All of the narratives finally come to an end with the end of the novel. Of course, Tim O'Brien will continue to imagine the events that have impacted his life, but the novel is done on a literary basis. The first story in the trio of the final three stories in the book talks about ghosts and imagination. Through telling his own story, a broader story about some aspect about war is told, in this case the power of imagination. In addition, Tim's own personal vendetta is broadened to cover the antipathy that soldiers can have for other comrades or former comrades is things go to awry. Most significantly, there is a lot of narrative that is directly claimed to be O'Brien's perspective. Although the previous story about going into a river to imagine old times mostly establishes this trend, O'Brien's life in the past is truly touched upon in this chapter. Such a trend will continue for the duration of the novel and with the last two chapters, luckily with the aspect of despising as something that O'Brien will not carry in this instance.
In the next chapter about the night life a intimate tale is told about Rat Kiley and his struggles. In general, it seems that the stories become more personal as they go on, much like how stories in other novels are. The trend seems to be that as the novel progresses, more intimate moments of the characters are depicted and such a constitution seems to be what O'Brien has loosely based his organization on. More broadly, the order of the book can be seen as something akin to what a solder might have as their life story, with the more general events surrounding their life being presented before the relationships that connect the combatants are made more plain to the reader. Rat Kiley's shot on his own foot reflects this general theory as wounding oneself can be seen as a very embarrassing thing for a soldier and something that would be revealed nearly last. On the level of that of a life of a human, the night life is a reference to how soldiers or just humans try to cope with reality by making up certain things, especially when things are more mysterious like at night. It is also fitting that night would be one of the last things to be talked about, as it can be seen as intrinsic to humanity. In terms of the the life of O'Brien, the evacuation of Kiley being positioned nearly last can be seen as giving context so that the event makes more sense to the reader and also as something not easily revealed as it has to do with one of O'Brien's best friends in a rather awkward situation and as something that O'Brien carries close.
The last story is the most intimate of all. It has to do with O'Brien's lost childhood love who dies. It is the most personal story possible for O'Brien because it reveals his most inner feelings and his most personal moment. At the same time, the story is also personal for a soldier as it shows what endures even when there is exchanged gunfire and wounds. Also, it is also a tale of humanity and what people remember in the darkest of times. It is the most intrinsic thing that one can carry, be one soldier, human or a less general person. Finally, the story shows how people recall the most precious parts of memory long into their lives. Emotionally, the story is touching as well as sobering. Finally, it seems that through telling this personal story O'Brien has less to carry.
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