Although Linda was only present in a small part of O'Brien's life and a small part of The Things They Carried, she had a large impact on both. O'Brien mentions himself how Linda's death started him out on his imagining and writing path.
The entire story of Linda is very cyclical. She gets brought up as O'Brien tells Kiowa that a Vietnamese man they have just seen is not his first experience with a dead body. Linda was.
The story of Linda brings insight past the war experiences, and past everything else the narrarator has revealed up to this point। While the story of O'Brien's first love seems irrelevant, strong connections can be found to his story of Vietnam.
Linda was O'Brien's first love and first love lost. She was the innocence a fourth grade boy had that was taken from him by way of a brain tumor. Vietnam was O'Brien's last great loss of innocence. Ironically he chooses to start his novel with Vietnam, and end it with Linda. This adds to the cycle effect by bringing his life journey full circle.
While The Things They Carried is all of the latest stories O'Brien invents, Linda was the oldest. When she died, and he allowed her to still be alive through his imagination, he started his career in writing. It only makes sense that she be the conclusion of his novel.
1 comment:
Nice connection between the cyclical nature of the loss of innocence. It doesn't happen, necessarily, all at once.
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