Some authors choose to write stories and novels specifically to evoke certain emotions from their readers as opposed to writing it for just a visual presentation. In order to do this, they occasionally stretch the truth and “distort” the event that actually occurred. The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, is a compilation of short stories about the Vietnam War with distortion being a key element in each of them. Several stories into the novel, in the section, “How to tell a true war story”, O’Brien begins to warn readers of the lies and exaggerations that may occur when veterans tell war stories. “The vapors suck you in. You can’t tell where you are, or why you’re there, and the only certainty is overwhelming ambiguity. In war you lose your sense of the definite, hence your sense of truth itself, and therefore it’s safe to say that in a true war story nothing is ever absolutely true.” (Pg.88) He states that as a soldier, there is so much to soak in from war scenes that it all becomes a muddled mess. Therefore, the story of the moment can be different from each soldier’s perspective due to the parts where each man puts in his own ideas. This leads to some speculation as to whether or not O’Brien’s stories are true or false. One of the later entries in the book called “Good form”, helps alleviate the suspicion of dishonesty in the stories by bluntly telling the reader that all the other entries are a mix of both fact and fiction. O’Brien feels the need to make up parts of his stories due to the fact that he wants the reader to experience emotions as opposed to mental visuals. He describes these emotion-laden scenes as “story-truth” due to the fact that they are part story and part truth. The parts that are only for emotio... ... middle of paper ... ...or himself with fillers to shape and create the people that he imagined them to be. At this point, readers can fully understand why distortion occurred in the book because O’Brien writes his thoughts out as the book progresses. As O’Brien learns more about his reasons of being an author, the reader learns more about why his war stories wouldn’t be the same if he hadn’t altered them. Stories, both factual and manipulated, present different things to a reader. Factual writings help readers visualize the actual moment, but may not have them feeling the same as the author felt. Manipulated writings however, are superior in the fact that emotion through writing can actually help readers see a situation for what it really is. Distortions in manipulated writing are beneficial to the reader by providing more sensory imagery, even if it costs presenting the complete truth.
Many times readers lose interest in stories that they feel are not authentic. In addition, readers feel that fictitious novels and stories are for children and lack depth. Tim O’ Brien maintains that keeping readers of fiction entertained is a most daunting task, “The problem with unsuccessful stories is usually simple: they are boring, a consequence of the failure of imagination- to vividly imagine and to vividly render extraordinary human events, or sequences of events, is the hard-lifting, heavy-duty, day-by-day, unending labor of a fiction writer” (Tim O’ Brien 623). Tim O’ Brien’s “How to Tell a True War Story” examines the correlation between the real experiences of war and the art of storytelling. In O’Brien’s attempt to bridge the gap between fiction and non-fiction the narrator of the story uses language and acts of violence that may be offensive to some. However some readers agree that Tim O" Brien's "How to Tell a True War Story" would lack authenticity and power without the use of crude language and violence.
O Brien 's point of view is an accurate one as he himself because he is a Vietnam veteran. The title of the short story is meaningful because it describes each soldier’s personality and how he handles conflict within the mind and outside of the body during times of strife. The title fits the life as a soldier perfectly because it shows the reality that war is more than just strategy and attacking of forces. O’Brien narrates the story from two points of view: as the author and the view of the characters. His style keeps the reader informed on both the background of things and the story itself at the same
The novel, The Things They Carried is a collection of short stories about life as a foot soldier in the Vietnam War. The author, Tim O’Brien is, himself a veteran of the Vietnam War. Some of the stories are true, and others are only partially true. O’Brien talks about how he felt when he was drafted, and how he felt while watching his platoon mates die, and what it was like to be a soldier in one of the most gruesome wars in history.
Tim O’Brien’s ultimate purpose is to detract the fine line between fiction and reality. In order to fully grasp what a true war story consists of, the definition of true must be deciphered. O’Brien seems to believe that it does not need to be pure facts. Instead, it is mostly found in the imagination of the individual. Readers need to receive a story based on the truth in its overall purpose and meaning. It just needs to feel true. The author implies that it is not important whether the event actually occurred or not, because if the reader wants to believe it that badly, the feeling of truth will always be present.
In “Telling the Truth” by Jon Volkmer, he compares The Things They Carried to another war story. He points out that when O’Brien tells the truth it is more of an individual one instead of the one of an event or group. Which makes sense because in every story he tells the outcome is different. Sometimes from another person or sometimes from himself. Each of his stories is changed based on his perspective and what he remembers, so it makes sense that his truth’s are individual. He also states how O 'Brien spends his time picking the truth apart about war. This could be of a couple different reasons, like his trouble remembering what happened, or how he depicts the truth from fiction. Mr. Volkmer says how O’Brien was always trying to quote on quote “ pull the rug out from underneath the reader” when he was telling a story. It is definitely true that O’Brien was trying to do that throughout the whole novel. If he was doing that, he did a great job because every story he told was believable and it painted a vivid picture in your head about what happened. Then at the end he would just stab you in the heart with something about it not being true or he did not
A work's infallibility cannot be defined by imagination's input, facts become false when they are exaggerated. The Things They Carried, is a collection of short stories that revolve around The Vietnam War. Tim O'Brien takes the reader back in time to the late 1960s, and contemplates on experiences that emotionally scarred Vietnam soldiers. O'Brien shares multiple war stories that are claimed to be authentic during the war, and migrates to the 1980s in states like Iowa and MA to discuss how these stories have influenced his life. The Things They Carried, is a collection of false war stories, the stories' authenticity is altered in hopes of evoking strong emotions from readers.
O’Brien begins The Things They Carried with a story of the same title, and in this memory O’Brien lists all of the things that the members of the squadron carry. In the description of what each person carries, the reader can get some image of what each character is like in appearance and personality. Also in this story, O’Brien describes one instance of destroying enemy tunnels which ends with one of their company, Ted Lavender, dying. “Love,” the second story is about Lieutenant Cross visiting O’Brien after the war has ended and discussing his love Martha. The next story, “Spin,” is a bit more relaxed and less violent in remembering fragmented memories of days when no battles are fought. O’Brien received his draft notice in “On the Rainy River,” and with this new information he runs away to Canada, but not before stopping at Tip Top Lodge to think about his decision; he decides to go and fight in the war. “Enemies,” and “Friends,” are the next two stories that tell the story of how Lee Strunk and Dave Jensen were foes that became friends. O’Brien prefaces “How to Tell a True War Story” saying that it is true. This story is the only one that has this proclamation. This story is more of a love story than a war story because after Curt Lemon dies, Rat Kiley writes his sister including in the letter all the great stuff that Lemon did. In “Dentist,” Curt Lemon’s story and fears are expanded. O’Brien tells a story Rat Kiley told him about the Song Tra
Fighting the Vietnam War dramatically changed the lives of everyone even remotely involved, especially the brave individuals actually fighting amidst the terror. One of the first things concerned when reading these war stories was the detail given in each case. Quotes and other specific pieces of information are given in each occurrence yet these stories were collected in 1981, over ten years following the brutal war. This definitely shows the magnitude of the war’s impact on these servicemen. These men, along with every other individual involved, went through a dramatic experience that will forever haunt their lives. Their minds are filled with scenes of exploding buildings, rape, cold-blooded killing, and bodies that resemble Swiss cheese.
O’Brien later says that he distorted the story; this did not actually happen. He says that what happened was that he was a soldier and he pulled the trigger and is not certain whether his bullets hit people or not. If O’Brien said that however, readers would not understand the way he felt as he pulled the trigger. He gives the story how he threw a grenade and killed the man because that was the way he felt. He tells of his grief afterwards and, as civilians, readers are able to grasp why he felt that way. It would be difficult to sympathize with him if he said that he didn’t know if he killed but felt the grief anyway. The distortion of the story makes it more effective because readers can understand the way he feeling and as O’Brien says, a war story is about the human heart. The distortion of this story allows readers to grasp the story that O’Brien wanted to
The truth plays little to no part in a truly good story. Mostly, there is one main difference between good stories and bad ones; the use of facts. Poor storytellers get hung up on every inane detail of the truth, good storytellers provide room for interpretation by the reader (McLeod). By focusing more on feeling and not the truth, readers are able to connect more with a story. If the pure facts are predominant, a story becomes too exact, boring even. In Tim O’Brien’s book “The Things They Carried,” Tim remembers his friend Norman wanting Tim to write a story about him. The first version ended up being a disappointment, so Tim rewrote it and said “The piece has been substantially revised,
This allows the reader to see what takes place rather than what is perceived. O’Brien’s main objective is to expose the subjectivity that lies within truth. To point out a specific contradiction within truth, he uses war to highlight this difference. He writes, “The truths are contradictory. It can be argued, for instance, that war is grotesque. But in truth war is also beauty” (77). The truth has two different meanings and it all depends on who is interpreting it. One person may think one truth and another person can see the complete opposite. To go along with this ambiguity within truth he states, “Almost everything is true. Almost nothing is true” (77). He once again shows that truth is up for interpretation. There is not a single, universal truth, however, there are many variations of it. As previously mentioned, O’Brien claims that he honestly admit that he has both never killed a man and has in fact killed somebody. Here he is stating that there can be completely different answers that all seem to be the truthful. Whether or not O’Brien killed someone, he felt like he did, but could answer that he didn’t. It is this discrepancy that proves that it is all relative. When it comes to telling the story it becomes “difficult difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen,” (67). This is what causes the subjectivity, the unknowingness of the situation. Since
... encountered; it is almost as a memoir to make the novel more cope able. A physical and emotional burden carried by a platoon from the war. Things everyone carries, tells many things about once person, the book inclines more into an emotional and spiritual through one’s life, especially a changing one as a soldier would experience it. O’Brien Stories goes beyond the war; it goes more in depth of each event, each character, and each place, as a diary to write out everything to cope with the experience, wondering someone else will read it. Tim O’Brien let his imagination flow; he wanted to integrate his own stories, along with stories that were close to him. At last it doesn’t matter if it’s fictional, or not, it is a part of him in every chapter of The Things They Carried, that he chose to share with each reader
This form of writing appeals to the audience’s emotions by making the connection seem more personal, as if O’Brien is speaking directly to each reader. The constant changing of forms of writing within a single novel is unusual, and sometimes they appear to not make sense. O’Brien uses a variety of writing forms in order to make the novel a “true” war story, rather than a novel for purely entertainment purposes. In this chapter the audience is first told of O’Brien’s purpose within the novel: to feel the way he felt. The sometimes confusing and unexpected changes of forms of writing allows the readers to better relate to O’Brien’s own
He even tells his reader to not pay attention to the details. In “How to Tell a True war Story” O’Brien states, “In any war story, but especially a true one, it’s difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen. What seems to happen becomes its own happening and has to be told that way.”(pg. 67-68) This “what seemed to happen” can be referred to as the story truth. O’Brien is telling his readers that sometimes memories get blurred and the brain can forget what really happened. He later writes, “Often the crazy stuff is true and the normal stuff isn’t, because the normal stuff is necessary to make you believe the truly incredible craziness” to further prove this point. (pg. 68) Without the normal stuff being told, the reader would not believe all of the traumatic events that took place in this war. While being compared to the crazy memories, the brain sees the normal stuff as a pointless memory. The brain therefore doesn’t see the necessity to remember this unimportant memory. So, when trying to tell this event later on, the human brain makes up a false memory to fill the lost memory’s place and to make the story seem more
The truth to any war does not lie in the depths of storytelling but rather it’s embedded in every person involved. According to O’Brien, “A true war story does not depend on that kind of truth. Absolute occurrence is irrelevant. A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than the truth” (pg. 80). Truths of any war story in my own opinion cannot be fully conveyed or explained through the use of words. Any and all war stories provide specific or certain facts about war but each of them do not and cannot allow the audience to fully grasp the tru...