Chapter 22: The Lives of the Dead

How does the opening paragraph frame the story we are about to read?

• The opening paragraph gives us the sense that everything we have read has been elements of a story that needs to be told in order for “things” to continue to have weight. This is specified in the introduction when the author says “But this is true; stories can save us… They’re all dead. But in a story which is a kind of dreaming, the dead sometimes smile and sit up and return to the world” (O’Brien 213). In other words, stories are what keep our imagination alive and our emotions “on”. 

Why is O'Brien unable to joke around with the other soldiers? Why does the old man remind him of Linda?

• O’Brien is unable to joke around with the other soldiers because he finds their humor grotesque and disturbing, which makes him retreat to his tent. O’Brien describes his emotions on the matter by saying “I was brand new to the war… I hadn’t developed a sense of humor. Right away, as if I’d swallowed something, I felt a moist sickness rise up in my throat” (O’Brien 214). He didn’t like the fact that the dead aren’t mourned or respected, instead, they are seen as toys or object of entertainment. The old man reminds Tim of Linda because in a way, they both introduced him to death. The old man was Tim’s introduction to death in Vietnam, meaning the first person he witnessed die in the war. Similarly, Linda was Tim’s introduction to death in general, since she was the first person he ever died in his life. The scene with the old man stirred some of the same feelings he experienced with Linda’s death, especially fear. 

What is the function of the Linda plot in “The Lives of the Dead”? Consider in particular what it teaches him about death, memory, storytelling.

• Linda functions as the reason Tim writes. She is his overall inspiration. He writes about her to keep the memories. Death reappears again and again in the book, in the form of a young Vietnamese man and a fellow soldier. “The Lives of the Dead” finally explains what has formed O’Brien attitude toward death. This attitude is best characterized as horror and disbelief. Instead of letting his fear of death conquer him, O’Brien seeks comfort in his dreams. If he can dream Linda, she will never be truly dead because she will always be in his memories. As long as he imagines her, she is not dead.. O’Brien is a storyteller, one who gets to control what happens in this fictional universe. In O’Brien’s fictional universe, Linda is still alive. With storytelling he feels he could conquer death itself.

What is the “moral” of the dead KIAs? Consider Mitchell Sanders' view.

• The moral of the dead KIA’s is that they are kept alive by the stories that are told. Even if the stories may not be entirely true, they are still here in mind and spirit if their presence is felt by other people. Mitchell Sander’s point of view is that “death sucks” (O’Brien 230). Yet, this is exactly what O’Brien is trying to fight. Death doesn’t have to suck. The spirit of a person doesn’t have to die along with its body, it can live on through the stories that are told and the memories in other people.

In many ways, this book is as much about stories, or the necessity of stories, as it is about the Vietnam War. According to O’Brien, what do stories accomplish? Why does he continue to tell stories about the Vietnam War, about Linda?

• According to O’Brien, stories achieve the “illusion of aliveness” (O’Brien 218). Stories will be dreamt as one tells them, not the other way around. This is done in the hopes that “others might dream along with you, and in this way memory and imagination and language combine to make spirits in the head” (O’Brien 218). O’Brien still tells stories about the Vietnam war to keep the memories of the soldiers alive, soldiers who have long been forgotten by history. He tells stories of the Vietnam War because that is how “we kept the dead alive” (O’Brien 226). He specifically, still tells the story of Linda because she was the first person he ever loved. She was taken from him by the nightmare that is death, and he wants to keep her alive in his mind through his stories and the memories he has of her. 

Reread the final two pages of this book. Consider what the young Tim O’Brien learns about storytelling from his experience with Linda. How does this knowledge prepare him not only for the war, but also to become a writer? Within the parameters of this story, how would you characterize Tim O’Brien’s understanding of the purpose of fiction? How does fiction relate to life, that is, life in the journalistic or historic sense?

• O'Brien's early encounter with death not only prepares him for the Vietnam War, but also for his wiring career. Death is commonplace in war, O'Brien witnessed death much too often when he was in combat overseas. Death and the dead can be too much to handle, it it traumatizing, especially for a young man like O'Brien. When his girlfriend, Martha, died, he discovered a way to keep her alive. At least in his mind. This came to great use in Vietnam when not only his fellow soldiers died, but even the enemies as well. It was a way to cope with a loss and this softened the horrible impact of war on a young O'Brien. The purpose of fiction is to easy the reader in reality. Fictional stories and details can help make a book seem more plausible and "real." In this same way, fiction relates to life in the journalistic sense. It is to make the truth easier to grasp, because sometimes, the truth is hard to swallow, this is when fictional details and stories come to use in making it go down easier.

Reflection:

In this final chapter, the various threads of the work are finally woven together to form a cohesive message. Each of the major themes is illuminated as each of the major stories is retold. The cohesive core of the chapter is the present of "O'Brien" and his practice of what he referred to as his "Good Form" previously in the book: He objectifies his own experience, writing about himself alternating between the first- and third-person narrative voices. Though the work’s final statement seems to have little to do with Vietnam, its relevance lies in its addressing of the intimate relationship between death and life. O’Brien uses “The Lives of the Dead” to illustrate that his war narrative has a larger purpose than simply showing readers what it was like to be in a war. Interspersed throughout this story are smaller stories about death in Vietnam that lead back to the story of O’Brien himself—a man who writes in order to make sense of his life, especially in relation to others’ deaths. But at the forefront is the story of O’Brien’s first love and of his first realization that fiction can overcome death.The character of Linda, for the narrator, is synonymous with his loss of innocence. With her, he experiences both love and death for the first time, at the same time. In the story, she first represents the promise of childhood—delicate and beautiful, she agrees to go with him and his parents to the movies. When her balding head is revealed, and later her corpse, Linda’s innocence—and O’Brien’s, by association—is lost forever.