Every story in The Things They Carried is related to the Vietnam War in some manner except for the last one. Why would O’Brien choose to end a novel about the Vietnam War with a story about a little girl dying of cancer? I think O’Brien ends this way because he wants to make it clear to the readers that this book “wasn’t a war story. It was a love story” (p. 81).
Though a lot of the stories in this book are sad, the story about Linda is the only one that nearly made me tear up. I believe it had that effect because Linda was only a little girl and “Timmy’s” love for her seemed so sincere. It seemed tragic and unfair that she should die so young. However by the end of the chapter, after O’Brien explained how he could bring her back with a story, I was actually somewhat happy and at peace.
Linda’s story was O’Brien’s way of relating his emotions about death, which readers may not have felt when other characters died. He treats Linda as he treats all the other characters that died in this book. After all, the dead soldiers were young boys who narrator O’Brien probably loved just as dearly. He claims that he is still in fact “Timmy,” or his childhood self, and is dealing with their deaths the way “Timmy” would. Just as he dreamed Linda back to life, he tries to keep all of “the dead alive with stories” (p. 226).
The truth of O’Brien’s story is not about the war. We cannot trust that any of the details of the novel are true, including the story about Linda. I think that the emotions I experienced when reading about Linda are what O’Brien experiences every time he dreams up a story about the dead. The truth that O’Brien is trying to communicate is that even after a loved one dies, you can keep them alive with stories, fact or fiction.
The fact that Linda was used as the last part of the novel is a very curious thing. As the book appeared to have an overarching theme of war, it makes no sense to have a story about a girl dying of cancer. Even the deaths, while leading to a single end for those who died, are polar opposites: the girl died of natural causes while those in the war had unnatural deaths.
ReplyDeleteHowever, both cases presents readers with the feeling that they are helpless to prevent the death. The emotions in either case are pure and gets to the point that the author is trying to convey. It is all just a tragic love story in the end, isn't it?
Very nicely done! It was thought-provoking about the choices O'Brien made to make the novel flow the way it did.
Quite frankly, when I read the passage about Linda, I didn't believe O' Brien's narrative AT ALL. I felt detached from Linda and Tim, even if O' Brien clearly conveys "pure" emotions. The O' Brien of story wants his work to be read as a love story, but I still cannot see the love in it. I see heaviness and things that could have been. I see struggle and vulnerability. Love? More like a lack of.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Lauren: We pity the buffalo and we pity poor little Linda, but do we just as easily extend our sympathy to the soldiers? Also, aren't all deaths, to some degree "natural"? Some deaths may come sooner than others, but death in itself is a natural process (even if in war, that process is spurred).
I actually felt the same way while reading the passage about Linda as Sarah did; I almost teared up once I realized that she was dying. I also thought the description of Timmy going to the funeral home was hard to read because I (and I'm guessing most people who have been to a funeral before) could easily relate. Through adding this section in at the end of a novel centered around war, readers who have never experienced war but who have experienced losing a loved one, may be able to better understand the emotions that Tim O'Brien has been trying to convey throughout the whole novel. I completely agree with the idea that Tim O'Brien included this section at the end of the novel to emphasize that this story was not about the war, in essence it was about emotion.
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