Death is one of life's most challenging obstacles. Tim O'Brien has been exposed to more than his fair share of death. To manage emotional stress, he developed methods for dealing with death in his life. O'Brien's novel, The Things They Carried, demonstrates his attempts to make death less real through psychotherapeutic tactics such as telling stories about the dead as if they were alive and conceiving of the dead as objects rather than people. O'Brien explains how the stories were told. on those who have died are intended to keep the life of the deceased alive. The “burden of memory” was something all welders carried (14). When added to the physical weight of their equipment and the emotional weight of war, it was all too much. In response, men altered their perception of truth to lighten the haunting burden of memory. O'Brien suggests that "in a real war story nothing is ever absolutely true," memory is altered to compensate for its weight (82). In this way, O'Brien and the rest of the men were able to use the "truth of history (179)." Stories alter the truth, so a well-told story can actually allow the dead to live on. “In a story, the dead sometimes smile, sit down, and return to the world (225).” In this way the dead could be “kept alive” with “blatant lies, reuniting body and soul (239).” O'Brien remembers hearing a story about Curt Lemon. He remembers how "you'd never know Curt Lemon was dead (240)." It seemed like “he was still out there in the dark,” yet “he was dead (240).” O'Brien similarly uses the story to save her childhood friend's life, "not her body, her life (236)." In her stories Linda "can smile and sit. She can reach out (236)." It allows it to come to life and “touch[h…the center of the paper…not practice coping techniques.” War is hell. . . war is mystery, terror, adventure, courage, discovery, desperation and... . . war is bad (80)." When all this happened it wasn't like "a movie where you're not a hero and all you can do is whine and wait (211)." O'Brien and the rest of the soldiers were simply ordinary people forced into extraordinary situations. They needed to tell blatant lies” to “reunite body and soul (239).” They needed to eliminate the reality of death. As ordinary people they were unable to face the overwhelming realities of death and war, so they needed to develop coping skills. O'Brien approaches the loss of his childhood friend, Linda, the same way he approaches the loss of his war buddies as this is the only way he knows to deal with death. A skill he learned and needed during the Vietnam War.