1. Does your opinion of O'Brien change throughout the course of the novel? How so? How do you feel about his actions in "The Ghost Soldiers"?
2. Reread the first paragraph of "The Lives of the Dead." How does O'Brien set us up to believe this story? What techniques does he use to convince us this story is "true"? In general how are details used in this collection of stories in such a way their truth is hard to deny?
3. In your opinion, why does O'Brien choose to include this story about a young girl named Linda in this collection? What does it accomplish?
4. In many ways, this book is as much about stories, or the necessity of stories, as it is about the Vietnam War. According to O'Brien, what do stories accomplish? Why does he continue to tell stories about the Vietnam War, about Linda?
5. Reread the final two pages of this book. Consider what the young Tim O’Brien learns about storytelling from his experiences with Linda. How does this knowledge prepare him for not only war, but also to become a writer? Within the parameters of this story, how would you characterize Tim O’Brien’s understanding of the purpose of fiction? How does fiction relate to life, that is, life in the journalistic or historic sense?
6. Assume for a moment that the writer Tim O’Brien created a fictional main character, also called Tim O’Brien, to inhibit this novel. Why would the real Tim O’Brien do that? What would that accomplish in this novel? How would it strengthen a book about “truth”?
7. Tim O’Brien makes use of repetition as an important stylistic device. What effect does repetition have? Is it effective? Why? Cite an example of his use of repetition in a short story form from each section of the novel and what it achieves in each story.
8. What are some of the characteristics of modern literature found in these stories?
9. Which of these stories did you like best? Why?
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