Relationships In The Things They Carried

When reading The Things They Carried the men in the book show various views and feelings about the women they love, hate, and can only dream of; these women have a way of keeping the men sane while away for war. Throughout the book of short stories, Tim O 'Brien shows men of the Alpha Company carrying things that remind them of women back home, women they one day hope to be able to return to. The relationships between the men and the women are not always exactly what the men want, but a reminder of love. Though these women, like Kathleen, Linda, and Martha can effect, control, and alter events or the males throughout the story making it harder, easier, or different for them.

Lieutenant Cross loves Martha but he understands that Martha does

After their first date, he knew that he was in love. During the war, the Alpha company burns down a village and Dave Jensen makes fun of a dead guy and wants Tim to join him, though Tim says “No way” (The Things They Carried Page 214) and he says “All day long I’d been picturing Linda 's face, the way she smiled” (The Things They Carried Page 215). Because he is reminded of Linda, his fourth grade girlfriend who dies, he didn 't want to tease the old man, except he wanted his peers to show the old man some respect, as it was real to him and unlike the other soldiers, it was not his way to make the dead seem less dead. As time passes, he starts to dream of Linda and he brings her back to life in his mind. She becomes his getaway and his overall way of dealing with war, he keeps her alive with stories- an example is shown on page 216, where he tells the story of taking her on a double date with his mother and father in 4th grade. While writing this passage he describes the relationship between life and death with Linda being his first experience of love and also becoming his first experience of death, using her to get a better understanding of his life, in relation to the dead during war. Linda is why Tim can deal with war so well, when he was nine he dealt with his first love dying. This occurring at a very young age and him being able to write about it to understand her death,