Reference no: EM133761831

Problem: "The Things They Carried" Writing

Answer the following questions in complete sentences in paragraph form (it can take several paragraphs):

I. "It was sad, the things men (people) carried inside, the things they did or felt they had to do."

How do you understand the above statement within the context of the story?

II. How do you understand this quote within the context of the story and beyond: "They carried all they could bear, and then some, including a silent awe for the terrible power of the things they carried."

III. What is the lesson to be learned from America's involvement in Vietnam? How is it helpful in making any important decision?

Complete the close reading of the following excerpt from the passage:

"At night, on guard, staring into the dark, they were carried away by jumbo jets. They felt the rush of takeoff. Gone! They yelled. And then velocity, wings and engines, a smiling stewardess-but it was more than a plane, it was a real bird, a big sleek silver bird with feathers and talons and high screeching. They were flying. The weights fell off, there was nothing to bear. They laughed and held on tight, feeling the cold slap of wind and altitude, soaring, thinking It's over, I'm gone!-they were naked, there were light and free-it was all lightness, bright and fast and buoyant, light as light, a helium buzz in the brain, a giddy bubbling in the lungs as they were taken up over the clouds of war, beyond duty, beyond gravity and mortification, and global entanglements-Sin loi! (Sorry about that!) they yelled, I'm sorry, motherfuckers, but I'm out of it, I'm goofed, I'm on a space cruise, I'm gone!----and it was a restful, disencumbered sensation, just riding the light waves, sailing that big silver freedom bird over the mountains and oceans, over America, over the farms and great sleeping cities and cemeteries and highways and the golden arches of McDonald's. It was flight, a kind of fleeing, a kind of falling, falling higher and higher, spinning off the edge of the earth and beyond where everything weighed exactly nothing. Gone! they screamed. I'm sorry but I'm gone! And so at night, not quite dreaming, they gave themselves over to lightness, they were carried, they were purely borne."

IV. What do you notice about the writing-the use of language?

The Italics?
The tone?-(happy, sad, remorseful, etc.)
The images?
The motif of weight?
Do NOT use "I" in your responses. This is academic writing!!!