In The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien often refers to Kathleen, his daughter, and Linda, his childhood friend suffering from cancer. However, Kathleen and Linda do not exist. O'Brien includes them in his story because they allow him to interact with the reader in the text without actually interacting with the reader personally. Kathleen represents the reader in the text, one who can interact with Tim O'Brien and modify what he says. Linda, on the other hand, represents how storytelling and memory can ease the pain of any traumatic situation from the past. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The roles O'Brien cast in his heroines Tim O'Brien's daughter Kathleen suggested he write about something else because he always writes about his memories and the experiences of the war that are not the most positive thing to write; She wants him to give up everything related to war and be happy while writing a happy story. However, although he considers quitting, he is unable to do so as the impact of the war on his life far exceeds anything Kathleen is capable of imagining and understanding. Kathleen thinks that writing about anything other than the war is an easy task and that's okay because she doesn't realize the huge impact the war had on Tim O'Brien and doesn't understand the reason why he tells these stories. Kathleen appears several times in O'Brien's stories, notably in "Field Trip" where O'Brien takes his daughter Kathleen on vacation to Vietnam. The difficulty of explaining his experiences in Vietnam to Kathleen is evident in the frustration in his tone when he says, “At the same time, however, she had seemed a little perplexed. For her, war was as distant as dinosaurs and cavemen. If Kathleen represents the reader, this suggests that O'Brien believes we are also out of touch with reality, demanding an explanation for everything he says and does. This idea of ​​Kathleen as a reader is evident in this exchange: “Kathleen sighed. “Well, I don’t understand. I mean, how come you're here in the first place? “I don’t know,” I said, “because I had to be.” “But why? » His incomprehension and need for explanation are obvious, and this amounts to a reader's reaction to the text. But what also stands out here is O'Brien's near disinterest in explanation. “Because I had to be” is never an adequate response to a child's curious nature. O'Brien's disinterest suggests that he does not care whether the reader does not understand or like what he is saying, or whether he does not know why he is saying it. He simply writes to alleviate the pressures on his mind. Writing serves several purposes for him, first and foremost as a method of catharsis, a way of alleviating traumatic memories of what happened in Vietnam. It is also possible that in the dialogue cited above, Kathleen takes the form of O'Brien's speech. inner consciousness, a consciousness perhaps still confused about the purpose of the war and its role in the war. In "On the Rainy River", O'Brien describes his doubts and fears about the war after receiving the request for his presence in Vietnam. Perhaps, as mentioned above, Kathleen is a representation of these remaining questions, a literal character that needs to be posed without O'Brien having to leave a character in the story. Linda is portrayed in "Life of the Dead" as Timmy's nine-year-old daughter. old friend and his first true love. It is later revealed that she has.