The last few chapters of “The Things They Carried” really
added quite a bit of meaning and value to the book’s symbolization and themes.
To
begin with, on page 179, O’Brien once again writes, “I want you to feel what I
felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than
happening-truth.” The author had discussed a few other times throughout the
book whether his stories had any truth or not. He often leaves the reader
questioning whether a certain story contains any truth to it or not. O’Brien
sometimes told fictional stories in order for the reader to understand the
experiences the soldiers went through. Even if O’Brien did not experience a
certain story, other soldiers certainly did; that is the theme he attempts to
make clear.
The
first symbol that came to the life in this section of reading was O’Brien’s
daughter, Kathleen. On page 183, Kathleen begins to ask her father, O’Brien,
questions about the war, such as “The whole war, why was everybody so mad at
everyone else?” A few more questions Kathleen had were “What did you want?” and
“How come you were even here in the first place?” After Kathleen’s questions, O’Brien
cannot decide what to tell her, so he decides to reply with, “It’s a mystery, I
guess. I don’t know.” Kathleen doesn’t exactly understand why her father went
to war and what the purpose was, and her questions give O’Brien a new perspective
on the war.
The
other symbol in this reading involves Linda. O’Brien claims that when he and
Linda were a young age of 9 years old, they were in love, “and it was real.”
One day, O’Brien’s dad took Linda and him to a movie. While on their way, O’Brien
told Linda that he really liked her red cap that she happened to wear every
day. After that, Linda continued to wear her cap every day to school for a few
weeks until one day in class, a boy named Nick walked over and took her cap
off, only to reveal Linda’s almost bald head with some stitches and Band-Aids.
On page 236, O’Brien writes, “She died, of course. Nine years old and she died…..But
in a story, I can steal her soul…In a story, miracles can happen. Linda can
smile and sit up. She can reach out, touch my wrist, and say, “Timmy, stop
crying.” Later, on page 243, O’Brien discusses how he would usually lie in bed
at night and dream up stories that could possibly bring Linda into his dreams.
Once he was dreaming, he’d picture him and Linda together. On page 244, still
talking about his dreams with Linda in it, he writes, “She’d say amazing things
sometimes. “”Once you’re alive”, she’d say, “you can’t ever be dead.”” Later on
page245, he tells, “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. I can
see Kiowa, too, and Ted Lavender and Curt Lemon, and sometimes I can even see
Timmy skating with Linda under the yellow floodlights. I’m young and happy. I’ll
never die.” Linda’s presence in the book symbolizes how O’Brien deals and copes
with the pain he endured during the war. By telling both fact and fictional
stories, O’Brien’s memories help him live his life through storytelling.
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