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O’Brien uses writing to overcome death. His escapist projections allow him to cope with guilt and process grief, and make brutal stories more accessible and impactful for audiences. “True” or not, O’Brien’s reflections on Linda and the war immortalize their stories for future readers, who he hopes will glean a new perspective and not repeat the mistakes of his generation.
Many veterans face difficulties assimilating back into a post-war society. Their inability to process their trauma and "tell their stories" is a catalyst for this phenomenon. The lack of conversation surrounding war and its impacts solidifies the inevitability of war for future generations.

This article connections to the essential questions of "What is the difference between truth and fiction?" and "Why do we tell stories?" Many of O’Brien’s American peers display the harmful effects of only consuming one narrative, and prioritizing personal story-truth over contradictory facts. Despite sharing similar trauma with the Vietnamese people, the veterans rarely acknowledge the damage they incurred, as they are too consumed by highly emotional reconstructions of their experiences.While there is nothing inherently wrong with either story-truth or happening-truth, the blatant emphasis of one and devaluing of the other breeds division and miscommunication.

The novel has also largely excluded stories from women and American citizens that did serve.

It struck me how seemingly unpopular O'Brien's opinions on the war were among his peers. and the soldiers' lack of empathy towards Vietnamese people. despite experiencing very similar trauma.

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1. This article relates to the last chapter, "The lives of the dead" because in both readings they focus on deaths. O'Brien feels guilty with not able to do anything for Linda in the things they carried, and in the article he feels a loss for the people that have been killed.

2. O'Brien addresses the use of storytelling as catharsis and healing by relating to his past memories and thoughts, and bringing them back to connect with his recent problems that happened during the war.

3. This narrative is relevant to the narrative of current veterans because lot's of veterans have their own story and point of views that are very important that connect to how they feel about certain topics and that's why they use storytelling to express themselves, and to remember old memories about war.

4. This article connects to the essential questions,"The impacts of war?" and "Why we tell stories?", because O'Brien didn't know any of the men he went to war with, he felt like he went with ghosts because he doesn't know by their real names but was nicknames. Also it connects to why we tell stories because without all these stories we wouldn't be able to think like O'Brien and like in the first page of the article he feels like an outsider and without him explaining we wouldn't able to understand.

5. In my opinion, I think the soldiers families stories are missing from the novel because it would be interesting to know what they think and if they supported them.

6. What resonated with me was that the soldiers had different point of views and how O'Brien showed his disappoint against other people and how he felt towards peoples death.

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1. In both the article and the chapter, "The Lives of the Dead" it is explained how stories can not only unite but they are a way to cope with difficult experiences. Such as the ones that O'Brien lived through like when he was nine with Linda, and his numerous experiences in war.
2. Storytelling offers an escape from cruel realities and creates a world filled with comfort. It revives old memories, creating new ones. O'Brien explains in the chapter "The Lives of the Dead" how "...stories can save us" (O'Brien 213). Stories keep forgotten memories alive, they can be anything. Which is why stories helped O'Brien through loss, they kept his friends 'alive.'
3. This narrative is relevant to narratives of current veteran because, like O'Brien they had harsh experiences and storytelling makes them think back to past memories that might've been forgotten before. Therefore reliving these experiences, and explaining them which could help heal the trauma that they caused.
4. This article connects to the essential question of why we tell stories. In the article it is explained by O'Brien how stories have a healing trait of some sort. And that by storytelling new truths and realities can be discovered or made.
5. Only O'Brien's story is seen by his perspective, leaving out many other different opinions. One major perspective being the Vietnamese, who were affected tremendously as well.  And not only them but soldiers who had completely different experiences in war than O'Brien's. Through O'Brien we only see one single story of a soldier. There are various stories being left out that would be very important to consider.
6. Something else that resonated with me was how O'Brien's opinions on the importance of the Vietnamese's impacts were not understood and shared amongst other veteran soldiers. They show no sympathy or considerations for their situation that O'Brien has expressed through his writing. Even after sharing very similar experiences in war, in the end they're all still different from each other. Either opinions or how they live their life's, the only thing they share are those experiences.

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1. The article relates to the last chapter, "The Lives of the Dead", because in both O'Brien expresses the importance of story telling and how it can keep the memory of those he has lost in the war alive, whilst also healing the past trauma of those who survived the war.
2. O'Brien allows himself to heal through his story telling by letting go of the burdens that he carries from the weight of these stories. He is able to process what he did and saw by being able to share and flesh out his experiences to others.
3. This narrative is relevant to the narrative of current veterans because there is still stigma around searching for help to heal trauma or any sort of mental unwellness, and veterans from current times also need coping skills to process the trauma they gained from the war.
4. This article answers the question "Why do we tell stories?", O'Brien expresses that by telling his stories he can keep the memories of the dead alive and honor their lives. He also uses his writing as an outlet, a way for him to let go of all the negative emotion surrounding his war experience.
5. As well as the voices of the Vietnamese soldiers being missing, the voices of many other people of color and women are missing too. The impacts of war are different for those treated different by society, and although O'Brien mentions these groups, they are presented from his perspective, that of one of privilege.
6. What really resonated with me was how little O'Brien actually knew about his fellow soldiers, how their whole beings got swept away by the war and they were almost like ghosts to him. It's interesting how they could spend so much time and go through so much together and not even know each others real names, but that's what the war does, it consumes their identities and makes them emotionless machines.

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1. In both "The Lives of the Dead" and O'Brien's article, he addresses the importance of storytelling in being able to bring life to past experiences and memories, which can help revive the dead and connections between him and his former comrades. By telling stories such as the one on Ted Lavender, O'Brien can reminisce and think fondly of his former comrades during the war. In doing so, O'Brien adds life to the dead people and experiences from the war and therefore brings life to himself. O'Brien realizes that the post-war trauma that he is experiencing is not along to him; his former comrades are in the same picture, which O'Brien realizes by reminiscing on past experiences through stories.
2. Storytelling serves as a form of catharsis as stories can help remove the guilt and regret felt over past war experiences. Addressing these experiences and giving meaning to them through stories ensures that whatever happened in the past is not just left in the dark. These traumatic events are actually acknowledged in a way that can remove the guilt and pain associated with them.
3. Many veterans today have similarly been impacted by the war and must find ways to cope with their pain. Just how soldiers in the article addressed their struggle by developing this purely virtuous and egocentric mindset as a way to feel that their experiences in war were necessary, veterans today have similarly had to find ways to simply stay alive. The impacts of war are not something that can just be ignored or forgotten, whether it be for veterans from Vietnam or veterans today.
4. This article relates to the essential question of, What are the impacts of war? The veterans in the article are described as feeling as if their experiences and impacts from the war are not addressed enough. They want to feel as if they matter and that their concerns are heard as they are frustrated over not being able to acclimate back to normal life, which leads them to develop an egocentric, conservative, traditionalist mindset with no sympathy for any other group involved in the war.
5. The stories of women and other minority groups in their voices are missing from this novel. While the book does include some women such as Mary Anne and Martha, we hear about them from the perspective of the male American soldiers, rather than the women themselves. We also didn't really hear about the perspective of the soldiers' families and how they were impacted.
6. The article resonated with me as it truly highlighted how impacting war was and still is among veterans. Due to feeling that their stories are not heard enough, many veterans develop a narrative of the war that is completely contrasting to their perspective of it when they actually were involved. Learning how to best help these soldiers both mentally and in overcoming their stereotypes and false perspectives is absolutely necessary.

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1. This article relates to "The lives of the dead" because it talks about relationships and it focus's on impacts of war even though the last chapter mainly is talking about stuff before the war, it talks about relationships and how traumatic events can make an impact on relationships ( any )
2. He uses story telling as like a coping mechanism and he can let the people in his stories live, since there not alive anymore so they can live in his stories.
3. It might be relevant to current veterans because a lot of other veterans might agree about the war being unnecessary.
4. This relates to an essential question through the impact of war because,  it can make things relatable so then other veterans dont feel alone.

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1. This article relates to the final chapter ¨The lives of the Dead¨ because O'Brien zeros in on how stories can be so extremely powerful. O'Brien explains how stories revive the spirit of the deceased in both of these writings, and how telling these stories helps to heal the trauma.

2. O´Brien though writing and telling these stories he gets the time to look back and process everything. It allows the person to express and release all of what they feel and get out everything that may be causing trauma. O´Brien writes about his truma for this healing and encourages us to do so.

3. This narrative is still relevant with current veterans because even though there are many differences they still both carry trauma.

O´brien ecouges writing for all forms of trauma

4. This article touches on the essential question of why we tell stories. O'Brien tells us that stories are important in relishing trauma and preventing the bottleing up of emotions.

5.The whole book is told though men on the american sides point of view. Not only do we miss the vietnameses stories but we also miss womens. Both groups of people present themselves but they are still told through a man's point of view.

6. I really disliked how the other veterans tricked and treated the vientamese calling them slurs. especially after doing the play yellow face it definitely struck a nerve

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1. The article relates to the last chapter of the novel because O'Brien addresses how storytelling helps him keep the dead alive in a way. He also describes how desensitized himself and other soldiers have become to death as a whole. How easily they make jokes and seem unaffected by it, but in reality is a coping mechanism for the trauma they endure. The focus of the last chapter and article is on storytelling and how that aids soldiers in processing what they're going through.
2. O'Brien heavily emphasizes storytelling as catharsis and healing by showing how it helps him process and sort through the traumatic events of his time at war. He shows how he was able to re-enter society smoothly because he was able to share his stories through his writing.
3. This narrative is relevant to that of current veterans, who also have difficulty expressing themselves and their experiences, and could benefit from a healthy coping mechanism. If all veterans were able to healthily process their trauma, it would improve the mental health of veterans everywhere.
4. This article connects to the essential question: What are the impacts of war? The deep connection soldiers make to one another, and not feeling completely comfortable around others who have not experienced the same trauma is something O'Brien describes in the article. This connects to the essential question because it shows the irreversible effect war can have on your mental and emotional state.
5. Minorities and women's voices are not pervasive in this text. We hear from one soldier who is Native American, but the time spent focused on how his race effects him is scarce. The only women involved in the text are girlfriends and people at home, not anyone involved in the war. Excluding Kiowa, there are no minorities heard from in this text.
6. The part of the article that resonates with me the most is when O'Brien describes his fellow veterans still using slurs against Vietnamese people, but insisting it isn't racially motivated. This just reminds me of how much trauma veterans have experienced in Vietnam, and how that could translate into a prejudice against Asian people.

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1.  This article relates to “The Lives of the Dead” because in the last chapter of TTTC, Tim O’Brien’s experiences of death and war have given him an opinion on the morality of war, which he admits in the article that most veterans would disagree with. The importance of stories is also a shared topic between the article and the last chapter of The Things They Carried.

2.  O’Brien addresses the use of storytelling as catharsis and healing by being able to tell his truth even if many veterans do not agree with him. Tim O’Brien has the freedom to use fiction in his stories to make the reader feel what he wants them to feel. O’Brien has the freedom to let his emotions spill on the pages and express his thoughts on the war.

3.  This narrative is relevant to the narrative of current veterans because they relate to how patriotism can get in the way of moral values. This article is about how veterans can ignore the other side of the story and become narrow minded about what the war did to others. Tim O’Brien named some soldiers as self-congratulatory, mostly uncritical, and selfish. Even though more than a century has passed, the veterans of the past are similar to the veterans of the present because of the common nature of war.

4.  This article connects to the essential question of “What voices are pervasive in this text? What is missing and how is it impacting the plot? The characters? The conflict?”. The potent factors of patriotism and embarrassment are pervasive to a soldier/veteran when deciding to join their country’s war and when looking back on the morality of the war. Tim O’Brien said that only a few of his fellow veterans have expressed distress over an estimated 3 million dead Vietnamese soldiers. This proves that from Tim O’Brien’s experiences and perspective on the Vietnam War, U.S. soldiers have put their country’s values first and bias has blocked the idea of a fundamentally right or wrong decision/opinion.

5.  The stories of the African-American soldiers who fought for the United States in the Vietnam War were not included in this novel. Accounting for about 11 percent of the total troops in the war, African Americans played a big role in the war and were often forced into the front lines of combat. African-American’s were racially discriminated against and were affected differently by the Vietnam War. An African-American perspective on the Vietnam war is vital to understanding all of the war’s complexities and the unique experiences that African-Americans had in a racially segregated time period. My opinion also agrees with the basic premise of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s argument against the popular American perspective of the Vietnam War.

6. The part that resonated with me the most was when O’Brien was talking about his conversations with his fellow veterans. He talked about how there was a scarcity of conversations about the Vietnamese and the morality of the war. The tension of not talking about these things, O’Brien’s books on the war, and their tough-to-break bonds resonated with me.

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Martina Amespil
1. The article relates to the chapter "The Lives of the Dead" because the relashionships in both texts affect life a lot. In the article O'Brien talks about how he remebers the people that died in the war, some bbut hteir nicknames and some by their names. O'Brien had a simple but special relashionship with the men. In the chapter "The Lives of the Dead" he talks about how Linda changed his perspective on life by realizing what the red cap ment and accepting what was going to happen.
2. O'Brien addreses the use of stroytelling as catharsis and healing by sharing his experience with people around the world as a form of closure.
3. The narrative is relevant to the narrative of the current veterans because they are both sharing their stories from their views. The whole story might not be fully true, but its true in their eyes because its from their prespective. All of the stories that are told have a tie to emotional pain which is something war forced on them.
4. The articles connects to the essential question why we tell stories because it tells the story from the experiences of the soldiers and stories themselves.
5. The stories of the people who are missing are the children affected who had to grow up witnessing the war.
6. What resonated with me was his story of Linda because it makes me happy that he could love her just the way he is because now days society is very judgy about many things, and finding someone who will love you or like you for you is difficult sometimes.

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1. This article relates to the chapter "The Lives of the Dead" through relationships he's made that impacted his life in both negative and positive ways. O'Brien shows the reader how telling stories could relieve yourself of the pain you've once lived.
2. O'Brien addresses the use of storytelling as catharsis and healing through his experiences with storytelling. He explains that telling a story is like forgiving yourself for a mistake or experience you've lived through. You relieve yourself from the stress you've dealt with the stories.
3. The narrative is relevant to current veterans now because it gives them a way to live through the trauma. To "just keep swimming". He's helping the veterans deal with what they could've/ did endure during their time at the war. Speaking of your trauma allows the person to forgive themself.
4. This article connects to the essential question of why do we tell stories because it clearly answers the question through experiences and stories themselves.
5. The other stories that are missing are women, poc, families, protestors, and even bystanders.
6. What resonates with me is the way that O'Brien finds a unique way to heal from his trauma. The way that telling stories saved him from alcoholism, drug usage or even suicide.

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1. This article relates to the last chapter of the novel, " The Lives of the Dead" because in both readings O'Brien focuses on the impact of storytelling. In the novel, O'Brien explains that stories can bring back those who have passed just by the act of remembering. The article explains how stories are being used in order to look back on past experiences.

2. O'Brien addresses the use of storytelling as catharsis and healing by communicating the way he relates his past and post-war experiences to his fellow soldier's past/post-war experiences.

3. The narrative is relevant to the narrative of current veterans because they both focus on storytelling. Whether it was stories from the past or present they are told in a way that adds an emotional connection to the reader. The emotional connection allows the reader to dive deeper and put themselves in the shoes of those involved.

4. This article connects to the essential questions Why do we tell stories? along with What are the impacts of war? I say this because the main purpose of O'Brien's writtings is to tell stories. When it comes to these stories being told we are also able to tie in what effects these events had on both the individuals involved and the reader.

5. I feel like a big perspective that is missing is the stories of the soldier's families.

6. What resonated with me was that last sentence in "The Lives of the Dead", " I realize it is as Tim trying to save Timmy's life with a story"( O'Brien 233). This last line ended the story so strongly and it shows that in the end, O'Brien was just telling stories about his stories.

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1. In both the essay and the book, O'Brien uses his stories about his comrades to cope with the trauma he experienced during the war. He uses his stories to bring the best version of the dead back to life. 2. O'Brien addresses his use of storytelling as healing by giving you the story. O'Brien telling the story means he is willingly looking back on his past and moving on. 3. This narrative is relevant to our current veterans as most are not fortunate enough to have a good coping method like O'Brien. This also stems from the gender and masculinity issues, as if O'Brien did not have writing, he most likely would not have reached out for help and would have ended up as a statistic like many other war veterans who were afraid to seek help. 4. This article connects to the question "why we tell stories", as it is explained in both the article and the book that O'Brien is telling stories as a healing, a therapy, a catharsis. 5. O'Brien states "Forget that nearly three-quarters of the dwellings in Quang Ngai Province had been obliterated." Many people's stories were lost due to the war, mainly Vietnamese civilians and soldiers on either side of the war. 6. What really resonates with me is how closely both texts relate to both each other and the essential question "Why do we tell stories."

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How does this article relate to the last chapter in the novel, "The Lives of the Dead"?

This article relates to the last chapter in the novel because they both focus on his values and what he should have done. During the war and his childhood, he wasn't vocal about what bothered him and didn't stand up for what he believed in because he was too worried about his reputation and pride. A reoccurring thought is how he should have been more brave even though he would have gotten backlash. In a way, that's what his writing did for him, recount memories of his past and state what he would have liked to do differently, which seen in the essay, he got heat for from his fellow war buddies.

How does O’Brien address the use of storytelling as catharsis and healing?

O'Brien addresses the use of storytelling as catharsis and healing by telling the stories to keep the memory of the person alive and to connect the people of the past to the present  so they won't be forgotten. He also gets relief and a sense of healing for himself by finally saying all the thoughts he wanted to say and pointing out everything he disagreed with in his writing. By publishing this book, it was the final weight to be lifted off of him so he could say his unapologetic thoughts even if it was only on paper and not to his buddies who disagreed with his disapproval of war. He couldn't talk to any random person because they wouldn't understand and he couldn't talk to his war buddies without offending them and the war they all fought in, so he used pen and paper as his outlet of everything he kept inside.

How is this narrative relevant to the narrative of current veterans?

This narrative is relevant to current veterans now in that they could too also be having these thoughts of disapproval for what they are fighting for and who they are killing and can't say anything because they have to have the war mentality and the mentality that they are doing the right thing to protect their country no matter what happens in the process. Every soldier experiences death in war and might not know how to handle it like Norman Bowker or they can find an outlet like O'Brien to find that peace of mind to help them sleep at night.

How does this article connect to any of our essential questions?

This article connects to the essential question of what the impacts of war are because like O'Brien said, no one fully understands them like the group of soldiers he went to war with, he claims he feels an utter sense of belonging. This in turn means that he still feels out of place in the world decades later because what he went through and the death's that have impacted his way of going through life.

O'Brien spends some time discussing his disappointment in the lack of consideration for the Vietnamese affected by this war. Who else's stories are missing from this novel?

The other stories that are missing are women, people of color, families back home, the protesters of the war. I think it would be very interesting to see how they were affected by loved ones lost or by them themselves fighting in the war.

What else resonates with you?

Something that resonated with me was how it is the "norm" for soldiers to view themselves or their side of the war as the "correct" side. Like how what they are doing is better than other people because they couldn't possibly be the problem or be out of place.

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1.O’Brien’s article relates to “The Lives of the Dead” because of the use of storytelling about the dead for closure and healing. They both express stories of people who have passed and it’s from his point of view.

2. O’Brien says stories can save us. He mentions he thinks of the people that passed often. He dreams of them and a story can let them live on. It could also be a way of coping to let these stories out and write.

3.Current veterans tell stories. Telling the stories lets others feel other people’s existence as they did. It's from their point of view but that person can live on through stories.

4. The article could be connected to the essential question “What are the effects of war?” because O’Brien shares these deep connections he’s made with his fellow men made during the Vietnam war. The relationship built on shared experience. It’s a certain brotherhood only given from a hellish experience like war.

5.Other stories missing from the novel are the stories of soilder’s families. Barely any is mentioned of a soldier’s family. The closest mention is of Lieutenant Cross writing to Kiowa’s parents about his death. The family they leave behind gets no spotlight and that may be because O'Brien has no clue how their families were like.

6.What resonates with me is the bond between O’Brien and his war buddies. The strong everlasting connection created from a shared experience is very human. It’s very sweet that they can laugh over something as horrific as a war.

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1. The article as well as "The Lives of the Dead" show us O'Briens relationship with death and how it impacted him, he writes about this to show the reader how the death of someone close can impact a person ultimately to give the reader a better understanding of what hundreds of thousands of people during Vietnam were dealing with.
2. In the article we didn't see O'Brien explicitly saying much about writing being a healing or cathartic experience but we know from the novel that it is for him. Writing this article probably did alleviate some bottled up emotions for O'Brien except it was more about political frustration and the estrangement he felt after returning from the war.
3. This is still relevant to current veterans because no matter how far back or how far in the future taking someones life, and watching the lives of close ones being taken is something very damaging that can apply to all veterans.
4.This articles connects to why do we tell stories because  O'Brien wrote this story to show the reader how war impacts people and the common mindset of people in his age group/veterans
5. Along with the vietnamese, women, Black people, asian people back in America, the families of the soldiers and many other groups are not represented in the book or the novel. We are looking through a very specific lense when reading TTTC.
6.O'Brien talking about the politics of the older generation really resonated with me.

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1. This article relates to the chapter "The Lives of the Dead" because both of them are talking about the relationship. The relationships that they are talking about are quite different. The article is more focused on the way soldiers formed the relationship of trust and understanding between each other. While in the last chapter of the novel, O'Brien discusses more on his relationship with the dead. So overall even though the article and the novel are talking about pretty much different topics, they still both cover the idea of relationship and how it works.
2. Even though O'Brien didn't directly address the storytelling as catharsis and healing in this article, we still know his relationship with the storytelling, by reading the novel. O'Brien's opinion about telling stories is unique since he finds telling stories "a natural, inevitable process, like clearing the throat"(O'Brien 169). He believes that by telling stories we can reduce the weight of feelings that lie upon our shoulders. Therefore telling stories would make a person's life feel much easier, and bring relief from the faced problems.
3. This narrative is relevant to the narrative of current veterans because the war is the war, and doesn't matter which one it is the impacts of it would stay the same. The nature of war itself is the same, one side fighting the other. It is based upon the relationship of the people, so we might expect similar impacts of it, such as the connection of soldiers to each other, dealing with losses, and trying to silent the impacts of war on the other side of it. Since human society didn't witness a big change in the last 40 years, the narrative of veterans from the Vietnam war still applies to the narrative of the current ones. They both are talking about the same experiences during the war. Even though the technologies and situations in the world, at that time were different, the nature of war was the same, and so as its impacts.
4. This article mostly connects to an essential question regarding the impacts of war. It shows what a strong connection was formed between soldiers, and how it would be to deal with its loss. It shows that even though war destroys a lot of families, it still creates a few among soldiers in the squad. Soldiers become really dependant on each other, they share similar experiences, they see each other every day, aren't these aspects are the ones that create the family? So the loss of this "new family" either by death or retiring, would be a tragic experience to witness, and not many soldiers could forget their past that easily. Therefore they would need to continue their living with a stone tied to their heart.
5. The stories that are missing from the novel are the stories of the people that soldiers had left behind, their families, siblings, friends, children. It would be interesting to see how many relationships were destroyed because of the war. Because in the novel we can see what happens only in the front of the war, and not what is happening in the back. I am sure that there are some stories at the home, that are even more dramatic than some stories about the war.
6. The thing that resonated with me about the article is how honest O'Brien is with his feelings. He is trying to be himself and not a brutal post-war soldier. The way that he wrote about how his squadmates become his close friends, and how he cries seeing them as an audience is incredible. Because the reader can understand how war tied their lives together.

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1. In both the article and the chapter "The Lives of the Dead" the reader is able to see how different relationships affect your life. In "The Lives of the Dead" O'Brien talks about Linda and how going to the movies with her and seeing her without her red cap both affected his life and caused him to have clear memories of these events. In the article, O'Brien talks about the different bonds that he made in the war and the relationships that he created which became a huge part of his life.

2. O’Brien talks a lot about storytelling and all of its impacts. One of those impacts is healing from the past. O’Brien mentions in his book that he “kept the dead alive with stories” (O'Brien 226). Keeping the dead alive with stories not only keeps the spirit of those who passed alive, but it also provides healing because you can feel like the person who passed was never gone and that they are with you

3.  This narrative shows how current veterans may feel after growing such a strong bond with their friends in the military. Returning back home and being with family all the time is a huge transition from being with your buddies in the war. After being away from home for so long, you become distant with people unintentionally. It is very common for veterans to feel like a stranger in their own home once they return.

4. This article relates to our essential question “what are the effects of war?” Through O'Brien's description of his relationship with his peers in the war, it is clear that people change in the war and they create relationships with new people. Many changes in behavior and personality can occur when you are surrounded by new people.

5. The novel is missing the stories of the families who have been affected by the war. Not only were families ripped apart by the draft of soldiers, but they were also impacted when veterans returned back to their families with changed personalities. There are many different ways that families were impacted by the war, and not enough are mentioned in the novel.

6. This article gave me a deeper understanding of the relationships between soldiers that are formed throughout the war. I now recognize the bond between the veterans and how closely connected they are.

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1. This article relates to the last chapter of the novel, "The Lives of the Dead", because  they both answer the question of why do we tell stories and explain the importance of stories. In the chapter, the aspect of'bringing back the dead' through stories is brought up while in the essay it is explained how stories are used to reminisce and to relate to eachother.
2. O'Brien addreses the use of storytelling as catharsis and healing when he speaks on how many other soldiers dissaprove of his writing/the opinions shared through it. Despite O'Brien being able to talk and reminisce with his past comrades about many things relating to war/their experience at war, he can't truly express his feelings about it to them. By writing, O'Brien can express these feelings of hatred towards the war without causing conflict. He can write to further try to understand the events that occured and to help him figure out his emotions about them.
3. This narrative is relevant to the narrative of current veterans because they might too feel indifferent about the war and the opposing side. They too witnessed a lot of death and had to mourn the loss of many people that were close to them. Not only do they share experiences, but they might also share the opinions and love that they had/will always have towards their past comrades and how comforting it is to talk and reminisce with them about their pasts.
4. This article deeply connects to the essential question of why do we tell stories. O'Brien explains the differing opinions shared between him and his friends, but that despite it all they can all reminisce about experiences at war. Having been at war is a unique experience that those who haven't experienced it might have a hard time understanding. When O'Brien is talking amongst the past soldiers, they feel the same way about many things and can find comfort in that someone understands them. War is a scarring and traumatizing experience and the comfort that comes to relating to someone else who has too gone through those things can be truly helpful.
5. Countless stories are missing from the novel but one that I noticed in particular was that of a soldier who didn't have as smooth of a transition back in to normal life after returning from war. O'Brien was lucky to not only have found a healthy coping habit, but to have had the resources to make a smooth return back home. As he has previously explained, he then went to school, got a job, and continued on with his life. What about the soldiers that took up harmful coping habits (developed addictions), that had severe PTSD, and that didn't have a life to come back to; we can only imagine how much more difficult it might have been for them.
6. Something that really resonated with me about this essay was the lack of understanding for O'Briens point of view on the war. Seemingly none of the other soldiers felt the same way that O'Brien did and hadn't felt any guilt or sympathy towards the Vietnamese. Not only did their views on the war surprise me, but how little the war seemed to have affected them and their mental states. I highly doubt that none of the other soldiers had killed a man and this had deeply affected O'Brien, How did they cope with it? In their eyes, was it even something that had to be coped with?

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1. This article relates to the chapter because in both O'Brian describes how writing about the people in the war alive or deceased, writing about them gives them a liveliness like no other. Through both O'Brian explains to the reader how stories saved him and helped him grow and heal from the psychological wounds of war.

2. By writing about what happened in war O'Brian is reflecting truly processing what had happened. In the moment a soldier could not allow themselves to think about what had happened. Instead it was bottled up and causing damage to the person. O'Brian utilized the art of writing to slowly let go and process, witch helped his heal the damage that was done.
3. This is relevant to current veterans because although they fought two different conflicts they hold many similar elements such as the common loss of people close to them. O'Brian writing just how much writing helped him heal he encourages other soldiers to do the same, or find some other sort of healing tool.
4. This connects to our essential question why we tell stories because through them we allow ourselves to not only heal but grow from our prior experiences. Stories have the power to bring those who have past on to come back through our words even for just a moment.
5. Many stories are missing from the novel, the only one addressed is that of a white middle class american soldier. Some of those left out were the various Asian Americans, countries surrounding or near Vietnam, and people such as french land owners who were just caught in the middle of this conflict.
6. Something that really resonated with me about the article was how his fellow veterans view his writing.  He describes being nearly certain that those around him do not agree with the truth behind the soldier, that O'Brian writes anything less that flawless or virtues. Thus the ugly truth of his writing one that gives so many an insightful perspective, goes un-tolled in his group meetings with his comrades.

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1. In both the article and the last chapter of The Things They Carried, "The Lives of the Dead", O'Brien elaborates on the effects of death as a whole, how its significance is diminished in times of war, and how it affects the ones it leaves behind. He ends his novel reminiscing of lost ones, imagining scenarios as though they were still with him. The article connects these thoughts back to reality claiming how there is too much toleration for death in the world, specifically during war.

2. The author uses storytelling to keep the memories of those who have passed on alive as well as redoing those former mistakes previously mentioned in the stories, confessing his guilt as to begin his road towards forgiveness. When telling stories, he can also recreate those scenarios from his past and place emphasis on the aspects of the environment however he pleases, helping us understands how he feels as he shares with the reader his raw feelings.

3. The narrative is relevant to the narrative of current veterans in that O'Brien is speaking from experience as a fellow veteran, therefore sharing with these former soldiers their worn-down hearts and questions. They can resonate with the narrative as is attributed to the many impacts of war evident in all soldiers that have experienced such a traumatic event.

4. This article relates to the essential question of the impacts of war in the article is mainly about how the author feels after returning home. He attends a gathering with all of his former war buddies, and the reader is introduced to the wide variety of ways the different veterans are affected the war. Some were patriotic, embracing the glory of victory, but it was clear that the war had changed them. Their personalities were altered, as O'Brien explains, "had some gigantic eraser wiped away the daily, second-by-second realities of our war?" (O'Brien 5). Such a stressful environment, constantly on the verge of death, never comforted by the idea of safety, could absolutely cause personality changes to occur.

5. At such a critical time for the nation, it would have been interesting to see the families of the soldiers' point of view as their loved ones were shipped off to an unknown land, with no reassurance as to whether they would return or not. With such a completely unconstitutional law enacted upon the young men with such bright futures, the families must have been outraged, or possibly understanding of the gravity of situation.

6. Somethin else that resonated with me was how O'Brien expressed his disappointment in his people's toleration for deaths during wars. As he stated, "three million dead people. Never about right or wrong" (O'Brien 5), I couldn't help but realize the deeper meaning behind his words. After already experiencing far more death in his life than the average person, he has good cause to speak out against wars as when people die on the battlefield, those deaths are diminished, simply noted down as numbers instead of real people with individual identities.

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In the essay O'Brien addresses the many soldiers lost in war and how it was an unfair situation. The essay is about effects after the war and how O’Brien lives. While the Lives of the Dead connects to how he grew up and how that affects his actions in war and perspective on the war. The soldiers that went through the war together gained shared experiences that connected them even if they disagreed on ideas, this relates to how O’Brien feels about his dead comrades especially how he feels guilty about. O'Brien voiced his concerns on the orders given, he saw them as lethal but soldiers obeyed them anyway. In the lives of the dead,on the day he where his unit was just loading bodies and doing a job to get it done relates to how orders were painful and he didn’t agree. Furthermore, by storytelling O'Brien illustrates how sharing allowed him to survive unlike many other people who shared journeys with him. With these stories he gives those who didn’t go to the war empathy and a deeper understanding of circumstance. However in the essay O’Brien addresses how his writing was not always welcome by the soldiers from the war. They disapproved of the perspective that the soldiers portataly was unbrave and the war was wrong. The veterans see themselves as the heros but forget to recognize the “enemy's” perspective and what they went through. The narrative of O'Brien contradicts the narrative of current veterans because O'Brien completely disagreed with the war even though he went but most soldiers did it out of obligation and for the country, even though it was an uneasy choice. The American veteran voices are the most pervasive and forget to mention the impacts on the Vietnamese. Just like in America, families died and were damaged but when the soldiers only think about their own problems it changes the view on the conflict. However in his essay O’Brien addresses the millions dead from all sides. Along with the voices of the Vietnamese voices, the voices of women are missing and what happened when their husbands left them to fill new roles. They also were active in the medical aspects of war, even though they were not allowed to be drafted. Readers needed to see a broader view of perspective to better understand the effects of the war and the overall challenges. In the essay the part that resonated with me the most was when he repeated how fighting for free men everywhere wasn’t really fighting for free men everywhere and someone was always losing. Free men is a loose term and it can be interpreted different ways and by defending one free man for freedom you take someone else's.

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Except for my family and a couple of close friends, I am most at home and most wholly happy in the company of former members of my unit in Vietnam. I see these men only rarely; I don't know them well and never did; many are like ghosts, or like ghosts of ghosts, whose faces are familiar but weirdly indefinite. I recall only a few complete names. A good number of them I remember only by nicknames. Many, perhaps most, are entirely nameless.

Still, on those rare occasions when I bump into my former comrades, I feel a sense of belonging that otherwise escapes me in life. There is nothing we must prove. Abstraction and generalization vanish. What we have, when we are together, is that particular paddy dike, that firefight, that corpse, that tree line, that deserted village, that one and only killer afternoon in July of 1969. We refresh one another's memories with scraps of detail; we laugh at things most people don't laugh at; we occasionally debate matters of sequence and chronology-who died first, who died next.

There is no boasting. No one uses the word "glory." If anything, the tone of conversation has a rueful, excessively modest, almost puzzled quality, as though none of us can truly believe that what happened happened, or that what happened actually happened to us. There is a shocking gentleness to these guys, something close to shyness, and it seems improbable that nearly a half century ago they were the fist of American power in Vietnam.

The closeness I feel toward the men of Alpha Company can be represented only dimly with language.

My buddies were grunts, 11-Bravo, and they did the daily, nasty, grinding, lethal work of war. They slept in the rain; they fought the firefights; they spent their nights lying in ambush and their days trudging through minefields out on the Batangan Peninsula; they were not cooks or clerks or mechanics or supply specialists; they were infantry; they lived in the war, and the war lived in them, and 50 years ago they did your killing and your dying for you. These quiet old coots, these war buddies of mine, seem generally untroubled by all they had once witnessed and endured. As far as I can tell, they entertain few second thoughts about the righteousness of their war and few doubts about whether all the dead people should be dead. Now and then, mostly through the back door, politics will slide into the give-and-take of reminiscence-"that lefty New York Times rag"-and in those instances, for a moment or two, I'll feel the solid world buckling beneath me, but then somebody else will say, "Hey, this ain't the John friggin' Birch Society," and another guy will say, "Yeah, and you're pissing off O'Brien," and then the first guy will shrug and grin at me and say, "Sorry, man, I forgot you was a communist."

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With only a couple of exceptions, my buddies avoid mention of my books. Privately, I'm almost certain, they disapprove of my outrage at the war, and I'm even more certain that they take vigorous exception to my literary portrayal of the American soldier as less than purely virtuous. (One member of my platoon named his son after a lieutenant whose behavior I considered plainly criminal.) In an unspoken, matter-of-fact way, the former members of Alpha Company view themselves as the good guys, the angels of liberty and decency. They display scarce sympathy for their old enemy. Over the years, in fact, I've heard only one or two of them express a word of distress, much less remorse, about an estimated three million dead Vietnamese. Reflexively, but without real enmity, they still speak of their former enemy as gooks and dinks and slants and slopes, and yet most of my buddies would claim-indignantly and forcefully-that no racist intent lurks behind such language: it's grunt talk, pure shorthand, just another way of distinguishing the cowboys from the Indians.

I have serious trouble with this, and yet, for all our differences, there remains the paradoxical fact that I do love these men. I dream about them. I feel their presence when they are not present. Cop and Willy and Reno and Kid and Howard and Vince and Wayne and Red and Joe and Greg and Roger and Chip and Tom and Squirrel and Ben and Buddy Barney and Buddy Wolf and Myron and Everett and Doc and Art and Frenchie-these are the names that endure in my moth-eaten memory, and right now, as I try to complete this sentence, their faces are once again youthful, and together we're again humping through the Vietnam dark, heading for some murderous destiny, the moon overhead, a dog barking, our boots making sucking sounds in the foul paddy slush.

The closeness I feel toward the men of Alpha Company can be represented only dimly with language. The feel of blood-fraternity requires a kind of willful dreaming, a summoning of the actual here-and-now shuffle of troops on the move; the long nights of pulling guard along the shoreline of the South China Sea; the smells of poverty and mold and smoke and tropical decay as you enter a badass village at dawn, and how those smells combine into a single brain-deep tapeworm that stays with you forever, even in your sleep, but how, when you try to talk about it, all the adjectives in the dictionary can't make you smell anything and can't do anything to your pulse or blood pressure or bowels. When I'm with my buddies, no one struggles to explain these things. We know soldiering the way a lover knows love. Without ever saying so, we understand that the word "Pinkville" does not mean "pink village" or anything remotely rosy or cheerful. It means we might die today. It means, man, this is one nasty piece of a nasty war.

*

Back in 1968 and 1969, when Vietnam collided with my life, I yearned for revenge against the cheerleaders and celebrators of war. Somehow, I imagined, I would strike back with sentences, make the monsters squirm in shame. This was a ludicrous and naïve fantasy. Sentences don't do shit. We just keep killing and killing, always for godly reasons-just as the enemy kills for its own godly reasons-and then we all stagger up Main Street with our walkers and war stories and watery old-man nostalgia. Three million dead. What if it were 70 million? Four hundred million? Every human on earth? There is no known limit to what we will tolerate. There is precious little shame. And so now, on this Thanksgiving Day in 2016, I remain torn between my affection for the men of Alpha Company and my dismay at their mostly self-congratulatory, mostly uncritical, mostly America-right-or-wrong values. It's like being married to Oliver North. True, plenty of Vietnam veterans opposed the war, and plenty spoke out against it, and yet studies show that the social and political attitudes of Vietnam veterans generally mirror those of nonveterans of the same age-traditionalist, conservative, pro-military, and hawkish. These findings are predictable.

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Even back when they were young, the men in Alpha Company seemed more or less to fit the standard profile, and now, decades later, it's no surprise that their opinions have hardened along the lines of the aging male population as a whole. The real surprise, at least for me, is that the historical judgments of my old war buddies are served up without the linguistic spices of Vietnam, without a touch of the weird, without sarcasm or astonishment, without rock 'n' roll dissonance, without wit, without ginger, and without the old FTA skepticism that was once scribbled on helmets and jeeps and M-16s from Danang to the Delta. The tone of their voices-the music beneath their politics-sounds to me more like Sinatra than the Animals, more like "My Kind of Town" than "We Gotta Get Out of This Place."

*

Recently a member of my old unit emailed me a 1968 Thanksgiving message to the troops from General Creighton Abrams, once the commander of American forces in Vietnam. "We should never forget," wrote Abrams all those years ago, "that in Vietnam our actions are defending free men everywhere. We pray that peace will come to all the world and that all of us can return to our loved ones in the not too distant future."

Had some gigantic eraser wiped away the daily, second-by-second realities of our war?

Forget the Mad Hatter weirdness of praying for peace while spending every waking second hell-bent on slaughtering people.

Forget the Orwellian doublethink and the "smelly little orthodoxies."

Forget that "free men everywhere" were freely standing in peace vigils.

Forget that free men were freely burning draft cards.

Forget that nearly three-quarters of the dwellings in Quang Ngai Province had been obliterated by Thanksgiving Day of 1968 and that at least some free men were having trouble digesting this. Forget, as the general did, the untidy complications of French colonialism, Vietnamese nationalism, the Geneva Accords, Buddhist monks aflame in the streets of Saigon. Forget that only months earlier, outside the Chicago Hilton, free men had been using clubs to beat on the heads of other free men. Forget that all across America, in the halls of Congress and at family dinner tables, free men everywhere were disputing the general's felicitous proposition that in Vietnam our actions were "defending free men everywhere."

What unnerved me was not the pass-the-napalm Thanksgiving Day piety of Creighton Abrams. Any grunt takes such crap for granted; it's what a general is. Rather, I was startled that my old war buddies, nearly all kind and decent guys, seemed to receive this platitudinous nonsense without any trace of the bitter, hooting irony they had shown as grunts back during the war itself. Was it amnesia? Had some gigantic eraser wiped away the daily, second-by-second realities of our war? When a guy died, for instance, did any of us shake our heads and say, "Well, he's dead, for sure, but he defended free men everywhere"? Did any of us talk that way? Did any of us think that way? Am I wrong in remembering that instead we said things like, "There it is, man-don't mean nothin'-the poor guy's wasted."

*

In various ways, to various degrees, virtually everything I've written over the past several pages will seriously irritate a large number of Vietnam veterans. A substantial majority, I'd guess. And beyond any doubt it will irritate one particular Vietnam veteran, a man who declared in a 2016 letter to the Austin American-Statesman: "For me, the war was never about right or wrong but duty and honoring my uniform."

As they move into old age, most of my former buddies see themselves as unappreciated scapegoats.

Three million dead people. Never about right or wrong.

Granted, it's dangerous to generalize, but over the decades I've encountered thousands of Vietnam veterans with strikingly similar attitudes. The bulk of my fellow veterans, like the author of that letter, seems to believe that in the last analysis it doesn't matter much whether their war was a righteous one. Their country told them to fight. They did. Inflated body counts and free-fire zones and secret bombings and dead children and burning villages and Ngo Dinh Diem and Bao Dai and the Pentagon Papers and the recorded Oval Office lies of Nixon and Johnson-all this is irrelevant. It's not a question of disagreement. It's a question of relevance. What seems to matter to my former war buddies is not politics or history-certainly not disputes over what occurred on that dark night in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964-but rather something almost wholly personal: personal sacrifice, personal honor, personal duty, personal suffering, personal patriotism, personal courage, and personal pride. Most Vietnam veterans, I think, will concede that their war was far from morally ideal or clear-cut. It wasn't World War Two.

But even so-in fact, especially so-they saluted and sucked it up and endured the nightmare. Good war or bad war, they did their best. And now many of them are bitter. As they move into old age, most of my former buddies see themselves as unappreciated scapegoats, victims of an unpopular war, and as a consequence they have retreated from discursive politics, shying away from contested judgments about the war's rectitude, taking refuge in personal (and therefore incontestable) values of honor, duty, sacrifice, pride, and service to country.

In a way this is understandable. I feel the bitterness myself. I feel the resentment. I yell at my TV set when I hear World War Two veterans described as "the greatest generation," as if the blood spilled on Okinawa was of higher quality per pint than the blood spilled in Vietnam. "The greatest generation"-it doesn't merely sound like an insult. It is an insult. No wonder so many of my buddies have retreated into a private interior space, a space insulated from challenges to the war's rectitude, a space in which they can hold fast to their beleaguered sense of virtue.

Still, although I sympathize with this insularity, I fear that a dangerous egocentrism-a kind of selfishness, a kind of narcissism-has blinded many Vietnam veterans to what the war did to other people. They don't seem to care much. They don't seem to think about it much. Among my fellow veterans I almost never hear expressions of pity for the orphans and widows and grieving mothers of Vietnam; in fact, I rarely hear the word "Vietnamese" at all. It's as if the country had never been populated by the very people we had come to rescue from the legions of evil. What about the sacrifices of the Vietnamese? What about their honor? What about their victimization? What about their three million dead? What about their burned-to-the-ground houses? What about their PTSD problems? What about their missing legs? What about their Gold Star Mothers? What about their 300,000 husbands and sons and brothers who have been listed as missing in action for almost half a century?

I'm appalled.

It is one thing to take personal pride in military service. It is another thing to do so without somehow acknowledging the consequences your service had on others-including millions of non-combatants. One man's pride is another man's sorrow. One man's service to country is another man's dead son. Rectitude is not a one-way street.

*

For all the differences between us, I can't help but feel the instantaneous urge to sob when I encounter my old war buddies. An email will do it to me. I'll choke up at old photographs. On several occasions-maybe a dozen or so times over the years-former members of Alpha Company have shown up when I speak at colleges around the country, and when I see their timeworn faces in the audience, the urge to cry stops being just an urge and becomes a fast heartbeat and stinging eyes and a voice that cracks and won't behave itself. This is love, I guess. And love forgives a great deal.

More than that, I admire so much about these men.

Half a century ago, amid the horror, their courage and comportment had seemed to me close to miraculous. They stood up under fire. They made their legs move. They did what they believed to be necessary and even virtuous. They searched tunnels, walked point, gave aid to one another, and obeyed even the silliest and most lethal commands. No one faked illness; no one refused to advance under fire. Also, what made them special, at least to me, was how relentlessly ordinary they were-so matter-of-fact, so impassive, so young, so stolidly unexceptional as they endured things that seemed beyond enduring. In a way, my war buddies are like a mirrored reflection of all the anonymous grunts populating the age-old record of man killing man, including a reflection of the enemy we had once faced, an enemy who also made their legs move, who also did what they believed to be necessary and virtuous, who also obeyed the silliest and most lethal orders, and who also endured the unendurable.

After my buddies and I shake hands and say goodbye, returning to our decaying lives, there is always a melancholy that stays with me for a day or two.

The melancholy reaches into history.

I'll think about Willy and Cop and Kid and Buddy Wolf and Buddy Barney, and then I'll think about Shakespeare's band of brothers, we happy few. I'll find myself deleting the word "happy." I'll wonder how happy the dead were to become the dead, or how happy the legless were to become the legless, and although Shakespeare's music stirs the brotherhood inside me, it is also true that the toneless dead must be included among my war buddies. To them, as much as to the living, I am allegiant.

________________________________
From Dad's Maybe Book by Tim O'Brien. Used with the permission of the publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Copyright © 2019 by Tim O'Brien.

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Tim O'Brien: Where is Our Allegiance to the "Toneless Dead"?

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Except for my family and a couple of close friends, I am most at home and most wholly happy in the company of former members of my unit in Vietnam. I see these men only rarely; I don't know them we...