Life After Death

     While reading the last chapter "The Lives of the Dead", I wondered why O'Brien didn't finish his book with a story from Vietnam because that is what most of the other stories were about.  After the discussion in class though, I realized he didn't end it with a war story, but rather he ended his book about love, guilt, fear, and remorse with death.  I thought that was so symbolic especially after Ben brought up the last sentence of the first chapter: "He might just shrug and say, Carry on, then they would saddle up and form into a column and move out toward the villages west of Than Khe" (25).  The west symbolizes death, and O'Brien was basically setting the reader up to read a book filled with life, love, and pain all to be ended with unescapable death. 
     The story in the last chapter about Linda and O'Brien's love for her when they were only nine years old also caught my attention because it didn't seem to fit in with the rest of the stories.  I think O'Brien ended with this specific story because he wanted to share his experience with life after death and how he imagined Linda so vividly after she passed away.  He wanted to keep her soul living through this story, and I think that was one of the main objectives of all the stories.  O'Brien wanted to keep the soldiers' memories and souls alive.  I feel like O'Brien used his "story-truth" in order to pass on the memories he wanted the reader to feel emotionally invested in.  While we cannot bring somebody back to life, we have the power to let them live on in this world, and O'Brien believes stories are the best platform to do so.
 
 

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