A Brief Review Of Tim O 'Brien's The Lives Of The Dead'

Soldiers faced the worst of humanity and, most of the time, were shaped in ways that they couldn’t express to their peers and as such had their own unique method of dealing with the horrors that had to bear witness to. For Tim O’Brien, his method of coping with the loss of life that constantly plagued him was creating stories to keep the dead alive. The effect of O’Brien’s fiction writings was that his war stories were not only love stories, but also life stories that speak volumes about the effect death has on the innocence on people. The story like dialogue, the last couple of lines, and first person point of view in the final passage of The Lives of the Dead portrays O'Brien's attempt with this novel to reconcile his own loss of innocence

By referring to himself when he says that “Tim [was] trying to save Timmy’s life with a story”, he is essentially trying to breathe life into Linda through stories, allowing his younger self to cope with the loss of his young lover. This is essential to his own wellbeing because he must create an alternate reality for him so he can slowly understand his own feelings of loss and death. Furthermore, the juxtaposition of the stories of Linda and the desensitizing war emphasizes the importance of stories as a coping mechanism because the juxtaposition shows the contrast between the realities of the situation and made up illusions that give comfort to O’Brien. The last line likewise demonstrates the intimate relationship between death and life because even when he “take[s] a high leap into the dark”, he eventually “come[s] down thirty years later,” showing there is little space from death’s hand, no matter how far one attempts to jump away. Even though O’Brien is only creating illusions for himself, he is keeping himself and Linda alive through his own confession that even though he is forty-three years old, he is still making up stories that Linda is