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

of Curt Lemon, O’Brien recalls what he saw. Lemon was killed because he stepped on a land mine, however to the observing eye it seemed that his life was taken by nature: "…when he died it was almost beautiful, the way the sunlight came around him and lifted him up and sucked him high into a tree full of moss and vines and white blossoms” (67). When O’Brien sees Curt die, he doesn’t see the land mine, instead he sees Curt being “lifted up” into the sunlight. O’Brien views Lemon’s death as beautiful, not gruesome, which is contrary to the popular observation of war. After describing Lemon’s death, O’Brien talks about how Curt Lemon’s death helps him distinguish a true war story from a fake one. “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” (67-8) In the case of Lemon’s death, the picture is jumbled. When someone dies a soldier’s automatic response is to look away, by doing this, the soldier subconsciously fills in the blanks. In the specific instance of Curt Lemon’s death, O’Brien, and the rest of the onlookers replace what happened with what seemed to happen. There is no way Tim O’Brien can tell this story one hundred percent accurately.
Rat Kiley is a dishonestly to himself shows the embarrassment of true war stories.
After the death of his best friend, Curt Lemon, Kiley writes a letter to Curt’s sister:
"Jesus Christ, man, I write this beautiful fuckin' letter, I slave over it, and what happens? The dumb cooze never writes back" (66). Rat is embarrassed because he put a lot of time and effort into this letter, and she never replies. Kiley speaks negatively about the woman to hide his humiliation and shame. This embarrassment is how the reader knows this is a true war story. O’Brien claims: “You can tell a true war story if it embarrasses you. If you don’t care for obscenity, you don’t care for the truth” (66). Rat is ashamed of his embarrassment over such a minuscule incident. Kiley believes that as a solider, he needs to be like a super human. In reality, a solider is just a person with feelings that they cannot control. When Curt’s sister doesn’t reply to his letter, he feels weakened and fragile, something he cannot accept as a solider. Rat is dishonest with himself because he holds himself to this unrealistic standard and he cannot handle the embarrassment of not meeting that expectation.
Mitchell Sanders demonstrates that there is no moral in war.

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

opposite sides of the spectrum. Tim O’Brien opposes the norm and emphasizes the actuality of a true war story.