True War Story

In today's culture we hear countless stories about countless wars but we never know the facts unless we experienced the events Very view war stories can be proclaimed true, these few are special, they are separate from any other piece of literature. In the novel, The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien illustrates the complexity of a true war story. Tim O'Brien uses the characters Mitchell, Rat, and Curt to tell real stories about the Vietnam War. O'Brien focuses on their humility, their immoral characteristics, and their unreliability to portray the components of a true war story.

Tim O’Brien uses Curt Lemon to demonstrate that true war stories are never fully accurate; they are made up of stray thoughts and authentic fragments. After the death

During their time in Vietnam, Mitchell Sanders tells his own war story. O’Brien uses Sander’s story to give examples of the components of a true war story. At the end of the story, O’Brien asks Mitchell what the moral of his story is: “’Hear that quiet, man?’ he said. That quiet – just listen. There’s your moral’ (74). In Sanders’ story, there is no moral. There is nothing to be learned from the story. The silence that follows the story represents the lack of morals. O’Brien follows Mitchell Sanders’ story by describing the feelings that follow a true war story: "In a true war story, if there’s a moral at all, it's like the thread that makes the cloth. You can't tease it out...there’s nothing much to say about a true war story, except maybe ‘Oh’' (74). O’Brien questions the moral of Sanders’ story. The only thing left to say is “Oh.” Quiet and “oh” are both empty, which is how the reader knows Mitchell’s story is true.

Tim O'Brien states principles of a true war story and then exemplifies them through the realistic characters of Curt, Mitchell, and Rat. O'Brien allows individuals who have never experienced war to experience an accurate first hand account behind the scenes of their country. War is constantly misconstrued, The Things They Carried, is a first hand account of the Vietnam War, the truth. There are thousands of publications about many wars, however not all are true. War is either idealized or demonized to