Tim O'Brien's Purposes in Writing "The Things They Carried"

Even though Tim O'Brien's stories may have been fiction and copies of other stories, there is still a purpose to him writing a book about war. One of his purposes in this book is to teach the reader about war, not specifically just the Vietnam War, but war in general. With his striking skills of imagery, he brings war to life; he creates an image of war, disgusting, but beautiful. As Entertainment Weekly says "his Vietnam stories are really about the yearning of peace—aimed at human understanding rather than some 'definitive' understanding of the war . . . He can bring the dead back to life. And bring back the dreaming, too." Tim's purpose isn't to make war this huge complicated story. The concept of war may be complicated, but actual war isn't. Another purpose of his is to help the reader to ultimately understand war itself. His stories may all be made up, but he experienced war; he lived it. He knows what war is like. It is believed that Tim O'Brien may have never even gone to war, but not going to war can't stop him from honoring those who served in the war. This brings another purpose to reality. In his last story of the book, "The Lives of the Dead", he brings up this little girl he knew when he was a child. She died at the age of nine from a brain tumor. Tim could have made Linda up, but it was, as I said before, to help us understand and feel what he felt; mourning, sorrow and honor. At the end of the story he talks about how he "still [dreams] Linda alive in exactly the same way . . . [he] can still see her as if through ice . . . [he] can see Kiowa, too, and Ted Lavender and Curt Lemon..." (232-233). The main purpose of this book is to remember and honor those who served in the war, those including his own friends.