Allyson Lee Mrs Emory English 10 Jan 9 2016 The Things They Carried Notes Chapter 1 The Things They Carried Author often uses the phrase The things they carried Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is in love with a girl named Martha who does not return his affections He often wonders about her obsessively and carries around her letters However at the end of the chapter he feels hatred in addition to his love towards her because his infatuation with her distracted him and allowed one of his men Ted Lavender to die Lieutenant Jimmy Cross reminded himself that his obligation was not to be loved but to lead 25 The narrator describes all the things the men carry such as ammo machine guns toothbrushes and pocketknives You win some you lose some said Mitchell Sanders and sometimes you settle for a rain check It was a tired line and no one laughed 11 Men killed and died because they were embarrassed not to It was what had brought them to the war in the first place nothing positive no dreams of glory or honor just to avoid the blush of dishonor 20 Chapter 2 Love Jimmy comes to visit narrator at his home in Massachusetts Many years after the war The narrator asks Jimmy about Martha and Jimmy admits that he still loves her He describes their reunion where he told Martha he loved her but was then rejected by her Chapter 3 Spin On occasions the war was like a Ping Pong ball You could put fancy spin on it you could make it dance 31 War is what you take away from it I remember Norman Bowker and Henry Dobbins playing checkers every evening before dark It was a ritual for them The playing field was laid out in a strict grid no tunnels or mountains or jungles You knew where you stood You knew the score The pieces were out on the board the enemy was visible you could watch the tactics unfolding into larger strategies There was a winner and a loser There were rules 31 But the thing about remembering is that you don t forget You take your material where you find it which is in your life at the intersection of past and present 33 As a writer all you can do is pick a street and go for the ride putting things down as they come at you That s the real obsession All those stories 33 What sticks to memory often are those odd little fragments that have no beginning and no end 34 Forty three years old and the war occurred half a lifetime ago and yet the remembering makes it now And sometimes remembering will lead to a story which makes it forever That s what stories are for 36 Stories are for eternity when memory is erased when there is nothing to remember except the story 36 Chapter 4 On the Rainy River Courage I seemed to think comes to us in finite quantities like an inheritance and by being frugal and stashing it away and letting it earn interest we steadily increase our moral capital in preparation for that day when the account must be drawn down 38 June 1968 narrator was drafted to fight a war after graduating Macalester college The only certainty that summer was moral confusion It was my view then and still is that you don t make war without knowing why 38 You can t fix your mistakes Once people are dead you can t make them undead 38 39 Narrator wrote vague goodbye note to family he came to a fishing resort The narrator describes the man who opened the door Elroy as his hero He didn t ask questions and let him stay at the resort narrator never has They go fishing narrator starts crying and Elroy just listens I survived but it s not a happy ending I was a coward I went to the war thanked him 58 Chapter 5 Enemies Lee Strunk and Dave Jensen fistfight over a missing jackknife Strunk had to be choppered back to the rear Fight didn t end 2 days after Jensen began to worry Jensen had a tantrum firing and yelling Strunk s name Later Jensen broke his own nose showed Strunk the two men reconciled After Jensen leaves Strunk admits to the narrator that he stole the jackknife Like fighting two different wars he said No safe ground enemies everywhere No front or rear 60 Jan 11 2016 Quick Write Thoughtful Reflection of Quotation remember except the story 36 Stories are for eternity when memory is erased when there is nothing to I think this statement is very accurate Once people are gone all you have left is their stories I agree that stories last forever We have stories and fables from long ago that keep ancient culture alive I also think that this quote has another meaning The other meaning perhaps is that when you are old and your memory is nearly gone you will only be able to remember your stories particularly the most significant ones to you Maybe you ll no longer remember the feeling you had or your reaction afterward but you will always remember what happened Stories remain after people have passed on Chapter 6 Friends Jensen and Strunk slowly became friends Strunk stepped on a rigged mortar that took off his right leg at the knee Strunk asks Jensen to promise not to kill him and Jensen agrees Strunk dies on the helicopter Chapter 7 How to Tell a True War Story Rat a k a Bob Kiley writes a heartfelt emotional letter to a sister of his deceased friend after two months the sister still has not written him back A true war story is never moral It does not instruct nor encourage virtue nor suggest models of proper human behavior nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done 65 In other cases you can t even tell a true war story Sometimes it s just Rat brutally kills a baby water buffalo which serves as therapy after his beyond telling 68 friend Curt Lemon has died It can be argued for instance that war is grotesque But in truth war is also beauty For all its horror you can t help but gape at the awful majesty of combat 77 Like a killer forest fire like cancer under a microscope any battle or bombing raid or artillery barrage has the aesthetic purity of absolute moral indifference a powerful implacable beauty and a true war story will tell the truth about this though the truth is ugly 77 No happy endings in war stories Chapter 8 The Dentist very well Narrator finds it hard to mourn Curt Lemon because he did not know him Curt was scared of the dentist and fainted during his turn to get his teeth examined He was embarrassed and angry with himself Later he went back to the dentist claiming that he had a massive toothache when he really did not and got a perfectly good tooth taken out He was happy afterwards Chapter 9 Sweetheart …