Why Tim O'Brien wrote TTTC

O'Brien's novel is essentially a collection of war stories. In the beginning he tells us the purpose of writing stories, that "Stories are for eternity,when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the stories." (O'Brien, 36) However, we later discover in "Lives of the Dead," that there is a personal motive to this ideal on stories. In "Lives of the Dead" he writes "but this too is true: I'm forty-three years old, and a writer now, and even still here, I keep dreaming Linda alive...In a story, which is a kind of dreaming, the dead sometimes smile, and sit up and return to the world." He admits stories keep the dead alive; at least the memory of them. So yes, this novel is a collection of war stories, but they are Tim's war stories. By telling his stories, and his friends' stories, they will never die for stories are for "eternity." In his closing paragraph, Tim says " I'm young and happy. I'll never die. I'm skimming across the surface of my own history,... I realize it is as Tim trying to save Timmy's life with a story." (O'Brien, 233) Tim's purpose in writing TTTC is to "save" his life, forever.