CD+-+Things+Carried

Connor Ducey Mrs. Ackerman Summary Response The Things They Carried - Jungian approach

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/thingscarried/themes.html

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/The-Things-They-Carried-Character-Analyses-Linda.id-181,pageNum-71.html

http://www.literatureclassics.com/ancientpaths/litcrit.html#myth

**Summary** In the Cliffnotes article, it describes Linda as an important symbol of the novel. It tells how the fourth grade sweetheart of Tim O’Brien represents memory, love, and death. It also shows how O’Brien can respect and represent his past friends through his writing.

Although archetypal symbols in the novel //The Things They Carried// by Tim O’Brien play a fairly small role, there are a couple symbols frequently used to embellish the novel. Linda, Tim O’Brien’s girlfriend in fourth grade, is used as a type of archetypal woman. In the Cliffnotes article it says that she represents the soul mate of the hero on a basic level, but also symbolizes a connection between love and war, memory, love, and death. I agree with those statements fully because O’Brien says numerous times that he loves Linda, he sees a war movie with her, writes about her to keep her memory alive, and tries to understand death by using hers. I see the whole purpose and meaning of the novel as O’Brien trying to release his painful memories through his storytelling and Linda fits in that category due to the pain he feels with her. The Cliffnotes article later goes on to say that, “ The whole novel, then, is about love and death, about Timmy and Linda ”  (Cliffnotes). I can also agree with that, although I think O’Brien releasing his feelings is also a large part of the story, because much of the feelings with Vietnam in general are love and hate. O’Brien hated the war, but loved his squad: “That’s how I felt-like a civilian-and it made me sad. These guys had been my brothers. We’d loved one another” (O’Brien 194). There were total opposite relationships in O’Brien’s heart in Vietnam with the hate of the war and love of his comrades being one example. Linda represents the love and hate because of O’Brien’s feelings for her and her death, but also being the women of his dreams. He made her out to be a great specimen after dreaming about her for so long, so that makes her an archetypal woman. Also, there is some use of rivers and water in the novel as an archetypal symbol. For example, O’Brien focuses on the fact that his friend Kiowa died in a river. Rivers mean rebirth in archetypal terms so Kiowa is being reborn after he dies and gets out of the troubled world. Tim O'Brien could be saying that being reborn somewhere else is better than living on with survivors' guilt in the troubled world. O’Brien uses archetypes to make his purpose in writing more clear.
 * Response**


 * Works Cited**

Cliffnotes. //Character Analysis Linda//. 12 May 2008. .

O'Brien, Tim. //The Things They Carried//. New York: Random House, 1990.
 * Questions**


 * 1) What significance does Linda have to O'Brien and how does it connect so much to Vietnam?
 * 2) Why do you think O'Brien wanted to get back at Jorgensen so badly? Why was he so intent on getting revenge on a guy that seemed really nice?
 * 3) What do you think the main theme of the story is? Story Telling? Death? Ect..
 * 4) How did O'Brien love Linda? How could he know at such a young age...and doesn't he have a wife? I wonder how she felt about the last chapter hehe
 * 5) Why was O'Brien crumbled up and hurting during the fiasco with Azar and Jorgensen? It was more than just guilt.
 * 6) Why are terms such as "Night Life" needed to be used by the soldiers in Nam?
 * 7) How do you feel about death? Do you agree with Linda's thought that there is no such thing as death? Or with Sanders' in thinking that "death sucks."

Write down an important dream that you have had that has effected your life in some way. Do you think dreams have meaning and if so what meaning do your dreams have?
 * Opening Activity**

Connor D