The Things They Carried

The questions

1. The opening list of gear turns into a list of fears. What are you carrying that nobody can see in the pack?
2. Lieutenant Cross burns the letters and blames himself for a death. Is that fair to himself? Is it useful?
3. O'Brien tells you a story, then tells you it did not happen, then tells it again. Did that make you trust him more or less?
4. The book keeps saying the men were terrified of embarrassment more than death. Where does that fear run your own decisions?
5. Which story would you hand to a nineteen-year-old about to sign up, and which would you keep from him?
6. Kiowa's death is told several times, differently. Why do you think O'Brien would not settle it?
7. The book argues storytelling is how you keep the dead present. Who do you keep present that way?
8. What do you make of the daughter who asks him why he keeps writing war stories?
9. Is there a thing you carried for years and then put down? What let you put it down?

Running the night

• Pick the night before anyone leaves the last meeting. A fixed weeknight beats a good date.
• Text the sheet's first question two days ahead. It is the only prep anyone will do.
• Something to eat that does not need a plate on a lap.
• One person keeps time. Ninety minutes, then the book talk stops.
• Start with the round: one sentence each on where they got to. No apologies allowed.
• End by naming the next book and the next date out loud.

For this bookAsk everyone to bring the story that stuck. Go around the table before anyone opens the sheet.

BringThe book, something to write with, and the one passage you underlined.