Speaking of the Dead

At any funeral it is commonplace to tell a story. We recite memories of the deceased and lessons learned together and mistakes that kept us laughing years later. This need to recount the person's impact on our own lives is a way to keep them alive for a second longer. Give them one last breath after their lungs have gone cold. In Cat's Cradle and The Things They Carried the dead come up again and again because even though they have passed they still affect the living. 

In Cat's Cradle Dr. Hoenikker, though deceased before the narrative begins, is brought up over and over again because of the affect his creations had and continue to have on the living. Through the creation of both the atom bomb and ice nine Dr. Hoenikker devastates and livens the world. He gives Jonah a purpose by providing him fodder to write both "The Day The World Ended" and the text itself. He gives the San Lorenzans a final salvation from their suffering, giving them more life in death than they had ever had in life. Through his death at the crystal hands of ice nine Dr. Hoenikker gave his children the key to some happiness in their lives, despite how short it may have been. The death of Dr. Hoenikker and the death his creations gave out wholesale provided life for many other characters.

In The Things They Carried the narrator, Timmy, usually talks about his war buddies in reference their deaths. Timmy does this with Ted Lavender, Curt Lemon, Henry Dobbins, and Norman Bowker. All of these people come to life in their deaths. Their deaths spark other parts of their lives to resurface in Timmy's mind and that is how we as readers get the fully developed characters. Death is inseparable from their lives. 

In both novels death provides some sort of life. It adds value to the experiences of others.