The Things They Carried
Tim O?Brien does not actually come out and write about guilt, death, or love; he describes in vivid detail how he feels. This is how he lets the reader know his feelings, either it be love, guilt, or death. Through his details the reader differentiates Tim O?Brien?s thoughts.
As the reader understands O?Brien?s writing in the finial chapter, ?The Lives of the Dead,? he or she finds that guilt, death, and love are all brought together by this one nine year old girl, Linda. In many ways, he describes her as, the love of his life. This was no ?crush or childhood infatuation,?(228,4) as he put it, but ?as deep and rich as love could ever get,?(228,4) like the complexities of mature adult love, and maybe more.
In the same way he depicts his love for Linda, he portrays his guilt in the same situation. O?Brien feels helpless as that of a little fourth grader. The little boy who just stood there as the bully picked on the girl he felt something for, but had no real way of showing it. As he describes it ?I stood off to the side, just a spectator, wishing I could do things I couldn?t
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