In the novel "The Things They Carried," the theme of death shows up multiple times when the author, Tim O'Brien, talks about his experience in the Vietnam War. Death is displayed when O'Brien discusses the man he killed, when he witnesses his first death in Vietnam and about the death of his school love, Linda. He explains to the readers how he is able to come to terms with death and his own ways of how he handles it along with understanding it.
The book seemed to be written backwards because the last chapter, "The Lives of the Dead," is where O'Brien decided to talk about his first experience with death. In this chapter he talks about the true love he had for this girl named Linda, and after their first date he tells us how she was sick and passed away from a brain tumor. Linda is his love during elementary school so when he explains his thoughts and experiences they are portrayed as the fourth grader, Timmy. With the death of Linda, O'Brien used his dreams as a way of handling the death. He makes up dreams of real situations they he could find himself and Linda in. O'Brien uses situations like ice skating to make up elaborate stories to keep her memory alive (O'Brien 244). As a child O'Brien kept to himself and this is seen when his mother asks him if anything was bothering him and, he replies "Nothing I just need sleep"(244). This showed how he understands that Linda is gone, but all the dreams he made up stick in his mind even when Tim is in war. .
After spending more time at war and having more experiences O'Brien understands how the soldiers handle their losses with jokes, but he never gets used to it. The memories of Linda come back to O'Brien within a couple of days while in Vietnam. The platoon then finds themselves with sniper fire and no one was hurt, but an air strike was called for which gave O'Brien his next experience with death. An elderly man was the only confirmed dead next to a pigpen.
