Teacher Guide

The Things They Carried Lesson Plan

Relationship to Other Books

Any of O'Brien's works are relevant to this text. However, If I Die in a Combat Zone, which is actually mentioned in this text, makes a good companion to this text. Dispatches, by Michael Herr, is also a good Vietnam wartime text.

Consider also more recent collections of American war stories, such as Redeployment by Phil Klay.

In terms of structure, The Things They Carried is a collection of freestanding stories that are meant to be read together as one text. It is a novel in stories, so to speak. Consider other examples of this, like Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs.

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