Carrying Emotional Baggage

            The narrator of The Things They Carried or Timmy, as he shall now be referred to, wrote in his last chapter that he brings Linda to life every night when he sleeps. He creates dreams of elaborate scenarios where he meets her, and each time she would tell him "Do I look dead?" (231). Timmy described it as "a kind of self-hypnosis. Partly willpower, partly faith, which is how stories arrive" (231). In this quote I believe Timmy admits that stories are created because people want to believe in another reality in order to manage the stresses in their lives. Timmy's dreams were able to help him move on with the death of his friend by giving him a universe where Linda existed.

            Some people created alternate realities to make their original ones seem better. Sanders enjoyed telling many stories, one of which was of a group of soldiers who were to go into the forest and listen for enemy movement (70). In this story the men began to hear clear music during the time they were there. They heard the voices of the mountains and rocks of the country and eventually cannot cope with the noises. They reported enemy movement and blew up the entire forest only to find nothing there. I believe Sanders told this story to help his mind cope with his current reality. He invents this tale of soldiers who are in an even worse situation than him, and who are unable to handle the pressure. Compared to this reality, his current one seems much more survivable.

            Timmy also created many stories in this book to recreate situations so he could deal with them. The entire chapter "On the Rainy River" could have been invented, but the essence is what was important. To Timmy, this chapter manifested a new world where he had a chance to once again go through the emotions he felt when he was drafted into the war. Re-experiencing the fear and frustration he felt at that time so many years later and putting it down in words was his minds way of dealing with emotions he has had inside him for years. "By telling stories, you objectify your own experience. You separate it from yourself" (152). Stories provide a means for people to create alternate universes, and these new realities seem to have to ability to take on some of  the emotional baggage everyone has.