The Lives Of The Dead Literary Analysis

Tim O’Brien depicts some of the effects it has on them, as well as some coping mechanisms they use, in The Things they Carried. Some of the things the soldiers lose include their innocence and a few of their fellow soldiers. Everyone was affected by this differently, some felt guilt, others just pretended things were fine, or dreamt them back to life. The reactions of those experiencing loss also help define it and how powerful it can be. When Kiowa died, one of the boys felt the effects of immediate loss, leading him to believe he was to blame for his death. He felt that “he was alone. He’d lost everything. He’d lost Kiowa and his weapon and his flashlight and his girlfriend’s picture. He remembered this. He remembered wondering if he could lose himself” (O’Brien 171). Like him, many people feel very lost during hard times and question how much longer they can stay sane and handle the situation. In some unfortunate cases, when loss becomes too much, some commit suicide, or react violently. However, an alternate way of coping with loss (of lives and of sanity) that is seen in the novel is to completely ignore it. O’Brien recalls how “in Vietnam, too, [they] always had ways of making the dead seem not so dead. Shaking hands, that was one way. By slighting death, by acting, [they] pretended it was not the terrible thing it was…” (O’Brien 238). The thoughts of one of the characters portrays how much everyone

Linda the love of his life, when they were nine, died of a brain tumor. Ted Lavender when he was shot and his body just dropped, how peaceful he was. Kiowa drowning in the sewage, all his religious beliefs. Lastly Lee Strunk's getting blown up, and when he quickly changed his mind about the promise he made of being put out of his misery. He says all this, because he thinks it's important to remember things like all the people he knew that died, so others can learn about his hardships.

One in particular is how Linda and Ted Lavender impacted his life. After O’Brien returned from Linda’s funeral, he remembers, “She was dead. I understood that. After all, I’d seen her body. And yet even as a nine-year-old I had begun to practice the magic of stories.

Power and control plays a big role in the lives many. When power is used as a form of control, it leads to depression and misery in the relationship. This is proven through the themes and symbolism used in the stories Lesson before Dying, The fun they had, The strangers that came to town, and Dolls house through the median of three major unsuccessful relationship: racial tension between the African Americans and the caucasians in the novel Lesson before Dying, Doll’s House demonstrates a controlling relationship can be detrimental for both individuals and The Stranger That Came To Town along with The Fun They Had show that when an individual is suppressed by majority they become despondent.

Many authors use storytelling as a vehicle to convey the immortality of past selves and those who have passed to not only in their piece of literature but in their life as an author. In Tim O’Brien’s work of fiction The Things They Carried, through his final chapter “The Lives of the Dead,” O 'Brien conveys that writing is a matter of survival since, the powers of storytelling can ensure the immortality of all those who were significant in his life. Through their immortality, O’Brien has the ability to save himself with a simple story. Through snippets of main plot event of other chapters, O’Brien speaks to the fact the dead have not actually left; they are gone physically, but not spiritually or emotionally. They live on in memories as Linda lives on in the memories of O’Brien and as many of his war buddies live on through his stories. He can revive them and bring them back to the world through his writings and through these emotions or events he experienced with them and with their deaths can make them immortal. Through the reminiscent stories of Linda and O’Brien’s war companions and himself, O’Brien conveys that storytelling allows people to reanimate others who have died and past selves to create an immortality of humans.

In past years, as well as, in the twenty-first century, African Americans are being oppressed and judged based on the color of their skin. In, A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines, this is the primary conflict that plagues Jefferson’s as well as Grant’s everyday life. By pleading guilty to a murder that he did not commit, Jefferson has to choose to die just as he is, a hog in the white’s eyes, or die a man. On the other hand, Grant, who is his teacher, is faced with being looked down upon by his community all because of his race and status. He is graced with the challenge of turning Jefferson into a man before his execution date. It is only a matter of time before they both realize that they cannot change the past and they have

In “Lives of the Dead”, O’Brien’s own innocence is preserved through the memory of Linda, a memory that remains untarnished by the inevitable corruption that results from life. O’Brien’s writings “save Linda’s life. Not her body--her life” (236). Storytelling and memories preserve the value of Linda’s existence while simultaneously allowing O’Brien to process death and destruction in a way that maintains a degree of optimism regarding his own life and future. Juxtaposing the images of body and life emphasizes his desire to save the idea of Linda while accepting the loss of her physical presence. O’Brien rejects the idea of death as absolute and final; instead he suggests that “once you are alive, you can never be dead” (244). Linda’s death solidifies her importance in O’Brien’s own development; she teaches him about life and real love as much as in death as in life. O’Brien’s paradoxical statement defines the lasting impact of Linda on him; her presence in his stories keeps her alive through memory; memories that even her death

Medieval China, as seen in the Stories from a Ming Collection, was characterized by distinct separations between men and women’s abilities, typical old fashioned family structure, and a desire to advance their social status. Throughout all the stories in this book, it dives deep into different aspects of how men and women are treated, how families were structured and how that affects their lives, as well as the values these people held. A very common trend in the stories was how different men and women were treated and the limitations they may or may not had.

The men who were in Tim O’Brien’s platoon caught on quickly, if they talked about everything that was going on as if it was only a story, their lives became a little easier. It became easier even for the men who didn’t practically like the guy who died. In the war it wasn’t about liking one another, that didn’t matter, what mattered to them was expressing their grief without showing it. “In any case, it’s easy to get sentimental about the dead, and to guard against it” (82). Being able to guard against their grief was something that was hard for many. No matter how many stories they told, there was still a sadness that some of them never could get over. The death of Kiowa was one of those impossible to get over. His death impacted everyone in the platoon. Even though Kiowa was just their guide, they treated him like he was a part of their family of misfits. Every man in the platoon had a story for Kiowa. There was some who told people stories that had Kiowa never dying, there were two however where his death left such a huge impact on them. All they

She is an enabler because he has to be careful on how he words his stories, since she is just 8 years old. Kathleen (Enabler) O'Brien lists physical objects that the soldiers carry as an emotional gateway to the burdens that the soldiers bear. The prime example here is the necessity for the soldiers to confront the tension between reality and fantasy. Cross thinks that because he was so obsessed with his fantasy of Martha and the life they might lead after the war, he was negligent. He sees Ted Lavender’s death as the result of his negligence. This passage illustrates the conflict between love and war, and the dangers that come in between. Analyze This passage outlines the intimate relationship between life and death. "The Living Dead" has a larger purpose than just explaining what it is like to be in a war. 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’

Drawing upon the ability of fiction to preserve life against death, O 'Brien says that, during wartime, that they were able to "[keep] the dead alive with stories" (239). To the living, stories were a way to keep the memory of the dead alive, but to the dead, it was the simple act of remembering that kept them alive: "That 's what a story does. The bodies are animated. You make the dead talk" (232). This theme of preservation is exemplified by story of Linda, in which O 'Brien uses the power of storytelling and memory to keep people alive: "Stories can save us. I 'm forty-three years old, and a writer now, and even still, right here, I keep dreaming Linda alive...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." (225).

In William Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying” and Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesmen” there is Notable themes of gender role and gender identity. Faulkner’s Character Anse is Comparatively Similar but also Contrastingly different in the roles they both convey as head of their households, In their families and in society. Both Families can also be analyzed by their time period in which each piece of fictional literature took place. Faulkner’s novel “As I Lay Dying” was written in 1930 while Miller’s play was written in 1949.

In the novel The Dead, Gabriel Conroy, who is the nephew of Julia and Kate Morkan, is the main character of the story. One night he and his wife attended a party, which was given by his two aunts, and there were many other members in the party. The story revolves around their life and memories.Gabriel Conroy felt a blur between his soul and the dead. Some people died, but they are still alive because they have true love. Some people are alive, but they are still dead because they never love.I like the story for three reasons.

The storyteller is able to keep his or her memories fresh and alive through the act of telling stories. At the age of forty-three, Tim O’Brien is still able to remember his childhood friend, Linda, who died when he was nine. “Even now I can see her walking down the aisle of the old State Theater in Worthington, Minnesota. I can see her face in profile beside me, the cheeks softly lighted by coming attractions.” Linda is given the gift of life through death by the power of the story. She not only lives in the mind of Tim O’Brien, but now Linda can live in the mind of anyone of whom he tells the story to. O’Brien’s audience is even graced with the pleasure of imagining what Linda looked like, “There were little crinkles at her eyes, her lips open and gently curving at the corners.” The audience can nearly see Linda, nine years old, standing in a childlike manner before

The novel “Chronicle of a Death Foretold” by Garcia Marquez recounts the story where Santiago Nasar was accused of taking the virginity of Angela Vicario and therefore killed. The society depicted in the novel is one where appearances are important to the townsmen regardless of the cost of it. Using symbolism, Garcia Marquez exposes the superficial nature of the town and their flaws.