The Years of My Birth Essay

Tim O’Brien used his thoughts when he is talking about Linda after she passed away. “And yet right here, in the spell of memory and imagination, I can still see her…” (O’Brien 232). Tim loved Linda, so he would do anything to get her back, even if it meant making up a fake scenario in his head. The author would use his thoughts to make the dead seem alive, even if it was just for a moment by “...still dreaming Linda alive in exactly the same way” (O’Brien 232). The author imagines a life that includes Linda to make it seem like she never really left. Throughout the chapter the author uses his imagination and thoughts when telling stories about the people that had the greatest impact on him to make it seem like they are still alive and with

Linda treats everything like its inevitably going to happen. She goes with the flow and lets everything go against her. This is one of her major flaws is not defending her self or the actions of others that oppose her view.

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

Adoption has brought me through the hands of my birth mother to a mother who has now raised me for 16 years. Conversations with my birth mother result in dramatic feelings for her and for me, “tyranny of the past” (p.102). But, Lewis suggests in the book that the past is all she (the ghost) “chose to have” and that “it was the wrong way to deal with sorrow”. My birth mother could very well be the ghost as I was even an ‘accident’. As her memory of me is deceiving and still consuming her thoughts. This maternal or instinctual love is preventing my mother from moving on in her own life.

Enchanted by her serene radiance, I did not disturb her. Suddenly she began to speak in a whispered hum that was more like a song, unique in a dwelling full of ranting outbursts. She spoke of years long past, swimming in the pond with her sister and dancing in the moonlight. I could picture all in my head, like I was watching a movie. Then she began repeating the story she had just told me, and I realized that she was merely talking to herself. Although this discovery disenchanted me at first, I soon realized that, although the woman was talking to herself, she still had so many fantastic stories stored in her mind. The residents of the home all had some life flittering in them and numerous stories to share; they just need someone to listen to them. After my experience at the home I knew that one of my goals in life would always be o help make sure that people were receiving proper treatment, and not merely stuffed away and drugged up.

Linda dies shortly after John arrives at the hospital. He is completely grief stricken, but, in this new society, death is as important as sex, and no one understands why he’s so upset. Between his mom dying and almost getting raped by Lenina he seeks out an escape. He finds a group of Deltas waiting for their daily dose of Soma, and he gets caught up in a riot. Bernard and Helmholtz find him right before the police show up. The police give the Deltas some Soma, and arrest Bernard, Helmholtz, and John. Bernard is a turncoat and tries to place the blame on the other two men, but this has the opposite effect and he’s taken away. Mustapha convinces Helmholtz that the island is the best place for him because he will be surrounded by like

Linda has always been socially removed because of her world-state conditioned promiscuity. Through a consequence of being promiscuous, she learns how to be maternal and loving towards her own son. This shows that Linda is not completely conditioned and gives into human instinct as well. If it hadnt been for a mistake in contraceptives and being forced to have John, Linda would have never showed

Linda cannot function as a normal person would because she is conditioned to think differently. This goes to show no matter how hard her character tries she is unable to break away from her conditioning and is challenged by having to understand traditional morality. Linda is so used to a life of casual sex and “soma holidays” (p.60) that her life on the reservation is traumatizing, she is just surrounded by “beastly savages” and feels she is being “turned into a savage” (p.125-126). This character who wraps herself in a blanket mescal and peyote(p.125) goes through a lot in the book and illustrates that the “new world society” ideology simply has no place in the world we live

She is able to recognize that she plays an important role in the young boy’s life, and so she sacrifices her own happiness, and comfort, for his sake. In spite of the sacrifices she makes for her child, John himself fails to recognize her significance. When John thinks, “Poor Linda, breathless and dumb, with her clutching hands and the unutterable terror in her eyes. Poor Linda whom he had sworn to remember,” (Huxley, 236), his ungratefulness can be seen. John says that he has to swear to remember Linda insinuating that it would take work and effort to remember her and not that it would come naturally to him as it should have.

Once returned to London, Linda quickly falls ill due to her overuse of soma. Later in the novel, John is called to the hospital after being told his mother does not have much time left to live. After his arrival and Linda’s passing, he is distraught to the horror of everyone else. One nurse thinks of speaking with him in order to instill some sense into him. “…this disgusting outcry—as though death were something terrible, as though anyone mattered as much as all that!”

Willy’s dissatisfaction from his wife’s support unveils his inability to accept reality over his fantasy of the past. Willy’s first vision of the woman reveals his dissatisfaction with Linda, as well as his yearnings to return to the past. Willy’s visions of the woman represent his inescapable fantasy of his romanticized older days. While the woman becomes a

Linda, for all her warmth and goodness, goes along with her husband and sons in the best success-manual tradition.  She tries to protect them from the forces outside and fails.  The memory of her suffering and her fidelity does not keep Willy and Happy from sex or Biff from wandering.  Miller's irony goes still deeper.  While Linda is a mirror of goodness and the source of the family's sense of identity, she is not protection - by her silence and her support, she unwittingly cooperates

Linda’s behaviour is becoming clearer and clearer by the minute, and while her husband is not present, his inability to interpret Linda’s feelings becomes visible. After all, if Amelia could see it, how could her father, who lives with Linda, be unable to see it? The uninvolved father later joins Amelia and a red-eyed Linda on the patio, who is chatting about an article on home furnishing blogs. While he notices that Linda’s eyes are red, he decides to ignore it, instead approaching her smiling and asks “Well girls, what’s the verdict?” The father shows no real regard for the final result, although he didn’t decide to indulge Linda from the beginning.

Eventually, poor and powerless Linda will succumb to a mystically potent enchantment, and having no other choice, she will offer willingly both her captive body and her rosy warm blood.

One morning on an exciting saturday, on Pismo Beach, August in the year 6028 a boy named Sam woke up to the delicious smell of bacon and french toast. Today was exciting because today is Sam’s 14th birthday, and he got to spend it with his family and friends. Probably one of the most exciting things for Sam, was that today he was going to get all of the attention and presents and sweets, and maybe that amazing 3609 Hoverboard he’s been begging from his parents for the longest time. Sam got ready with his new clothes and some cool shoes he got from his grandma before she left out of state, after he got done dressing he walked down stairs as quickly as possible. He couldn’t think he could wait any longer, his mouth was watering with that delicious smell of bacon and french toast his mother made him, guessing it was a surprise for his birthday.