I remember when...

In a way all the stories in this book are flashbacks, because the character telling the story was present when it occurred. They are reliving what transpired, and retelling the events to the listener or the reader. A normal novel would be interrupted by a flashback primarily to fill the reader in on an important detail. The difference with these flashbacks are that the are the story. Personally, I believe the purpose of this book is to allow the characters to be remembered as long as this is in print. O'Brien tells us that as long as the dead are remembered, they are not really dead. "To listen to the story, you'd never know Curt Lemon was dead" (O'Brien 227). So by writing this book and by telling us these happenings in Vietnam and the post-war, the characters never die, but are remembered by many. We the readers may not be able to know exactly what the characters looked or sounded like, or even their true names, but their essence can be relived and remembered through O'Brien's novel. O'Brien is not trying to grieve in the losses of his life, he is attempting to move past them and find solace by telling us his loses.