Linda

Although the part about Linda is very sad, I loved how the author incorporated the death of his childhood sweetheart into the book. It was fit in perfectly and related to the purpose of the book. To me, the novel was about loss, courage, and experience. Linda had it all. Tim needed to show courage in fourth grade to tell Nick Veenhof to stop messing with Linda's cap, but he didn't. He never stood up for her. Then at the beginning of fifth grade, Linda died of a brain tumor. We don't know for sure, but this probably was his first real loss. In Vietnam, he loses people close to him and able to cope with it. He had the experience of loosing someone close to him, someone who he truly loved (216). O'Brien also had the experience of creating stories to keep Linda with him. I think this is what he is doing to his fellow soldiers in Vietnam with this book and the others he had written.