Like Bowker, Linda gives O’Brien a reason to write. In his vision of her after her death, Linda tells O’Brien to “stop crying,” that death “doesn’t matter.” Indeed, O’Brien uses writing to tell the story of Linda, to give her life again, or as he puts it, to “save Linda’s […]
Read more Character Analysis LindaCharacter Analysis Rat Kiley
Rat also teaches us the limits of what a man can take. Rat shoots himself in the foot as a result of the company switching to a routine of night-movement for two weeks. As night is a common metaphor for death, we understand how Rat deals with the new, pressing […]
Read more Character Analysis Rat KileyCharacter Analysis Kiowa
Kiowa helps “O’Brien” by easing his transitions. He makes “O’Brien” more comfortable when he arrives at the war, talking to him about the others’ jokes about corpses, and he tries to get “O’Brien” to talk about the Vietnamese soldier he killed. “O’Brien” tells the story of Linda to Kiowa. It […]
Read more Character Analysis KiowaCharacter Analysis Mary Anne Bell
O’Brien leaves out the conclusion to the tale about Mary Anne, instead letting her character pass into the realm of folklore. Rather than allowing us to know what becomes of someone (like himself) who undergoes a violent loss of innocence, we are left wondering how war affects a person, and […]
Read more Character Analysis Mary Anne BellCharacter Analysis Norman Bowker
Bowker connects “O’Brien” the soldier with O’Brien the writer. He operates as a figment of O’Brien’s imagination, allowing him to move between the war and storytelling, providing a purpose and a story for O’Brien to tell. This stands in contrast to Bowker’s actions in the novel, and points to what […]
Read more Character Analysis Norman BowkerCharacter Analysis Lt. Jimmy Cross
Lt. Cross is a weak leader because the traditional training he received is at stark odds with what he encounters in-country. His training forced him to be concerned more with marching in line, following preset maps, and keeping guns clean — following pre-decided standard operating procedures — rather than adapting […]
Read more Character Analysis Lt. Jimmy CrossCharacter Analysis Tim O’Brien
It is important to remember that O’Brien authors a personal war autobiography. He constantly reflects on and interrogates choices he has made, and invites his reader to do the same. For example, O’Brien derides himself as a coward and then directly addresses his readers, soliciting from them what they would […]
Read more Character Analysis Tim O’BrienSummary and Analysis The Lives of the Dead
O’Brien then segues into the story of a particular girl named Linda. Though O’Brien was only nine years old at the time, he believed he was in love with Linda, also age nine. He believed that their love was a mature love, not childish love. In spring of 1956, young […]
Read more Summary and Analysis The Lives of the DeadSummary and Analysis Night Life
Analysis O’Brien begins this vignette typically, at the end of the story. We know that Rat Kiley gets “hurt,” but we do not know how badly and the nature of the wound. The story then moves almost nowhere as we know how it will end before it begins. Like so […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Night LifeSummary and Analysis The Ghost Soldiers
O’Brien was shot a second time, and he nearly died of shock before Jorgenson administered medical care. O’Brien felt intense anger toward Jorgenson. The wound developed gangrene, and O’Brien could not walk or sit. He felt humiliation and embarrassment and began planning ways to get even with Jorgenson. After his […]
Read more Summary and Analysis The Ghost Soldiers