While our group read The Things They Carried, we came across several quotes that are vital to the meaning of the novel. Each quote helps to describe not only views on the war itself, but the effects the war had on the mentality of the soldiers.
p. 15- "By daylight they took sniper fire, at night they were mortared, but it was not battle, it was just the endless march, village to village, without purpose, nothing won or lost."
p. 52- "My conscience told me to run, but some irrational and powerful force was resisting, like a weight pushing me toward the war. What it came down to, stupidly, was a sense of shame."
p- 80- "Well, that's Nam. Garden of Evil, Over here, man, every sin's fresh and original."
p. 111- "When I'm out there at night, I feel close to my own body, I can feel my blood moving, my skin and my fingernails, everything, it's like I'm full of electricity and I'm glowing in the dark--I'm on fire almost--I'm burning away to nothing--but it doesn't matter because I know exactly where I am."
p. 126- "Then later he said, 'Tim, it's a war. The guy wasn't Heidi-he had a weapon, right? It's a tough thing, for sure, but you got to cut out that staring.'"
p. 171- "He'd lost Kiowa and his weapon and his flashlight and his girlfriend's picture. He remembered this. He remembered wondering if he could lose himself."
p. 211- "You're a shadow. You slip out of your own skin, like molting, shedding your own history and your own future, leaving behind everything you ever were or wanted or believed in."
p. 246- "I'm skimming across the surface of my own history, moving fast, riding the melt beneath the blades, doing loops and spins, and when I take a high leap into the dark and come down thirty years later, I realize it is as Tim trying to save Timmy's life with a story."
p. 15- "By daylight they took sniper fire, at night they were mortared, but it was not battle, it was just the endless march, village to village, without purpose, nothing won or lost."
p. 52- "My conscience told me to run, but some irrational and powerful force was resisting, like a weight pushing me toward the war. What it came down to, stupidly, was a sense of shame."
p- 80- "Well, that's Nam. Garden of Evil, Over here, man, every sin's fresh and original."
p. 111- "When I'm out there at night, I feel close to my own body, I can feel my blood moving, my skin and my fingernails, everything, it's like I'm full of electricity and I'm glowing in the dark--I'm on fire almost--I'm burning away to nothing--but it doesn't matter because I know exactly where I am."
p. 126- "Then later he said, 'Tim, it's a war. The guy wasn't Heidi-he had a weapon, right? It's a tough thing, for sure, but you got to cut out that staring.'"
p. 171- "He'd lost Kiowa and his weapon and his flashlight and his girlfriend's picture. He remembered this. He remembered wondering if he could lose himself."
p. 211- "You're a shadow. You slip out of your own skin, like molting, shedding your own history and your own future, leaving behind everything you ever were or wanted or believed in."
p. 246- "I'm skimming across the surface of my own history, moving fast, riding the melt beneath the blades, doing loops and spins, and when I take a high leap into the dark and come down thirty years later, I realize it is as Tim trying to save Timmy's life with a story."