The Things They Carried, Style quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. How old does the narrator guess the dancing girl to be?

   • Roughly nine or ten years old
   • Correct answer: Maybe fourteen years old
   • Somewhere close to twenty years old
   • Too young for anyone to guess

   The narrator says she was maybe fourteen, with black hair and brown skin, dancing barefoot with her eyes half closed.

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2. 2

   Question 2. What does Lieutenant Cross do while the girl is dancing?

   • Correct answer: He radios up to the gunships and tells them to go away
   • He orders the platoon to search the girl for weapons
   • He photographs the burned hamlet for his commanding officer
   • He tries to question the girl through an interpreter

   Calling off the gunships is Cross's only action in the chapter, reported as flatly as the chicken Rat Kiley catches for dinner.

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3. 3

   Question 3. What do the soldiers find inside the girl's house?

   • Weapons and supplies hidden beneath the floor
   • Correct answer: Her family, dead and badly burned
   • Nothing at all, since the house had collapsed
   • A small shrine the family had built in one corner

   They find an infant, an old woman, and a woman whose age was hard to tell, all of them dead and badly burned.

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4. 4

   Question 4. How does the girl react as the bodies are dragged out of the house?

   • Correct answer: She keeps dancing and puts her palms against her ears
   • She stops dancing and follows the soldiers in silence
   • She screams at the soldiers and throws dirt at them
   • She runs into the smoke and is not seen again

   She goes on dancing, presses the palms of her hands against her ears, and moves sideways and then backwards.

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5. 5

   Question 5. What explanation does Henry Dobbins give for the girl's dancing?

   • That it is a mourning ritual for her dead family members
   • That she is in shock and does not know what she is doing
   • Correct answer: That it does not matter why, since she just liked to dance
   • That the smoke has made her dizzy and unsteady on her feet

   Dobbins twice refuses to interpret the dance, saying only that it did not matter why and, later, that the girl simply liked to dance.

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6. 6

   Question 6. What does Azar do that night, after the platoon has marched away from the village?

   • He writes a letter home describing the burned hamlet
   • He apologizes to Dobbins for the questions he kept asking
   • Correct answer: He mimics the girl's dancing as a crude joke
   • He argues that the platoon should have brought the girl along

   Azar parodies the dance with funny jumps and spins, palms against his ears, and a crude motion of his hips.

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7. 7

   Question 7. How does Henry Dobbins respond to Azar's mockery?

   • He reports Azar to Lieutenant Cross the next morning
   • Correct answer: He lifts Azar up and carries him to a deep well
   • He refuses to speak to Azar for the rest of the night
   • He mimics Azar the same way to embarrass him

   Dobbins takes Azar from behind, lifts him up high, carries him over to a deep well, and asks if he wants to be dumped in.

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8. 8

   Question 8. Why does the chapter's title apply to more than the girl's dancing?

   • It also names the column the narrator later writes for a newspaper
   • Correct answer: It also names a code of behavior and the chapter's own spare prose
   • It refers mainly to the uniforms and gear the platoon carries
   • It describes the way Lieutenant Cross gives orders to his men

   Dobbins's closing order treats behavior as something that can be done well or badly, and the chapter's flat, plain sentences are a style of their own.

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9. 9

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

   • Rat Kiley catches a chicken for dinner while the men search the hamlet.

     Happened

   • The girl explains through gestures why she is dancing.

     Didn't happen

   • Lieutenant Cross radios up to the gunships and tells them to go away.

     Happened

   • Dobbins carries Azar to a deep well and asks if he wants to be dumped in.

     Happened

   • The platoon buries the girl's family before moving out of the village.

     Didn't happen

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10. 10

    Question 10. What does 'hootches' mean as used in: "The smoke from the hootches smelled like straw."?

    • Correct answer: Simple huts or shelters where people live
    • Cooking fires built in the open air
    • Storage pits dug beneath the houses
    • Narrow footpaths between the rice fields

    Hootch is Vietnam War slang for a hut or simple dwelling, so the smoke is rising from the burned homes of the hamlet.

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11. 11

    Question 11. What does 'composed' mean as used in: "Her face had a dreamy look, quiet and composed."?

    • Correct answer: Calm and in control of her feelings
    • Made up of many different parts
    • Written down carefully in advance
    • Worn out from too much exertion

    Composed here means calm and self-possessed, which is exactly what the watching soldiers cannot square with the wreckage around her.

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12. 12

    Question 12. What does 'wreckage' mean as used in: "We searched through the wreckage but there wasn't much to find."?

    • Correct answer: The broken remains of something destroyed
    • A storage area for captured supplies
    • The wounded left behind after a battle
    • A narrow passage running through a village

    Wreckage means the ruined remains left after destruction, here the burned-out houses of the hamlet.

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