1. The Ending of The Things They Carried
... . Particularly at the end of the book, O'Brien explains that in Vietnam, the soldiers created ways to make the people they were close to that died seem less dead – they kept those people alive in their head with stories, like those O'Brien wrote of his friends Ted Lavender, Curt Lemon, Kiowa, and Linda. After Linda's death, O'Brien describes himself in fifth grade imagining Linda ... as still with him and using his imagination to simultaneously bring her back to life, and to cope with his loss. "And yet even as a nine-year-old I had begun to practice the magic of stories" (O'Brien 244)...
- Word Count: 685
- Approx Pages: 3
- Has Bibliography
- Grade Level: Undergraduate