The Things They Carried, Enemies quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. What sets off the fistfight between Lee Strunk and Dave Jensen?

   • Correct answer: A jackknife that has gone missing
   • A card game that ends in cheating
   • A quarrel about who walks point
   • A letter from home read out loud

   The narrator says the fight was about something stupid, a missing jackknife, and that it turned vicious anyway.

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2. 2

   Question 2. How is the fight finally stopped?

   • Strunk manages to break free
   • Two other soldiers step between them
   • Correct answer: Three other soldiers pull Jensen off
   • Jensen stops once the nose breaks

   Jensen keeps punching even after Strunk's nose snaps, and it takes three of the other men to drag him away.

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3. 3

   Question 3. What condition is Strunk in when he returns to the unit?

   • He comes back the same day, unhurt
   • Correct answer: He returns two days later in a splint
   • He is sent home with a permanent injury
   • He stays in the rear for several weeks

   Strunk is choppered to the rear, has his nose looked after, and rejoins the platoon two days later wearing a metal splint and gauze.

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4. 4

   Question 4. How does Jensen behave during the week after Strunk comes back?

   • He asks to be transferred out of the unit
   • He tries to make peace with Strunk at once
   • Correct answer: He digs in far from Strunk and stays watchful
   • He tells the other men Strunk is dangerous

   Jensen tracks Strunk's whereabouts, digs his foxholes on the far side of the perimeter, keeps his back covered, and avoids being alone with him.

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5. 5

   Question 5. What does Jensen do the afternoon he loses control?

   • Correct answer: He empties a magazine into the air
   • He charges at Strunk with his rifle
   • He destroys Strunk's gear in the foxhole
   • He walks off alone beyond the perimeter

   He fires and yells Strunk's name until an entire magazine of ammunition is gone, and the rest of the men lie flat on the ground.

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6. 6

   Question 6. How does Jensen break his own nose?

   • He slams his face against a stone wall
   • He has another soldier hit him for it
   • Correct answer: He uses a borrowed pistol like a hammer
   • He falls forward onto his rifle butt

   Late that night he borrows a pistol, grips it by the barrel, and hammers his own nose with it.

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7. 7

   Question 7. What best explains why Jensen injures himself?

   • He wants a wound that will send him home
   • He is trying to prove his courage to the men
   • He hopes to frighten Strunk into leaving
   • Correct answer: He wants an equal injury to settle the debt

   He immediately shows the injury to Strunk and asks if things are square, treating an identical wound as payment for the one he caused.

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8. 8

   Question 8. What does Strunk's reaction the next morning add to the chapter?

   • It confirms that the peace has failed
   • Correct answer: It makes Jensen's atonement absurd
   • It shows Strunk fears Jensen even more
   • It proves the fight was Jensen's fault

   Strunk cannot stop laughing and admits he stole the jackknife, so the bloody act of squaring accounts was never owed in the first place.

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9. 9

   Question 9. Which of these events actually occur in this chapter?

   • Jensen breaks Strunk's nose during a fight over a missing jackknife.

     Happened

   • Strunk openly vows revenge once he rejoins the platoon.

     Didn't happen

   • Jensen sits with his head in his arms for hours after firing his weapon.

     Happened

   • Jensen apologizes to Strunk in words instead of injuring himself.

     Didn't happen

   • Strunk tells Jensen that things are square between them.

     Happened

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10. 10

    Question 10. What does 'choppered' mean as used in: 'Strunk had to be choppered back to the rear'?

    • Correct answer: Carried out by helicopter
    • Bandaged in the field
    • Marched under escort
    • Discharged from service

    Choppered is military shorthand for being flown by helicopter, here for medical treatment away from the field.

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11. 11

    Question 11. What does 'skittish' mean as used in: 'a skittish feeling'?

    • Sleepy and slow to react
    • Correct answer: Nervous and easily startled
    • Angry and looking for a fight
    • Confident and hard to rattle

    Skittish describes Jensen's jumpy, wide-awake dread at night, when every noise sounds like a threat.

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12. 12

    Question 12. What does 'square' mean as used in: 'asked if everything was square between them'?

    • Honest about the whole story
    • Formally agreed in writing
    • Correct answer: Even, with nothing owed
    • Fair to everyone involved

    Jensen is asking whether the debt created by Strunk's broken nose has been paid off by his own.

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