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Ambush, Style,

Notes

PAGES : 125-128, 129-130, 149-154

GROUP #: 5

GROUP MEMBERS: RYAN AND LEAH

The Things They Carried


Tim OBrien

Summary:
Ambush
u

In this vignette, the story starts when Tims


daughter, Kathleen, asks him if he killed anyone while
he was at war. He told her that he hadnt, then went
into telling the story of the man that he killed with a
grenade. They were working in two-man teams during
the night at the ambush site outside My Khe. He was
woken while it was still dark to take the final shift. He
then saw a man coming out of the fog, hed already
pulled the grenade, ready to use it. In terror, he threw
the grenade at the man and it killed him. Later, Kiowa
tried to tell him that the man would have died anyway
to relieve some of his guilt, but it didnt help, Tim still felt
guilty as he looked at the mans body. Tim still tries to
forgive himself, sometimes succeeding, sometimes not.
He even sees the man sometimes stepping out of the
morning fog, then returning into it.

Style
u

After an attack in a small village, the men went in


to search through the wreckage. While they were
there, they saw a girl, about fourteen, dancing on the
ashes. None of them knew why the girl was dancing,
and Azar asked why. Henry Dobbins told him that it
didnt matter why, she just was. They later found her
small family in the house, all of them dead and badly
burned. When they dragged the bodies out, she just
continued to dance, and they figured that it meant
something. After leaving Azar said that it was probably
just a ritual of some kind, but Henry Dobbins didnt
agree, and said that the girl just liked to dance. As they
walked away from the village, Azar began to mock the
girls dancing, but Henry Dobbins, who moved
gracefully for a big man picked him up, held him over
a deep well, and told him that if he didnt want to go
into the well, that he had to dance right

Notes

This vignette tells the story of a man named

Norman Bowker. He started by telling about how after


returning from the war, he couldnt manage to hold a
job or go to school. He writes a letter to Tim telling him
about how his life was going. He told Tim that he felt like
he got killed in Vietnam, and that his life was going
nowhere. The letter he wrote went on for seventeen
pages jumping from self-pity to irony to guilt. He said that
he didnt want to be a whiner-vet but he still he was still
damaged from the war. He then gives Tim the permission
to tell his story under a different name. His story was used
when he wrote Speaking of Courage. He used some
truth and some lies when telling the story, but only to
increase the understanding of what had happened.
Eight months after he wrote Tim, he had hanged himself
with no suicide note. Tim now hopes that Speaking of
Courage makes good on Norman Bowkers silence.

Characters:
Ambush
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Kathleen- the narrators daughter


who asks her dad whether he ever
killed anyone

Kiowa- narrators partner when


they were at the ambush site

Narrator- the main character in


the vignette, kills an enemy
guerilla

Vietcong Guerilla Soldier- a


Vietnamese man who fights
against the United States
occupation

Style
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Henry Dobbins- machine gunner


of the platoon, has respect for the
people of Vietnam

Azar- mocks the Vietnamese girl


that dances after seeing her
dead family

Notes
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Norman Bowker- a returning


veteran who has emotional scars
from Vietnam that are hard to
heal

Tim OBrien- corresponds with


Norman about his troubles and
problems, tries to offer his help

Setting:
Ambush
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This vignette takes place


outside the village of My Khe,
Vietnam. My Khe is located in
central Vietnam.

Style
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This vignette takes place in


one of the many hamlets of
Vietnam. A hamlet is a small
settlement, generally smaller
than a village.

Notes
u

This vignette is one of the few


in the book that take place
stateside, somewhere in Iowa
not specified.

Literary Devices/Techniques:
Ambush
1.

Characterization-(126)

2.

Imagery-(127)

3.

Conflict-(128)

Style
1.

Theme-(130)

2.

Imagery-(129)

Notes
1.

Theme-(150)

2.

Conflict-(151)

Theme:
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War often conflicts with


ones moral reasoning - We

have been taught our whole


lives that killing is wrong, but
servicemen have had to push
those feelings and emotions
aside in service to our nations
cause.
Style
u

War requires forgetting that


ones enemy is human- War
dehumanizes the people it
touches. People begin to lose
their rational and moral
feelings when war requires it.

Notes
u

The wounds of war arent


always seen- the physical
scars that we can see may
not be the ones that pain our
veterans the most.

Authors Purpose:
Ambush
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Tim OBriens purpose for this


vignette may be dual purpose. He
wrote this vignette as a way of
coping with his actions, and as an
example of what so many other
Vietnam servicemen had to do
and still deal with.

Style
u

The purpose for this vignette is to


show the contrast in opinions of
the Vietnamese people. Two
soldiers in the same platoon have
opposite views of the villagers, on
being an opinion of inferiority, the
other a mutual respect.

Notes
u

The authors purpose for writing


this vignette is to show that even
though a soldier may have never
been injured so far as we can
see, that doesnt mean that they
havent been injured emotionally
or internally. The author also
wanted to bring awareness to the
growing number of veterans
taking their lives everyday at the
rate of 22 a day.

Symbols:
Ambush
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One symbol used in Ambush


would be a grenade. OBrien uses
a grenade to kill an enemy soldier,
but both lives were changed in a
fraction of a second when the
grenade detonated.
Another symbol used in this
vignette would be a pencil.
OBrien expresses his pains and
experiences through writing, but a
piece of lead cant take away the
feelings and guilt of taking
someones life.

Style
u

A symbol used in this vignette is


the girls destroyed home,
representing how war has no
boundaries, and anyone and
everyone feels the affects

Another symbol is the girls dance.


The girls dancing may her way to
deal with the damage, both
physical and emotional, of war.

Notes
u

A symbol used in this vignette


would be Norman Bowkers letter.
His letter appears to be catching
up with old friends, but it is really a
cry for help and a desperate call
for intervention.

The second symbol in this vignette


is the vignette itself. The vignette
represents the authors tribute to
Norman, and his determination to
see that his story is told right.

Questions:
Ambush
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When and or will the narrator tell his daughter Kathleen what
happened that night outside My Khe ? Why do you think some
veterans never talk of their experiences ?

Style
u

Why do you think the girl was dancing ? Was it okay that Azar
mocked the girl ? Was mocking or insulting the native people
a common thing amongst U.S forces ?

Notes
u

Could Norman have been the only veteran to have felt the
way he did ? Do you think that the problems Norman
experienced are being recognized and treated with todays
veterans ?

Important Facts:
u

U.S. troops engaged: 8,744,000

American battle deaths: 47,410

The U.S. helped non-Communist South Vietnam fight invasion by


Communist North Vietnam.

North Vietnamese torpedo boats reportedly attack U.S. destroyers in the


Gulf of Tonkin on August 2, 1964. President Johnson ordered retaliatory air
strikes and Congress approved the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which gave
permission for U.S. retaliation.

By the end of 1965 the number of American troops in Southeast Asia rose
to more than 184,000 and by 1968 stood at more than 525,000.

President Nixon begins troop withdrawals from the region in May 1969, as
massive demonstrations and protests against the war went on in the
United States.

The U.S. began a military assault on Cambodia in 1970 and later heavily
bombed North Vietnam in order to bring them to discussions about
ending the conflict.

A cease-fire was signed in Paris, 1973. War broke out again in the region,
but North Vietnam's victory in 1975 ended the longest war in which the
U.S. had ever been involved.

Source: http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0769991.html

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