Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

In the novel The Things They Carried, the lines between reality and fiction are blurred by human perspective, facts, and an insatiable need to appear courageous. In war stories, there are moments where the one telling the story gets lost between fact and fiction because of the circumstances of the events. The more calamitous the event is, and the more challenging it is to talk about, the harder it is to allow the truth to peek through. Human perspective changes the way stories are told, and how they are received. Humans tend to accept the truth they believe. Humans are misled to believe that fiction is not fiction—but truth—because of what they accept and believe.

In the novel, O’Brien describes the truth to war stories, “In a true war

Some may tell a story and stretch the truth to make themselves appear more heroic or courageous. In a war story, this is where the lines between fact and fiction or blurred dramatically. Every man wants to be a hero. Every man wants their name to be known—to be a symbol of honor and courage. O’Brien once again uncovers this in the novel, “For example, we’ve all heard this one. Four guys go down a trail. A grenade sails out. One guy jumps on it and takes the blast and saves his three buddies. Is it true? The answer matters” (O’Brien 79). As O’Brien said, the answer matters. This is because the once clear lines between truth and fiction are no longer visible. Is it true? Was a man truly brave enough to throw himself in front of an explosive to save his friends? The world may never know, but the world will believe it. It is completely reasonable to believe a story like that is the truth. Especially if the teller of the story is a soldier who claims to have experienced it. Another quote from the story that supports this theory of courage would be, “In the interests of the truth, however, I want to make it clear that Norman Bowker was in no way responsible for what happened to Kiowa. Norman did not experience a failure of nerve that night. HE did not freeze up or lose the Silver Star for valor. That part of the story was my own” (O’Brien 154). This supports the idea

Those who question what is fact and fiction may not always be satisfied with the answer. The lines between fact and fiction are often blurred by circumstance, human perspective, and the need to feel heroic. If there were no heroes, there would be no stories—there would be no war stories. There would just be meaningless words that string on forever. Without an unclear distinction of what is real and what is not, there is no real meaning. There needs to be fiction among a story of truth or else there is no deep, sentimental reasoning or meaning. There are no questions to be asked, and there are no answers to be given. Human perspectives change the meaning of stories. Humans make the distinction between fact and fiction because they have the power to determine what the believe, which can be either fact of fiction. Those who believe falsehood over truth are often not able to accept the truth, because the truth is an evil deity sent to haunt the human race. Which is why the once clear lines between truth and untruth is so hard to distinguish, because of what humans allow themselves to