’Brien 34)

Reading Questions:
1) Examine the buildup of the first passage to the final sentence. What is the effect of the different
tones in these sentences?
2) In the second passage, what might O’Brien’s purpose be in detailing the peaceful parts of
Vietnam mixed with the violence and helplessness of the soldiers’ situations?
3) Review the two quotes above once more. Examine the word choice (diction). In the chart
below, list words with similar connotation and write an adjective or descriptive phrase to
categorize these words.
Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase

EX: From Thatcher Prompt

Words connected to injury and

healing (to characterize Reagan
as . . . )

Words: Words: Words:

Mend

Wounded

Restore

Invigorating
Name: _______________________________________________ Period: ___ Date: ______________
Passage Analysis – “Love” and “Spin”
Directions: Find two quotes from this section that you find both meaningful and connect to each other
in some significant manner. Examine O’Brien’s diction, language, syntax, and any other rhetorical
decision within each quote. Connect these decisions to O’Brien’s purpose. Use analytical verbs in your
analysis, and then consider the connections between the two quotes.

1)

2)
Reading Questions:
1) Review the two quotes above once more. Examine the word choice (diction). In the chart
below, list words with similar connotation and write an adjective or descriptive phrase to
categorize these words.

Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase

Words: Words: Words:

Connotation(s): Connotation(s): Connotation(s):

2) Examine the connections between these two quotes and their overall purpose. What are these
connections and how do they contribute to O’Brien’s overall purpose? Do they provide a
contrast? Further characterization? Theme? Something else? Write your response below:
Thesis Statement: Write a thesis analyzing the decisions O’Brien makes to achieve a central purpose.

Body Paragraph: Write an assertion followed by embedded evidence and commentary in the style of a rhetorical
analysis body paragraph.
Thesis Statement: Write a thesis analyzing the decisions O’Brien makes to achieve a central purpose.

Body Paragraph: Write an assertion followed by embedded evidence and commentary in the style of a rhetorical
analysis body paragraph.
 Chapters - “Love” and “Spin”
Quote from O’Brien:

“ . . . and I didn’t meet any communists out there preaching Marxism, and Engels — you met poor
people who were trying to stay alive and feed their families and themselves, and where they may have
been indifferent 10 years before, they weren’t indifferent anymore, nor would anyone else be. It was
the way to lose a war. Because you take people out of their houses and you move them. And big
aggregates of people, and you boss them around, and you call all the shots, and you beat up on people,
and you trash everything that could be trashed — all in the name of searching for the enemy. The
consequences are you make enemies. You may kill a few Vietcong along the way, but you are making
enemies — just imagine one baby being shot by accident — it’s got a mother and a father and an uncle
and aunt and friends and brothers and sisters — and they may have been indifferent before that baby
died, but they’re not indifferent anymore and nor would you or anyone else.” (Interview with PBS)

Essential Terminology:
Batangan Peninsula – A heavily mined area in USO – United Service Organization –
Vietnam; was a Vietcong stronghold organization that aimed at raising the troop’s
morale through entertainment
GI – “Government Issue” – a soldier Poppa-san – Slang for an elderly Vietnamese
man
AWOL – Absent without Leave (gone without Paddy – A rice field
official permission)

Motifs/Major Ideas and Objects: Photographs, Memories, Talismans and Superstition, Nature
Guiding Questions:
1) Examine the titles of these two chapters. How do the titles connect to the content?
2) These two chapters provide time shifts. We see Jimmy Cross and O’Brien not as young soldiers
but now as older men reflecting on their experiences. What is the effect of this time shift?
3) Many of the chapters connect. The story is not a simple linear plot, but it bounces around. Each
chapter provides another layer and angle to various stories embedded within the novel. How do
“The Things They Carried,” “Love,” and “Spin” connect and offer different layers and angles
to the story?
4) Read the quote above by O’Brien. How do details ring true in his stories?
5) How has the Vietnam War still stuck with Jimmy Cross and Tim O’Brien?
6) In “Spin,” O’Brien details inhumane actions of some of the soldiers. What are some of these
actions? What might O’Brien’s purpose be in detailing
these events?
7) How does O’Brien dispel some romantic views of war in
these two chapters?
8) Examine each character. How do they differ? In what
ways do they adapt to or try to cope with their situations?
Some to consider: Azar, Ted Lavender, Kiowa, Jimmy
Cross.
9) Examine tone. What is O’Brien’s tone when reflecting on
the war in “Love” and detailing the soldiers’ burdens in
“The Things They Carried”? How might these different
 tones connect to O’Brien’s purpose in each of these chapters?
10) O’Brien includes episodes where the war wasn’t always the “bad stuff.” What purpose does
O’Brien’s outlining of more humorous or lighthearted events serve?
11) O’Brien devotes time to examining how his memory functions when thinking back on the war.
Review his descriptions of memory. Should we doubt his recollections?
12) What is the function of stories according to O’Brien?
13) Examine how the violence of the war is juxtaposed with peace and/or the beauty of nature. Find
examples of this juxtaposition and consider how they contribute to one or more of O’Brien’s
purposes. Use the table below to help organize your examples.

Beauty/Peace Violence/Brutality

Effect of these contrasts/juxtapositions?

Name: ____________________________________________ Period: ____ Date: ________________
“Love” and “Spin”
Steps:
1) In groups, select three questions you would like to discuss.
2) Individually, write a response to each question. Try to point to
specific examples in the text when writing your response.
3) When finished, discuss in groups. Afterwards, we will discuss as a
class.

Question Number: ___

Response 1: ________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Question Number: ___
Response 2: ________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Question Number: ___
Response 3: ________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Name: _______________________________________________ Period: ___ Date: ______________
Passage Analysis – “Love” and “Spin”
Directions: Closely read each excerpt from The Things They Carried. Next, examine O’Brien’s
diction, language, syntax, and any other rhetorical decision within the excerpt. Connect these decisions
to O’Brien’s purpose. Use analytical verbs in your analysis.

“The marched for the sake of the march. They plodded along slowly, dumbly, leaning forward
against the heat, unthinking, all blood and bone, simple grunts, soldiering with their legs, toiling up
the hills and down into the paddies and across the rivers and up again and down, just humping, one
step and then the next and then another, but no volition, no will, because it was automatic, it was
anatomy, and the war was entirely a matter of posture and carriage, the hump was everything, a kind
of inertia, a king of emptiness, a dullness of desire and intellect and conscience and hope and
human sensibility.” (O’Brien 14)

To begin, O’Brien establishes the seemingly This passage is all one sentence. O’Brien constructs a
purposeless actions the soldiers must endure. long sentence with multiple clauses, expressing the
As the passage progresses, he reduces the monotony and redundancy of their march. After
soldiers to “all blood and bone,” “simple describing the soldiers in almost lifeless terms, he
grunts,” who trod “dumbly.” These descriptions ends with an emphasis on the humanity that is
serve as a contrast to the romantic perspectives stripped from the soldiers through the process of the
of warfare and heroism. march. This emptiness and lack of purpose contrasts
with more romantic versions of warfare, thereby
dispelling romantic notions of war during Vietnam.

1) “But it was a strange boredom. It was a boredom with a twist, the kind of boredom that caused
stomach disorders . . . . You’d try to relax. You’d uncurl your fists and let your thoughts go. Well,
you’d think, this isn’t so bad. And right then you’d hear gunfire behind you and your nuts would
fly up into your throat and you’d be squealing pig squeals. That kind of boredom.” (O’Brien 33)
2) “You’re pinned down in some filthy hellhole of a paddy, getting your ass delivered to kingdom
come, but then for a few seconds everything goes quiet and you look up and see the sun and a few
puffy white clouds, and the immense serenity flashes against your eyeballs—the whole world gets
rearranged—and even though you’re pinned down by a war you never felt more at peace.”
(O’Brien 34)

Reading Questions:
1) Examine the buildup of the first passage to the final sentence. What is the effect of the different
tones in these sentences?
2) In the second passage, what might O’Brien’s purpose be in detailing the peaceful parts of
Vietnam mixed with the violence and helplessness of the soldiers’ situations?
3) Review the two quotes above once more. Examine the word choice (diction). In the chart
below, list words with similar connotation and write an adjective or descriptive phrase to
categorize these words.
Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase

EX: From Thatcher Prompt

Words connected to injury and

healing (to characterize Reagan
as . . . )

Words: Words: Words:

Mend

Wounded

Restore

Invigorating
Name: _______________________________________________ Period: ___ Date: ______________
Passage Analysis – “Love” and “Spin”
Directions: Find two quotes from this section that you find both meaningful and connect to each other
in some significant manner. Examine O’Brien’s diction, language, syntax, and any other rhetorical
decision within each quote. Connect these decisions to O’Brien’s purpose. Use analytical verbs in your
analysis, and then consider the connections between the two quotes.

1)

2)
Reading Questions:
1) Review the two quotes above once more. Examine the word choice (diction). In the chart
below, list words with similar connotation and write an adjective or descriptive phrase to
categorize these words.

Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase

Words: Words: Words:

Connotation(s): Connotation(s): Connotation(s):

2) Examine the connections between these two quotes and their overall purpose. What are these
connections and how do they contribute to O’Brien’s overall purpose? Do they provide a
contrast? Further characterization? Theme? Something else? Write your response below:
Thesis Statement: Write a thesis analyzing the decisions O’Brien makes to achieve a central purpose.

Body Paragraph: Write an assertion followed by embedded evidence and commentary in the style of a rhetorical
analysis body paragraph.
Thesis Statement: Write a thesis analyzing the decisions O’Brien makes to achieve a central purpose.

Body Paragraph: Write an assertion followed by embedded evidence and commentary in the style of a rhetorical
analysis body paragraph.
 Chapters - “Love” and “Spin”
Quote from O’Brien:

“ . . . and I didn’t meet any communists out there preaching Marxism, and Engels — you met poor
people who were trying to stay alive and feed their families and themselves, and where they may have
been indifferent 10 years before, they weren’t indifferent anymore, nor would anyone else be. It was
the way to lose a war. Because you take people out of their houses and you move them. And big
aggregates of people, and you boss them around, and you call all the shots, and you beat up on people,
and you trash everything that could be trashed — all in the name of searching for the enemy. The
consequences are you make enemies. You may kill a few Vietcong along the way, but you are making
enemies — just imagine one baby being shot by accident — it’s got a mother and a father and an uncle
and aunt and friends and brothers and sisters — and they may have been indifferent before that baby
died, but they’re not indifferent anymore and nor would you or anyone else.” (Interview with PBS)

Essential Terminology:
Batangan Peninsula – A heavily mined area in USO – United Service Organization –
Vietnam; was a Vietcong stronghold organization that aimed at raising the troop’s
morale through entertainment
GI – “Government Issue” – a soldier Poppa-san – Slang for an elderly Vietnamese
man
AWOL – Absent without Leave (gone without Paddy – A rice field
official permission)

Motifs/Major Ideas and Objects: Photographs, Memories, Talismans and Superstition, Nature
Guiding Questions:
1) Examine the titles of these two chapters. How do the titles connect to the content?
2) These two chapters provide time shifts. We see Jimmy Cross and O’Brien not as young soldiers
but now as older men reflecting on their experiences. What is the effect of this time shift?
3) Many of the chapters connect. The story is not a simple linear plot, but it bounces around. Each
chapter provides another layer and angle to various stories embedded within the novel. How do
“The Things They Carried,” “Love,” and “Spin” connect and offer different layers and angles
to the story?
4) Read the quote above by O’Brien. How do details ring true in his stories?
5) How has the Vietnam War still stuck with Jimmy Cross and Tim O’Brien?
6) In “Spin,” O’Brien details inhumane actions of some of the soldiers. What are some of these
actions? What might O’Brien’s purpose be in detailing
these events?
7) How does O’Brien dispel some romantic views of war in
these two chapters?
8) Examine each character. How do they differ? In what
ways do they adapt to or try to cope with their situations?
Some to consider: Azar, Ted Lavender, Kiowa, Jimmy
Cross.
9) Examine tone. What is O’Brien’s tone when reflecting on
the war in “Love” and detailing the soldiers’ burdens in
“The Things They Carried”? How might these different
 tones connect to O’Brien’s purpose in each of these chapters?
10) O’Brien includes episodes where the war wasn’t always the “bad stuff.” What purpose does
O’Brien’s outlining of more humorous or lighthearted events serve?
11) O’Brien devotes time to examining how his memory functions when thinking back on the war.
Review his descriptions of memory. Should we doubt his recollections?
12) What is the function of stories according to O’Brien?
13) Examine how the violence of the war is juxtaposed with peace and/or the beauty of nature. Find
examples of this juxtaposition and consider how they contribute to one or more of O’Brien’s
purposes. Use the table below to help organize your examples.

Beauty/Peace Violence/Brutality

Effect of these contrasts/juxtapositions?

Name: ____________________________________________ Period: ____ Date: ________________
“Love” and “Spin”
Steps:
1) In groups, select three questions you would like to discuss.
2) Individually, write a response to each question. Try to point to
specific examples in the text when writing your response.
3) When finished, discuss in groups. Afterwards, we will discuss as a
class.

Question Number: ___

Response 1: ________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Question Number: ___
Response 2: ________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Question Number: ___
Response 3: ________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Name: _______________________________________________ Period: ___ Date: ______________
Passage Analysis – “Love” and “Spin”
Directions: Closely read each excerpt from The Things They Carried. Next, examine O’Brien’s
diction, language, syntax, and any other rhetorical decision within the excerpt. Connect these decisions
to O’Brien’s purpose. Use analytical verbs in your analysis.

“The marched for the sake of the march. They plodded along slowly, dumbly, leaning forward
against the heat, unthinking, all blood and bone, simple grunts, soldiering with their legs, toiling up
the hills and down into the paddies and across the rivers and up again and down, just humping, one
step and then the next and then another, but no volition, no will, because it was automatic, it was
anatomy, and the war was entirely a matter of posture and carriage, the hump was everything, a kind
of inertia, a king of emptiness, a dullness of desire and intellect and conscience and hope and
human sensibility.” (O’Brien 14)

To begin, O’Brien establishes the seemingly This passage is all one sentence. O’Brien constructs a
purposeless actions the soldiers must endure. long sentence with multiple clauses, expressing the
As the passage progresses, he reduces the monotony and redundancy of their march. After
soldiers to “all blood and bone,” “simple describing the soldiers in almost lifeless terms, he
grunts,” who trod “dumbly.” These descriptions ends with an emphasis on the humanity that is
serve as a contrast to the romantic perspectives stripped from the soldiers through the process of the
of warfare and heroism. march. This emptiness and lack of purpose contrasts
with more romantic versions of warfare, thereby
dispelling romantic notions of war during Vietnam.

1) “But it was a strange boredom. It was a boredom with a twist, the kind of boredom that caused
stomach disorders . . . . You’d try to relax. You’d uncurl your fists and let your thoughts go. Well,
you’d think, this isn’t so bad. And right then you’d hear gunfire behind you and your nuts would
fly up into your throat and you’d be squealing pig squeals. That kind of boredom.” (O’Brien 33)
2) “You’re pinned down in some filthy hellhole of a paddy, getting your ass delivered to kingdom
come, but then for a few seconds everything goes quiet and you look up and see the sun and a few
puffy white clouds, and the immense serenity flashes against your eyeballs—the whole world gets
rearranged—and even though you’re pinned down by a war you never felt more at peace.”
(O’Brien 34)

Reading Questions:
1) Examine the buildup of the first passage to the final sentence. What is the effect of the different
tones in these sentences?
2) In the second passage, what might O’Brien’s purpose be in detailing the peaceful parts of
Vietnam mixed with the violence and helplessness of the soldiers’ situations?
3) Review the two quotes above once more. Examine the word choice (diction). In the chart
below, list words with similar connotation and write an adjective or descriptive phrase to
categorize these words.
Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase

EX: From Thatcher Prompt

Words connected to injury and

healing (to characterize Reagan
as . . . )

Words: Words: Words:

Mend

Wounded

Restore

Invigorating
Name: _______________________________________________ Period: ___ Date: ______________
Passage Analysis – “Love” and “Spin”
Directions: Find two quotes from this section that you find both meaningful and connect to each other
in some significant manner. Examine O’Brien’s diction, language, syntax, and any other rhetorical
decision within each quote. Connect these decisions to O’Brien’s purpose. Use analytical verbs in your
analysis, and then consider the connections between the two quotes.

1)

2)
Reading Questions:
1) Review the two quotes above once more. Examine the word choice (diction). In the chart
below, list words with similar connotation and write an adjective or descriptive phrase to
categorize these words.

Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase

Words: Words: Words:

Connotation(s): Connotation(s): Connotation(s):

2) Examine the connections between these two quotes and their overall purpose. What are these
connections and how do they contribute to O’Brien’s overall purpose? Do they provide a
contrast? Further characterization? Theme? Something else? Write your response below:
Thesis Statement: Write a thesis analyzing the decisions O’Brien makes to achieve a central purpose.

Body Paragraph: Write an assertion followed by embedded evidence and commentary in the style of a rhetorical
analysis body paragraph.
Thesis Statement: Write a thesis analyzing the decisions O’Brien makes to achieve a central purpose.

Body Paragraph: Write an assertion followed by embedded evidence and commentary in the style of a rhetorical
analysis body paragraph.
 Chapters - “Love” and “Spin”
Quote from O’Brien:

“ . . . and I didn’t meet any communists out there preaching Marxism, and Engels — you met poor
people who were trying to stay alive and feed their families and themselves, and where they may have
been indifferent 10 years before, they weren’t indifferent anymore, nor would anyone else be. It was
the way to lose a war. Because you take people out of their houses and you move them. And big
aggregates of people, and you boss them around, and you call all the shots, and you beat up on people,
and you trash everything that could be trashed — all in the name of searching for the enemy. The
consequences are you make enemies. You may kill a few Vietcong along the way, but you are making
enemies — just imagine one baby being shot by accident — it’s got a mother and a father and an uncle
and aunt and friends and brothers and sisters — and they may have been indifferent before that baby
died, but they’re not indifferent anymore and nor would you or anyone else.” (Interview with PBS)

Essential Terminology:
Batangan Peninsula – A heavily mined area in USO – United Service Organization –
Vietnam; was a Vietcong stronghold organization that aimed at raising the troop’s
morale through entertainment
GI – “Government Issue” – a soldier Poppa-san – Slang for an elderly Vietnamese
man
AWOL – Absent without Leave (gone without Paddy – A rice field
official permission)

Motifs/Major Ideas and Objects: Photographs, Memories, Talismans and Superstition, Nature
Guiding Questions:
1) Examine the titles of these two chapters. How do the titles connect to the content?
2) These two chapters provide time shifts. We see Jimmy Cross and O’Brien not as young soldiers
but now as older men reflecting on their experiences. What is the effect of this time shift?
3) Many of the chapters connect. The story is not a simple linear plot, but it bounces around. Each
chapter provides another layer and angle to various stories embedded within the novel. How do
“The Things They Carried,” “Love,” and “Spin” connect and offer different layers and angles
to the story?
4) Read the quote above by O’Brien. How do details ring true in his stories?
5) How has the Vietnam War still stuck with Jimmy Cross and Tim O’Brien?
6) In “Spin,” O’Brien details inhumane actions of some of the soldiers. What are some of these
actions? What might O’Brien’s purpose be in detailing
these events?
7) How does O’Brien dispel some romantic views of war in
these two chapters?
8) Examine each character. How do they differ? In what
ways do they adapt to or try to cope with their situations?
Some to consider: Azar, Ted Lavender, Kiowa, Jimmy
Cross.
9) Examine tone. What is O’Brien’s tone when reflecting on
the war in “Love” and detailing the soldiers’ burdens in
“The Things They Carried”? How might these different
 tones connect to O’Brien’s purpose in each of these chapters?
10) O’Brien includes episodes where the war wasn’t always the “bad stuff.” What purpose does
O’Brien’s outlining of more humorous or lighthearted events serve?
11) O’Brien devotes time to examining how his memory functions when thinking back on the war.
Review his descriptions of memory. Should we doubt his recollections?
12) What is the function of stories according to O’Brien?
13) Examine how the violence of the war is juxtaposed with peace and/or the beauty of nature. Find
examples of this juxtaposition and consider how they contribute to one or more of O’Brien’s
purposes. Use the table below to help organize your examples.

Beauty/Peace Violence/Brutality

Effect of these contrasts/juxtapositions?

Name: ____________________________________________ Period: ____ Date: ________________
“Love” and “Spin”
Steps:
1) In groups, select three questions you would like to discuss.
2) Individually, write a response to each question. Try to point to
specific examples in the text when writing your response.
3) When finished, discuss in groups. Afterwards, we will discuss as a
class.

Question Number: ___

Response 1: ________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Question Number: ___
Response 2: ________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Question Number: ___
Response 3: ________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Name: _______________________________________________ Period: ___ Date: ______________
Passage Analysis – “Love” and “Spin”
Directions: Closely read each excerpt from The Things They Carried. Next, examine O’Brien’s
diction, language, syntax, and any other rhetorical decision within the excerpt. Connect these decisions
to O’Brien’s purpose. Use analytical verbs in your analysis.

“The marched for the sake of the march. They plodded along slowly, dumbly, leaning forward
against the heat, unthinking, all blood and bone, simple grunts, soldiering with their legs, toiling up
the hills and down into the paddies and across the rivers and up again and down, just humping, one
step and then the next and then another, but no volition, no will, because it was automatic, it was
anatomy, and the war was entirely a matter of posture and carriage, the hump was everything, a kind
of inertia, a king of emptiness, a dullness of desire and intellect and conscience and hope and
human sensibility.” (O’Brien 14)

To begin, O’Brien establishes the seemingly This passage is all one sentence. O’Brien constructs a
purposeless actions the soldiers must endure. long sentence with multiple clauses, expressing the
As the passage progresses, he reduces the monotony and redundancy of their march. After
soldiers to “all blood and bone,” “simple describing the soldiers in almost lifeless terms, he
grunts,” who trod “dumbly.” These descriptions ends with an emphasis on the humanity that is
serve as a contrast to the romantic perspectives stripped from the soldiers through the process of the
of warfare and heroism. march. This emptiness and lack of purpose contrasts
with more romantic versions of warfare, thereby
dispelling romantic notions of war during Vietnam.

1) “But it was a strange boredom. It was a boredom with a twist, the kind of boredom that caused
stomach disorders . . . . You’d try to relax. You’d uncurl your fists and let your thoughts go. Well,
you’d think, this isn’t so bad. And right then you’d hear gunfire behind you and your nuts would
fly up into your throat and you’d be squealing pig squeals. That kind of boredom.” (O’Brien 33)
2) “You’re pinned down in some filthy hellhole of a paddy, getting your ass delivered to kingdom
come, but then for a few seconds everything goes quiet and you look up and see the sun and a few
puffy white clouds, and the immense serenity flashes against your eyeballs—the whole world gets
rearranged—and even though you’re pinned down by a war you never felt more at peace.”
(O’Brien 34)

Reading Questions:
1) Examine the buildup of the first passage to the final sentence. What is the effect of the different
tones in these sentences?
2) In the second passage, what might O’Brien’s purpose be in detailing the peaceful parts of
Vietnam mixed with the violence and helplessness of the soldiers’ situations?
3) Review the two quotes above once more. Examine the word choice (diction). In the chart
below, list words with similar connotation and write an adjective or descriptive phrase to
categorize these words.
Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase

EX: From Thatcher Prompt

Words connected to injury and

healing (to characterize Reagan
as . . . )

Words: Words: Words:

Mend

Wounded

Restore

Invigorating
Name: _______________________________________________ Period: ___ Date: ______________
Passage Analysis – “Love” and “Spin”
Directions: Find two quotes from this section that you find both meaningful and connect to each other
in some significant manner. Examine O’Brien’s diction, language, syntax, and any other rhetorical
decision within each quote. Connect these decisions to O’Brien’s purpose. Use analytical verbs in your
analysis, and then consider the connections between the two quotes.

1)

2)
Reading Questions:
1) Review the two quotes above once more. Examine the word choice (diction). In the chart
below, list words with similar connotation and write an adjective or descriptive phrase to
categorize these words.

Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase

Words: Words: Words:

Connotation(s): Connotation(s): Connotation(s):

2) Examine the connections between these two quotes and their overall purpose. What are these
connections and how do they contribute to O’Brien’s overall purpose? Do they provide a
contrast? Further characterization? Theme? Something else? Write your response below:
Thesis Statement: Write a thesis analyzing the decisions O’Brien makes to achieve a central purpose.

Body Paragraph: Write an assertion followed by embedded evidence and commentary in the style of a rhetorical
analysis body paragraph.
Thesis Statement: Write a thesis analyzing the decisions O’Brien makes to achieve a central purpose.

Body Paragraph: Write an assertion followed by embedded evidence and commentary in the style of a rhetorical
analysis body paragraph.
 Chapters - “Love” and “Spin”
Quote from O’Brien:

“ . . . and I didn’t meet any communists out there preaching Marxism, and Engels — you met poor
people who were trying to stay alive and feed their families and themselves, and where they may have
been indifferent 10 years before, they weren’t indifferent anymore, nor would anyone else be. It was
the way to lose a war. Because you take people out of their houses and you move them. And big
aggregates of people, and you boss them around, and you call all the shots, and you beat up on people,
and you trash everything that could be trashed — all in the name of searching for the enemy. The
consequences are you make enemies. You may kill a few Vietcong along the way, but you are making
enemies — just imagine one baby being shot by accident — it’s got a mother and a father and an uncle
and aunt and friends and brothers and sisters — and they may have been indifferent before that baby
died, but they’re not indifferent anymore and nor would you or anyone else.” (Interview with PBS)

Essential Terminology:
Batangan Peninsula – A heavily mined area in USO – United Service Organization –
Vietnam; was a Vietcong stronghold organization that aimed at raising the troop’s
morale through entertainment
GI – “Government Issue” – a soldier Poppa-san – Slang for an elderly Vietnamese
man
AWOL – Absent without Leave (gone without Paddy – A rice field
official permission)

Motifs/Major Ideas and Objects: Photographs, Memories, Talismans and Superstition, Nature
Guiding Questions:
1) Examine the titles of these two chapters. How do the titles connect to the content?
2) These two chapters provide time shifts. We see Jimmy Cross and O’Brien not as young soldiers
but now as older men reflecting on their experiences. What is the effect of this time shift?
3) Many of the chapters connect. The story is not a simple linear plot, but it bounces around. Each
chapter provides another layer and angle to various stories embedded within the novel. How do
“The Things They Carried,” “Love,” and “Spin” connect and offer different layers and angles
to the story?
4) Read the quote above by O’Brien. How do details ring true in his stories?
5) How has the Vietnam War still stuck with Jimmy Cross and Tim O’Brien?
6) In “Spin,” O’Brien details inhumane actions of some of the soldiers. What are some of these
actions? What might O’Brien’s purpose be in detailing
these events?
7) How does O’Brien dispel some romantic views of war in
these two chapters?
8) Examine each character. How do they differ? In what
ways do they adapt to or try to cope with their situations?
Some to consider: Azar, Ted Lavender, Kiowa, Jimmy
Cross.
9) Examine tone. What is O’Brien’s tone when reflecting on
the war in “Love” and detailing the soldiers’ burdens in
“The Things They Carried”? How might these different
 tones connect to O’Brien’s purpose in each of these chapters?
10) O’Brien includes episodes where the war wasn’t always the “bad stuff.” What purpose does
O’Brien’s outlining of more humorous or lighthearted events serve?
11) O’Brien devotes time to examining how his memory functions when thinking back on the war.
Review his descriptions of memory. Should we doubt his recollections?
12) What is the function of stories according to O’Brien?
13) Examine how the violence of the war is juxtaposed with peace and/or the beauty of nature. Find
examples of this juxtaposition and consider how they contribute to one or more of O’Brien’s
purposes. Use the table below to help organize your examples.

Beauty/Peace Violence/Brutality

Effect of these contrasts/juxtapositions?

Name: ____________________________________________ Period: ____ Date: ________________
“Love” and “Spin”
Steps:
1) In groups, select three questions you would like to discuss.
2) Individually, write a response to each question. Try to point to
specific examples in the text when writing your response.
3) When finished, discuss in groups. Afterwards, we will discuss as a
class.

Question Number: ___

Response 1: ________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Question Number: ___
Response 2: ________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Question Number: ___
Response 3: ________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Name: _______________________________________________ Period: ___ Date: ______________
Passage Analysis – “Love” and “Spin”
Directions: Closely read each excerpt from The Things They Carried. Next, examine O’Brien’s
diction, language, syntax, and any other rhetorical decision within the excerpt. Connect these decisions
to O’Brien’s purpose. Use analytical verbs in your analysis.

“The marched for the sake of the march. They plodded along slowly, dumbly, leaning forward
against the heat, unthinking, all blood and bone, simple grunts, soldiering with their legs, toiling up
the hills and down into the paddies and across the rivers and up again and down, just humping, one
step and then the next and then another, but no volition, no will, because it was automatic, it was
anatomy, and the war was entirely a matter of posture and carriage, the hump was everything, a kind
of inertia, a king of emptiness, a dullness of desire and intellect and conscience and hope and
human sensibility.” (O’Brien 14)

To begin, O’Brien establishes the seemingly This passage is all one sentence. O’Brien constructs a
purposeless actions the soldiers must endure. long sentence with multiple clauses, expressing the
As the passage progresses, he reduces the monotony and redundancy of their march. After
soldiers to “all blood and bone,” “simple describing the soldiers in almost lifeless terms, he
grunts,” who trod “dumbly.” These descriptions ends with an emphasis on the humanity that is
serve as a contrast to the romantic perspectives stripped from the soldiers through the process of the
of warfare and heroism. march. This emptiness and lack of purpose contrasts
with more romantic versions of warfare, thereby
dispelling romantic notions of war during Vietnam.

1) “But it was a strange boredom. It was a boredom with a twist, the kind of boredom that caused
stomach disorders . . . . You’d try to relax. You’d uncurl your fists and let your thoughts go. Well,
you’d think, this isn’t so bad. And right then you’d hear gunfire behind you and your nuts would
fly up into your throat and you’d be squealing pig squeals. That kind of boredom.” (O’Brien 33)
2) “You’re pinned down in some filthy hellhole of a paddy, getting your ass delivered to kingdom
come, but then for a few seconds everything goes quiet and you look up and see the sun and a few
puffy white clouds, and the immense serenity flashes against your eyeballs—the whole world gets
rearranged—and even though you’re pinned down by a war you never felt more at peace.”
(O’Brien 34)

Reading Questions:
1) Examine the buildup of the first passage to the final sentence. What is the effect of the different
tones in these sentences?
2) In the second passage, what might O’Brien’s purpose be in detailing the peaceful parts of
Vietnam mixed with the violence and helplessness of the soldiers’ situations?
3) Review the two quotes above once more. Examine the word choice (diction). In the chart
below, list words with similar connotation and write an adjective or descriptive phrase to
categorize these words.
Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase

EX: From Thatcher Prompt

Words connected to injury and

healing (to characterize Reagan
as . . . )

Words: Words: Words:

Mend

Wounded

Restore

Invigorating
Name: _______________________________________________ Period: ___ Date: ______________
Passage Analysis – “Love” and “Spin”
Directions: Find two quotes from this section that you find both meaningful and connect to each other
in some significant manner. Examine O’Brien’s diction, language, syntax, and any other rhetorical
decision within each quote. Connect these decisions to O’Brien’s purpose. Use analytical verbs in your
analysis, and then consider the connections between the two quotes.

1)

2)
Reading Questions:
1) Review the two quotes above once more. Examine the word choice (diction). In the chart
below, list words with similar connotation and write an adjective or descriptive phrase to
categorize these words.

Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase

Words: Words: Words:

Connotation(s): Connotation(s): Connotation(s):

2) Examine the connections between these two quotes and their overall purpose. What are these
connections and how do they contribute to O’Brien’s overall purpose? Do they provide a
contrast? Further characterization? Theme? Something else? Write your response below:
Thesis Statement: Write a thesis analyzing the decisions O’Brien makes to achieve a central purpose.

Body Paragraph: Write an assertion followed by embedded evidence and commentary in the style of a rhetorical
analysis body paragraph.
Thesis Statement: Write a thesis analyzing the decisions O’Brien makes to achieve a central purpose.

Body Paragraph: Write an assertion followed by embedded evidence and commentary in the style of a rhetorical
analysis body paragraph.
 Chapters - “Love” and “Spin”
Quote from O’Brien:

“ . . . and I didn’t meet any communists out there preaching Marxism, and Engels — you met poor
people who were trying to stay alive and feed their families and themselves, and where they may have
been indifferent 10 years before, they weren’t indifferent anymore, nor would anyone else be. It was
the way to lose a war. Because you take people out of their houses and you move them. And big
aggregates of people, and you boss them around, and you call all the shots, and you beat up on people,
and you trash everything that could be trashed — all in the name of searching for the enemy. The
consequences are you make enemies. You may kill a few Vietcong along the way, but you are making
enemies — just imagine one baby being shot by accident — it’s got a mother and a father and an uncle
and aunt and friends and brothers and sisters — and they may have been indifferent before that baby
died, but they’re not indifferent anymore and nor would you or anyone else.” (Interview with PBS)

Essential Terminology:
Batangan Peninsula – A heavily mined area in USO – United Service Organization –
Vietnam; was a Vietcong stronghold organization that aimed at raising the troop’s
morale through entertainment
GI – “Government Issue” – a soldier Poppa-san – Slang for an elderly Vietnamese
man
AWOL – Absent without Leave (gone without Paddy – A rice field
official permission)

Motifs/Major Ideas and Objects: Photographs, Memories, Talismans and Superstition, Nature
Guiding Questions:
1) Examine the titles of these two chapters. How do the titles connect to the content?
2) These two chapters provide time shifts. We see Jimmy Cross and O’Brien not as young soldiers
but now as older men reflecting on their experiences. What is the effect of this time shift?
3) Many of the chapters connect. The story is not a simple linear plot, but it bounces around. Each
chapter provides another layer and angle to various stories embedded within the novel. How do
“The Things They Carried,” “Love,” and “Spin” connect and offer different layers and angles
to the story?
4) Read the quote above by O’Brien. How do details ring true in his stories?
5) How has the Vietnam War still stuck with Jimmy Cross and Tim O’Brien?
6) In “Spin,” O’Brien details inhumane actions of some of the soldiers. What are some of these
actions? What might O’Brien’s purpose be in detailing
these events?
7) How does O’Brien dispel some romantic views of war in
these two chapters?
8) Examine each character. How do they differ? In what
ways do they adapt to or try to cope with their situations?
Some to consider: Azar, Ted Lavender, Kiowa, Jimmy
Cross.
9) Examine tone. What is O’Brien’s tone when reflecting on
the war in “Love” and detailing the soldiers’ burdens in
“The Things They Carried”? How might these different
 tones connect to O’Brien’s purpose in each of these chapters?
10) O’Brien includes episodes where the war wasn’t always the “bad stuff.” What purpose does
O’Brien’s outlining of more humorous or lighthearted events serve?
11) O’Brien devotes time to examining how his memory functions when thinking back on the war.
Review his descriptions of memory. Should we doubt his recollections?
12) What is the function of stories according to O’Brien?
13) Examine how the violence of the war is juxtaposed with peace and/or the beauty of nature. Find
examples of this juxtaposition and consider how they contribute to one or more of O’Brien’s
purposes. Use the table below to help organize your examples.

Beauty/Peace Violence/Brutality

Effect of these contrasts/juxtapositions?

Name: ____________________________________________ Period: ____ Date: ________________
“Love” and “Spin”
Steps:
1) In groups, select three questions you would like to discuss.
2) Individually, write a response to each question. Try to point to
specific examples in the text when writing your response.
3) When finished, discuss in groups. Afterwards, we will discuss as a
class.

Question Number: ___

Response 1: ________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Question Number: ___
Response 2: ________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Question Number: ___
Response 3: ________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Name: _______________________________________________ Period: ___ Date: ______________
Passage Analysis – “Love” and “Spin”
Directions: Closely read each excerpt from The Things They Carried. Next, examine O’Brien’s
diction, language, syntax, and any other rhetorical decision within the excerpt. Connect these decisions
to O’Brien’s purpose. Use analytical verbs in your analysis.

“The marched for the sake of the march. They plodded along slowly, dumbly, leaning forward
against the heat, unthinking, all blood and bone, simple grunts, soldiering with their legs, toiling up
the hills and down into the paddies and across the rivers and up again and down, just humping, one
step and then the next and then another, but no volition, no will, because it was automatic, it was
anatomy, and the war was entirely a matter of posture and carriage, the hump was everything, a kind
of inertia, a king of emptiness, a dullness of desire and intellect and conscience and hope and
human sensibility.” (O’Brien 14)

To begin, O’Brien establishes the seemingly This passage is all one sentence. O’Brien constructs a
purposeless actions the soldiers must endure. long sentence with multiple clauses, expressing the
As the passage progresses, he reduces the monotony and redundancy of their march. After
soldiers to “all blood and bone,” “simple describing the soldiers in almost lifeless terms, he
grunts,” who trod “dumbly.” These descriptions ends with an emphasis on the humanity that is
serve as a contrast to the romantic perspectives stripped from the soldiers through the process of the
of warfare and heroism. march. This emptiness and lack of purpose contrasts
with more romantic versions of warfare, thereby
dispelling romantic notions of war during Vietnam.

1) “But it was a strange boredom. It was a boredom with a twist, the kind of boredom that caused
stomach disorders . . . . You’d try to relax. You’d uncurl your fists and let your thoughts go. Well,
you’d think, this isn’t so bad. And right then you’d hear gunfire behind you and your nuts would
fly up into your throat and you’d be squealing pig squeals. That kind of boredom.” (O’Brien 33)
2) “You’re pinned down in some filthy hellhole of a paddy, getting your ass delivered to kingdom
come, but then for a few seconds everything goes quiet and you look up and see the sun and a few
puffy white clouds, and the immense serenity flashes against your eyeballs—the whole world gets
rearranged—and even though you’re pinned down by a war you never felt more at peace.”
(O’Brien 34)

Reading Questions:
1) Examine the buildup of the first passage to the final sentence. What is the effect of the different
tones in these sentences?
2) In the second passage, what might O’Brien’s purpose be in detailing the peaceful parts of
Vietnam mixed with the violence and helplessness of the soldiers’ situations?
3) Review the two quotes above once more. Examine the word choice (diction). In the chart
below, list words with similar connotation and write an adjective or descriptive phrase to
categorize these words.
Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase

EX: From Thatcher Prompt

Words connected to injury and

healing (to characterize Reagan
as . . . )

Words: Words: Words:

Mend

Wounded

Restore

Invigorating
Name: _______________________________________________ Period: ___ Date: ______________
Passage Analysis – “Love” and “Spin”
Directions: Find two quotes from this section that you find both meaningful and connect to each other
in some significant manner. Examine O’Brien’s diction, language, syntax, and any other rhetorical
decision within each quote. Connect these decisions to O’Brien’s purpose. Use analytical verbs in your
analysis, and then consider the connections between the two quotes.

1)

2)
Reading Questions:
1) Review the two quotes above once more. Examine the word choice (diction). In the chart
below, list words with similar connotation and write an adjective or descriptive phrase to
categorize these words.

Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase

Words: Words: Words:

Connotation(s): Connotation(s): Connotation(s):

2) Examine the connections between these two quotes and their overall purpose. What are these
connections and how do they contribute to O’Brien’s overall purpose? Do they provide a
contrast? Further characterization? Theme? Something else? Write your response below:
Thesis Statement: Write a thesis analyzing the decisions O’Brien makes to achieve a central purpose.

Body Paragraph: Write an assertion followed by embedded evidence and commentary in the style of a rhetorical
analysis body paragraph.
Thesis Statement: Write a thesis analyzing the decisions O’Brien makes to achieve a central purpose.

Body Paragraph: Write an assertion followed by embedded evidence and commentary in the style of a rhetorical
analysis body paragraph.
 Chapters - “Love” and “Spin”
Quote from O’Brien:

“ . . . and I didn’t meet any communists out there preaching Marxism, and Engels — you met poor
people who were trying to stay alive and feed their families and themselves, and where they may have
been indifferent 10 years before, they weren’t indifferent anymore, nor would anyone else be. It was
the way to lose a war. Because you take people out of their houses and you move them. And big
aggregates of people, and you boss them around, and you call all the shots, and you beat up on people,
and you trash everything that could be trashed — all in the name of searching for the enemy. The
consequences are you make enemies. You may kill a few Vietcong along the way, but you are making
enemies — just imagine one baby being shot by accident — it’s got a mother and a father and an uncle
and aunt and friends and brothers and sisters — and they may have been indifferent before that baby
died, but they’re not indifferent anymore and nor would you or anyone else.” (Interview with PBS)

Essential Terminology:
Batangan Peninsula – A heavily mined area in USO – United Service Organization –
Vietnam; was a Vietcong stronghold organization that aimed at raising the troop’s
morale through entertainment
GI – “Government Issue” – a soldier Poppa-san – Slang for an elderly Vietnamese
man
AWOL – Absent without Leave (gone without Paddy – A rice field
official permission)

Motifs/Major Ideas and Objects: Photographs, Memories, Talismans and Superstition, Nature
Guiding Questions:
1) Examine the titles of these two chapters. How do the titles connect to the content?
2) These two chapters provide time shifts. We see Jimmy Cross and O’Brien not as young soldiers
but now as older men reflecting on their experiences. What is the effect of this time shift?
3) Many of the chapters connect. The story is not a simple linear plot, but it bounces around. Each
chapter provides another layer and angle to various stories embedded within the novel. How do
“The Things They Carried,” “Love,” and “Spin” connect and offer different layers and angles
to the story?
4) Read the quote above by O’Brien. How do details ring true in his stories?
5) How has the Vietnam War still stuck with Jimmy Cross and Tim O’Brien?
6) In “Spin,” O’Brien details inhumane actions of some of the soldiers. What are some of these
actions? What might O’Brien’s purpose be in detailing
these events?
7) How does O’Brien dispel some romantic views of war in
these two chapters?
8) Examine each character. How do they differ? In what
ways do they adapt to or try to cope with their situations?
Some to consider: Azar, Ted Lavender, Kiowa, Jimmy
Cross.
9) Examine tone. What is O’Brien’s tone when reflecting on
the war in “Love” and detailing the soldiers’ burdens in
“The Things They Carried”? How might these different
 tones connect to O’Brien’s purpose in each of these chapters?
10) O’Brien includes episodes where the war wasn’t always the “bad stuff.” What purpose does
O’Brien’s outlining of more humorous or lighthearted events serve?
11) O’Brien devotes time to examining how his memory functions when thinking back on the war.
Review his descriptions of memory. Should we doubt his recollections?
12) What is the function of stories according to O’Brien?
13) Examine how the violence of the war is juxtaposed with peace and/or the beauty of nature. Find
examples of this juxtaposition and consider how they contribute to one or more of O’Brien’s
purposes. Use the table below to help organize your examples.

Beauty/Peace Violence/Brutality

Effect of these contrasts/juxtapositions?

Name: ____________________________________________ Period: ____ Date: ________________
“Love” and “Spin”
Steps:
1) In groups, select three questions you would like to discuss.
2) Individually, write a response to each question. Try to point to
specific examples in the text when writing your response.
3) When finished, discuss in groups. Afterwards, we will discuss as a
class.

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Name: _______________________________________________ Period: ___ Date: ______________
Passage Analysis – “Love” and “Spin”
Directions: Closely read each excerpt from The Things They Carried. Next, examine O’Brien’s
diction, language, syntax, and any other rhetorical decision within the excerpt. Connect these decisions
to O’Brien’s purpose. Use analytical verbs in your analysis.

“The marched for the sake of the march. They plodded along slowly, dumbly, leaning forward
against the heat, unthinking, all blood and bone, simple grunts, soldiering with their legs, toiling up
the hills and down into the paddies and across the rivers and up again and down, just humping, one
step and then the next and then another, but no volition, no will, because it was automatic, it was
anatomy, and the war was entirely a matter of posture and carriage, the hump was everything, a kind
of inertia, a king of emptiness, a dullness of desire and intellect and conscience and hope and
human sensibility.” (O’Brien 14)

To begin, O’Brien establishes the seemingly This passage is all one sentence. O’Brien constructs a
purposeless actions the soldiers must endure. long sentence with multiple clauses, expressing the
As the passage progresses, he reduces the monotony and redundancy of their march. After
soldiers to “all blood and bone,” “simple describing the soldiers in almost lifeless terms, he
grunts,” who trod “dumbly.” These descriptions ends with an emphasis on the humanity that is
serve as a contrast to the romantic perspectives stripped from the soldiers through the process of the
of warfare and heroism. march. This emptiness and lack of purpose contrasts
with more romantic versions of warfare, thereby
dispelling romantic notions of war during Vietnam.

1) “But it was a strange boredom. It was a boredom with a twist, the kind of boredom that caused
stomach disorders . . . . You’d try to relax. You’d uncurl your fists and let your thoughts go. Well,
you’d think, this isn’t so bad. And right then you’d hear gunfire behind you and your nuts would
fly up into your throat and you’d be squealing pig squeals. That kind of boredom.” (O’Brien 33)
2) “You’re pinned down in some filthy hellhole of a paddy, getting your ass delivered to kingdom
come, but then for a few seconds everything goes quiet and you look up and see the sun and a few
puffy white clouds, and the immense serenity flashes against your eyeballs—the whole world gets
rearranged—and even though you’re pinned down by a war you never felt more at peace.”
(O’Brien 34)

Reading Questions:
1) Examine the buildup of the first passage to the final sentence. What is the effect of the different
tones in these sentences?
2) In the second passage, what might O’Brien’s purpose be in detailing the peaceful parts of
Vietnam mixed with the violence and helplessness of the soldiers’ situations?
3) Review the two quotes above once more. Examine the word choice (diction). In the chart
below, list words with similar connotation and write an adjective or descriptive phrase to
categorize these words.
Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase

EX: From Thatcher Prompt

Words connected to injury and

healing (to characterize Reagan
as . . . )

Words: Words: Words:

Mend

Wounded

Restore

Invigorating
Name: _______________________________________________ Period: ___ Date: ______________
Passage Analysis – “Love” and “Spin”
Directions: Find two quotes from this section that you find both meaningful and connect to each other
in some significant manner. Examine O’Brien’s diction, language, syntax, and any other rhetorical
decision within each quote. Connect these decisions to O’Brien’s purpose. Use analytical verbs in your
analysis, and then consider the connections between the two quotes.

1)

2)
Reading Questions:
1) Review the two quotes above once more. Examine the word choice (diction). In the chart
below, list words with similar connotation and write an adjective or descriptive phrase to
categorize these words.

Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase Adjective/Descriptive Phrase

Words: Words: Words:

Connotation(s): Connotation(s): Connotation(s):

2) Examine the connections between these two quotes and their overall purpose. What are these
connections and how do they contribute to O’Brien’s overall purpose? Do they provide a
contrast? Further characterization? Theme? Something else? Write your response below:
Thesis Statement: Write a thesis analyzing the decisions O’Brien makes to achieve a central purpose.

Body Paragraph: Write an assertion followed by embedded evidence and commentary in the style of a rhetorical
analysis body paragraph.