Death In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

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“It’s a hard thing to explain to somebody who hasn’t felt it, but the presence of death and danger has a way of bringing you fully awake” (183) Tim O’brien, the protagonist and author of the novel, The Things They Carried, describes his interpretation of death and the power it has to make you feel certain emotions. When the soldiers are dealt with death, they use their strong brotherhood to help with their emotions. The soldiers’ emotional development when dealing with death matures dramatically as they experience tragic situations. Before the war the soldiers believed that their mental state of being was strong, until it was tested when their fellow soldier, Ted Lavender, was unexpectedly shot and killed. Lavender’s death is a significant point in the novel because it marks the first time the soldiers witnessed a death during the war. Lavender’s death was shocking to many, especially Rat Kiley. Tim is in shock and …show more content…

However, the tragedy that O’brien faced when he was nine was too great for him to not be mentally distraught. Her death had a significant impact on his life because it marks the first time O’brien started to tell fake stories to make himself feel better. O’brien describes the death and the way he thinks about Linda by saying, “She was nine years old. I loved her and then she died. And yet right here, in the spell of memory and imagination, I can still see her as if through ice, as if I'm gazing into some other world, a place where there are no brain tumors and no funeral homes, where there are no bodies at all.” (232) Linda’s death is very important to the novel because she was the first person who O’brien fell in love with and experienced death with. The significance of her death is that her death had a long lasting effet on Tim. When someone would die in the war, it would take him back to remembering Linda and the way she left O’brien’s

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