Loss of a loved one

The final chapter of “The Things They Carried” titled “The Lives of the Dead” was a very compelling passage for me.  It was an extremely unexpected ending to the novel, yet O’Brien was able to connect the story of his first love and the loss of her life to the losses of his war companions as well.

            I was more connected to O’Brian than ever before reading this story, for multiple reasons.  When I was only 9 years old I lost my mother to cancer.  Not my first romance, but the first and most powerful love I had ever known was for my mother.  Even small details like the absent hair of Linda, struck strongly with my emotions leading me to remember my mother’s treatments and hospital visits.  Loosing someone you care so much about at this age is unimaginable.  It’s hard to think back on how I reacted, but I always remember asking why…  No matter what explanation was provided, it was never good enough, and I didn’t feel it justified what had been taken from me.  I can remember times when I, just like little Timmy, would close my eyes and imagine a time and place where my mother and I were together.  Even to this day I will drift off into memories of these times for comfort.  Not having a large interest in writing, I never went to a page and pencil to help release the pains but I understand why doing so would help cope with such traumas as loosing a close one.  O’Brien claims “in a story, which is a kind of dreaming, the dead sometimes smile and sit up and return to the world” (213).  I see the resemblance in this and my remembering of my mother, and felt a strong connection emotionally with Tim O’Brien.