Sisters Who Never Write Back and People Who Never Listen - the Roles of Women in the Things They Carried

...

discover themselves. This is portrayed by how Linda’s death led to Tim wanting to become a storyteller and creating an activity that helps him be able to cope with his loss. Tim O’Brien describes how storytelling saved him by saying, “ It was a kind of self-hypnosis. Partly willpower, partly faith, which is how stories arrive. But back then it felt like a miracle. My dreams had become a secret meeting place, and in the weeks after she died I couldn’t wait to fall asleep at night” (231). After Linda’s death, Tim’s dreams are the only things keeping him together after losing his “true love”. Linda’s role in the novel tells the readers about how Tim discovered that he wanted to be a storyteller by how he would make up stories so he and Linda could be together.

Martha, Curt Lemon’s sister, and Linda are some of the few female characters that are mentioned in “The Things They Carried”. These and some other female characters show how their roles can affect men whether or not they are in war. Whatever effect the females had, positive or negative, they still have an important role that adds to the story. Some of their roles are even more important than some of the male characters. Perhaps this is seen by how in Tim’s dreams, Linda has a bigger effect on him than most of the male characters do. Tim O’Brien illustrates this by saying,“I’m young and happy. I’ll never die. I’m skimming across the surface of my own history, moving fast, riding the melt beneath the blades, doing loops and spins, and when I take a high leap into the dark and come down to thirty years later, I realize it as Tim trying to save Timmy’s life with a story” (233). This quotation from the story helps the readers understand that sometimes people need women to become inspired and make a story come to life.