The Things They Carried

At the end of the book we get introduced to a girl named Linda who is nine years old and always wears a red hat. Tim meets Linda when he is with his parents at a movie theatre when he was nine years old. She then dies of a brain tumor that spread through out her brain. I personally think that Tim O’Brien should have added Linda earlier into the book because to me it seems too late to introduce another character that late into the book. Even though I thought the character should have been introduced earlier this character is very important. This character represents what war can eventually do to a person involved in the war. The war spreads and doesn’t just affect you physically but also affects you mentally and leaves vivid images of war. If this is not dealt with the war can spread and soon control you life and may even lead to suicide. This is what happened to Norman Bowker because he didn’t deal with the memory of not helping Kiowa and maybe even saving his life. “She died, of course. Nine years old and she died. It was a brain tumor” (236). I think that this character was important to the story.

O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. Boston: Broadway Books,1990

By Taylor Perdue