Summary Analysis of The Story “The Lives of the Dead”
“The Lives of the Dead,” is one of the short stories by Tim O’Brien. In this fiction story, he says that remembering certain stories in life can bring the dead back to life. He tells his experience of witnessing the dead body of a Vietnamese man in Vietnam during the times of war. he informs Kiowa that the dead body is a reminder of the girl he had had a previous encounter in life named Linda. He alternates the narrative voices between first and third persons in his writing.in his last chapters, he narrates a story within a story, and the characters keep changing (Haberle & Mark 211).
O’Brien discourses and narrates the story of a girl named Linda. At the age of nine, they both believed they were in a true and mature love. At the beginning of 1956, on their first date, they watched World War movies, which impressed Linda (Haberle & Mark 215). At school, she wore a cap to cover the bandages at the back of her head most of the time. She had lost her hair. Her classmates teased her including Nick Veenhof. O’Brien felt helpless about Linda’s situation. Nick finds out that Linda is suffering from a brain tumor and later passes on. O’Brien, upon visiting, closes his eyes and retrieves Linda in his mind healthy, and he reassures her (Haberle & Mark 215). O’Brien believes that the dead are made alive through remembering their stories. Examples are tales of Ted Lavender’s demise, Kiowa, and stories cherished by Rat Kiley. 43- year-old O’Brien still dreams about Linda.
O’Brien revisits his difficult definition of the “war story” compared to some kind of genre. When he talks about the dead person, it revives the love story thus demonstrating the control of stories towards memorization of the dead. Symbolically, memories are more of the living than the dead, they help us believe that the dead are still existent and this forms the main theme of the novel (Haberle & mark 217). Throughout the story, the characters develop a form of mental escapism by thinking about memories and home because it brings a sense of comfort and meaning to events. The story is aimed at rescuing Timmy’s life. His childhood life. The protagonist happens to be Linda while Timmy is the antagonist. The other characters are Nick Veenhof, Tim’s parents, Ted Lavender, Mitchell Sanders, Rat Kiley, and Curt Lemon. (Haberle & mark 222).
The story has two settings. One set is in Tim’s childhood life, which revolves around school life and their home, while the other environment is on a war ground where Tim is trying to recount his childhood experience. The story moves back and forth and does not have a direct flow. It has interjections that give more understanding of the story itself. It alternates between the two settings. The story has fictional prose with simple sentences. It has a sad and nostalgic tone as Tim wishes that Linda could be alive.
The story majors on the theme of death. It explains the effect that death brings to the lives of their loved ones who were left behind. For instance, Tim still remembers Linda and their life together in their childhood even though he is now an adult. Even after those many years, he still wishes that Linda could be alive. The actions of those around him and the death of other people around him always bring back the memory of Linda. The story also highlights how our character and behavior can wound those around us. Our words can unknowingly bring bad memories to those around us. To O’Brien, death is terrible, but sharing it is the best thing to let go and stay positive. He dreams and retrieves stories to help him change from his childhood. He wishes he could have acted and responded to Linda’s situation earlier and similarly.
Works Cited
Haberle, Mark A. A Trauma Artist: Tim O’Brien and the Fiction of Vietnam. Iowa City: Univ. of Iowa Press, 2001. Print.
