62 pages • 2 hours read
Spare Parts
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Essay Topics
What is a “spare part,” and why does Williams title his memoir using the term?
What motivated Williams to write the memoir?
Describe the importance of gear and training to Williams.
What conflicts arise among the Marines of Williams’s unit during training? During war?How does Williams see these conflicts?
Explain how Williams’s relationship with his brother Lenny’s memory changed over time. What were some of the major moments that impacted Williams’s life and reminded him of Lenny?
How does Williams exemplify or contradict the image of the rough and tough Marine?
What role does anger play in training? In war? How does it shape Marines?
How do Williams’s civilian life and Marine life co-exist? Give examples of his two worlds clashing and/or coexisting.
Williams says he is happy that most people back home will never know about the torture and other atrocities he saw, but then describes them in detail. What is the purpose of doing this?
Williams points out the feelings active-duty Marines have toward “spare parts.” How does he perceive this issue by the end of the memoir?
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