The Nine-Year-Old He Carried: Linda's role in Tim O'Brien's They Things They Carried.

Tim O'Brien's novel, The Things They Carried creates an accurate picture of the emotions experienced by soldiers like himself in the Vietnam War. Though the reader learns that the majority of the story is fictional, the overall message is powerful. To achieve this, O'Brien uses a mix of narratives, personal accounts, and what would seem like unrelated incidents. Sections include stories of "Love", "Speaking of Courage", and "Night Life". These may seem like absurd titles …

…the experiences of Vietnam in a way that all readers can relate to. In one of Tim O'Brien's dreams, Linda came to him and said, "Well right now I'm not dead. But when I am its like...I don't know, I guess its like being inside a book that nobody's reading" (245). Well now Linda is part of a book--The Things They Carried. She doesn't have to worry either, plenty of people are reading it. -RD