The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

AoE: Time & Space

IB English HL 1

The purpose of this assignment is to increase your schema in order to help you
understand the nuances of the historical and cultural allusions and context within the
novel. Your goal is to explore each topic through online articles and videos as a form of
investigative research.

The Politics Shrouding the Vietnam War

First, watch these two video clips that show REAL footage from
soldiers in the war and political and social experiences in
America:
● History’s Vietnam in HD Trailer
● Vietnam Introduction

1. What seemed to be the director’s purpose in juxtaposing

scenes of war with a few scenes of American life in the
first video?
To show what the soldiers are fighting for, the capitalist
American way of life that is so very different from the
conditions that the soldiers are experiencing.

2. Pay close attention to J.F.K.’s opening speech in the

second video. Summarize why the U.S. entered the war,
according to the president.
According to JFK, the US entered the war to save South
Vietnam, a free country that was being invaded.

3. What images, details, or themes affected you the most

while watching the videos?
The destruction of the jungle and natural habitat affected me
the most while watching the videos.

Next, visit the BBC website and read their unbiased analysis of
the U.S. and Vietnam conflict. Then answer the following
questions in bullet points:

1. After reviewing the article (primarily Reasons 3-5),

summarize the three main reasons the U.S. entered the
war (Reason #3 is particularly important!):
1. Vietnam was divided and had not held any elections since
the ending of WW2
2. There was a civil war raging within the country
3. The US believed that if Vietnam fell to communism, then
many surrounding Asian countries would do the same and
communism would spread.
4. The Vietnamese government in the south was weak
5. The US was attacked in the Gulf Of Tonkin, giving them a
reason to go to war

2. After reviewing Page 3 of the BBC article, summarize four

or five reasons that America “lost” the war--and made
the rest of the world hate us:
Essentially, Americans were extremely brutal in their efforts to
win. This led to the unintentional destruction of schools,
hospitals, and farmland. Furthermore, some Vietnamese were
forced into strategic hamlets where they were taken away from
their ancestral villages and forced to live under American
jurisdiction.

3. Move on to Page 4 and summarize another three reasons

why the Vietcong “won” the war, despite being extremely
outgunned:
The Vietcong won the war because of their superior tactics and
the fact that they had the support of the common folk.

4. Then, after reading Page 5, bullet point at least five

reasons that the US faced opposition from its own
citizens:
- First televised war, more people saw death and
destruction
- South Vietnam govt was exposed as corrupt
- Got very expensive
- Pacifists became more common due, due in large part to
music
- The mandatory draft greatly upset many americans

5. Last, skim the introductory section of this History article.

Describe TWO things that shock you:
Some U.S. people wanted to use the nuclear option so soon
after Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The use of over 20 million gallons of Agent Orange

 “Live and Let Die” & “Give Peace a Chance”

The Vietnam War officially took place between the years of

1955 and 1975, which encompassed the 1960’s era of
Counterculture and the Civil Rights Movement. It is historically
known as one of the most tumultuous and divisive decades in
U.S. history!

Watch this short Carnegie Hall video and, after doing so,
address the meaning of the commentator's final quote: “If you
don’t look at the history of today through the lens of the 1960’s,
then you can’t really understand it.”
The commentator’s final quote is meaning that the 1960s were
the beginning of so many huge issues that are prevalent even
today, these issues wouldn’t make sense without the context of
the 1960s.

We definitely can’t discuss the 1960’s without delving a little

into the hippie culture, so please watch the quick Hippies
Change a Generation video and summarize THREE new
attitudes that this generation brought to American culture:
1. Drug use should be recreationalized
2. Clothing and fashion does not need to be as boring and
can express individuality
3. The vietnam war was bad and so are all wars.

Next, listen to the Creedence Clearwater Revival’s 1969’s song,

“Fortunate Son”, and explain the main theme of their lyrics in
the context of America’s involvement in the Vietnam War:
The main theme of their lyrics in the context of Americas
involvement in the Vietnam war was that only the poor were
really sent off to war and that people such as senators sons
were not affected by the draft.

If you have good taste in music and are craving some more 60’s
protest songs, here are a few to enjoy:
● Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind”
● John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance”
● Jimi Hendrix’s “All Along the Watchtower”
● The Animal’s “House of the Rising Sun”
● Phil Ochs’ “What are you fighting for?”
 Step into the Shoes of a U.S. Soldier:
The Draft & A Soldier’s Life in Vietnam

Visit the Encyclopedia site and skim through the titled sections
to answer the following questions:

1. In the first section, titled “The American Soldier in

Vietnam,” describe at least four common reactions that
soldiers experienced due to extreme fear and frustration:
Soldiers often experienced anger, fear, frustration, and
vulnerability throughout vietnam.

2. In the second and third sections that describe the draft,

how many men were ultimately selected to serve in the
war? And what type of men were primarily targeted?
About 2.5 million men were selected to serve in the war. The
young and broke were primarily targeted as this was a weak
political group that could not fight for themselves and did not
offer much to American society.

3. Scan the next two sections, titled “Combat Soldier’s

Experience” and “Boredom and Terror,” and bullet point
four reasons YOU definitely wouldn’t have wanted to be
drafted:
- Mosquitos
- Dirty water
- Getting ambushed or walking into a trap
- Boredom followed by terror

4. Skim through the remainder of the article and describe

TWO other pieces of information that you find
important:
“Body Count” and its importance led to the death of many non
combatants

Even the US soliders did not necessarily want to be there

 Tim O’Brien’s Biography

Meet Tim O’Brien (yes, another white dude from Minnesota),

the U.S. soldier whose experiences in Vietnam form the basis
of the novel. Review the following excerpts from the Chicago
Public Library and briefly explain TWO pieces of his bio that
might be important to know before cracking the book:

Award-winning author Tim O’Brien is best known for his fictional

portrayals of the Vietnam conflict. He was born in 1946 in Austin,
Minn., and spent most of his youth in the small town of Worthington,
Minn. He graduated summa cum laude from Macalester College in
1968.

From February 1969 to March 1970 he served as an infantryman with

the U.S. Army in Vietnam, after which he pursued graduate studies in
government at Harvard University. He worked as a national affairs
reporter for The Washington Post from 1973 to 1974.

“My life is storytelling,” O’Brien said in an interview in 1990. “I believe

in stories, in their incredible power to keep people alive, to keep the
living alive, and the dead. And if I have started now to play with the
stories, inside the stories themselves, well, that’s what people do all
the time. Storytelling is the essential human activity. The harder the
situation, the more essential it is. In Vietnam men were constantly
telling one another stories about the war. Our unit lost a lot of guys
around My Lai, but the stories they told stay around after them. I
would be mad not to tell the stories I know.”

He believes that stories are very important so its possible he

may exaggerate

He is likely to be unbiased considering he is clearly an

intellectual (Harvard education)

OPTIONAL: Here are a few critically-acclaimed films that

explore the Vietnam War in more detail, if you’re interested.
However, some scenes are R-Rated, so viewer discretion is
advised:

● Apocalypse Now
● Good Morning, Vietnam
● Forrest Gump