Overview

Identifying themes and the evidence that supports them is a key close reading skill students develop through practice. Students will use this worksheet to look for instances of emotional burden, a central theme in The Things They Carried. When students find specific examples of emotional burden in the novel, they will record the burden, the person to whom it belongs, and whether that character carried this burden into war or gained it during the war. You can use this worksheet as students read or after they have completed the text. At the end of the novel when students have finished filling out the worksheet, have small groups discuss what they think would be the hardest emotional burden to carry.

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