The Things They Carried Death Analysis

Death: the inevitable, but vital part in the circle of life. It 's something nobody ever wants to face or speak of; the question remains, how does one deal with death? In “The Things They Carried” there are several examples where the main character, Tim O 'Brien encounters the hardships of death. O 'Brien shares that his first experience with death occurred when a former classmate named Linda, died due to a brain tumor. O 'Brien tells his audience how he learned to adapt and cope with losing Linda by dreaming of a universe where they could somehow still be together, even if it’s only a figment of his imagination. O 'Brien also learns how others can cope with death in a way most wouldn 't ever think, humor. In the novel, “The Things They Carried”, O 'Brien shows how his comprehension of death develops throughout the novel and how he gains understanding of how others like Kiowa deal with death

It is in the last chapter of the novel, The Lives of the Dead, in which the audience finally finds out about O 'Brien 's first glimpse at death, which was when he was in the 4th grade, and a girl he was infatuated named Linda died. O 'Brien had fallen in love with Linda, he confesses that she was terminally ill and died from a brain tumor. O 'Brien depicts the emotions that he had as a fourth grader dealing with death. He communicates that, "it didn’t seem real. A mistake, [he] thought. The girl lying in the white casket wasn’t Linda. For a second [he] wondered if someone had made a terrible mistake" (O’Brien 241). O 'Brien 's way of dealing with her death was to dream; he dreams of memories that he and Linda had shared and adapts them to real life circumstances of them being young and in love. O 'Brien even dreams of having more dates with Linda to keep