What Makes a War Story True? - "The Things They Carried" by Tim O' Brien

Stories that never happened may contain more truth than real events. In "The Things They Carried", Tim O' Brien introduces stories about constant stream of memories, discontinuous events, observations, insights, and an attempt to realism. These stories take place during the Vietnam War it is a collection of war stories that he remembers while O' Brien was in the war. This fiction novel came to life with the detailed and emotional stories by O' Brien. These stories are told by different soldiers, conveying the idea that a true war story has very little to do with what actually happened but an underlying argument that everything has to do with the meaning. When he tells a story he does not feel limited by chronology, objectivity, or even "truth;" therefore, the reader is often left wondering what makes a true was story.

People are right to be skeptical of war stories because thre's more to a story that is beyond telling.

GARETH O'BRIEN

GARETH O'BRIEN

O'Brien's Tower

For example, O' Brien recalls that ". . .a true war story cannot be believed...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" (71). That is what people expect of war stories. In addition, the whole experience seemed so surreal that it is difficult to sort out really happened from what seemed to happen. Just as we can not understand good without bad, we need a noremal routine to know a crazy moment. In addition, the whole experience seemed so surreal that it is difficult to sort out really happened from whatseemed to happen. While the platoon was crossing a muddy river and humping through the mountains, ". . .Curt Lemon and Rat Kiley were playing catch with smoke grenades. . . [but it].