Why does he mention Linda, and is she real?
I don't think Linda is, per se, a real person. I think it's possible that Tim O'Brien dated a girl in elementary school who died, though it isn't necessarily true. I think she is more meant to be a device to tie back the idea of story telling to something more personal and tangible; the notion that stories can bring back the dead creates a universality to the act. Few of us have been to war, have lost people, friends, in battle. Few of us need to tell stories about lost comrades in arms to bring them back. But most of us have lost people at some point, and many of us do tell stories about them. We don't necessarily tell stories for the purpose of resurrecting them momentarily, but it is an unintended effect none the less. The notion that someone isn't truly dead until they are forgotten is quite popular (or at least, I have heard the thought often and ten to agree).
I also think Linda is useful as a plot device because, not only is she dead and his story telling brings her back to life for him, but her connection to his childhood also calls forth the notion of innocence once again. The entire book seems quite focused on the idea of innocence and the loss of it; Linda's story is a bit of a happy contrast. Perhaps Timmy, the innocent, is dead; but by recalling him, by writing and telling stories about him, O'Brien brings him back to life. He resurrects his own innocents in a manner that helps him recover from the horrors he saw and was forced to see and do in the war.
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