The Moral of the Story
War is never poetic, however, Wilfred Owen England, author of Dulce Et Decorum Est, brings to life an experience he had at war. Although the language is gory and he refrained from niceties, the story he tells is vivid and makes you feel that you are there at the moment experiencing it with him. Makes one wonder why the title, which in translation means “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country”, is chosen when he experienced so much death around him. On the other hand, author Tim O’Brien begins to tell the story as though it is coming from a second party and gives it philosophical twist here and there, which creates an interesting telltale version of stories in How to Tell a True War Story. The story being told by Wilfred Owen sounds is more believable as he states it experiencing it firsthand.
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He starts by telling a story as if Rat is the one who experienced it. He starts the war story with “THIS IS TRUE”(pg. 241), but further on states that “A true war story cannot be believed…”, which makes you wonder if the story he’s telling is true at all. All stories should have a moral or make a point but O’Brien states that, “A true war story is never moral…If a story seems moral, do not believe it (pg. 241-242)”. The author continues to contradict himself through this story and reflects on the “why” a war story should not be believed. As Tim O’Brien talks about having had the same experience 20 years ago where he begins to describe On the other hand when Wilfred Owen writes about being in the war there is no doubting that this man actually went through the things he writes down on paper. The description gives a vivid picture of the type of war he was
For example in the chapter, O’Brien announces that “A true war story is never moral”(O’Brien 65), but, later on in the chapter he contradicts himself conveying that “ In a true war story, if there's a moral at all, it’s like the thread that makes the cloth ”(O’Brien 74). He starts off saying a true war story has no morals, but then he explains that the moral means everything to a war story, which contradicts his earlier statement. This contradictory excerpt from the chapter parallels the idea of the Vietnam war in the fact that to make peace, there had to be war and bloodshed to solve the problem that the United States and North Vietnam had with one another. War is contradictory in itself ,and O’Brien’s contradictory motif illustrates it well. In fact, the idea of war is a reoccurring topic in “How to Tell a True War Story,” and O’Brien illustrates this idea of war with many other devices as
Tim O’Brien never lies. While we realise at the end of the book that Kiowa, Mitchell Sanders and Rat Kiley are all fictional characters, O’Brien is actually trying to tell us that there is a lot more truth hidden in these imagined characters than we think. This suggests that the experiences he went through were so traumatic, the only way to describe it was through the projection of fictional characters. O’Brien explores the relationship between war experiences and storytelling by blurring the lines between truth and fiction. While storytelling can change and shape a reader’s opinions and perspective, it might also be the closest in helping O’Brien cope with the complexity of war experiences, where the concepts like moral and immorality are being distorted.
This story is a success because it features components of what O’Brien says is a true war story. This certain short story includes, embarrassment, love, memory, and, shame. This story perfectly depicts the theme of one's conscience versus the society around them. It portrays this theme because it is the perfect example of the fight between what he believe is right and what society believes is wrong and is “unpatriotic” while what he believes is wrong and unworthy of such violence, yet society believes is right. According to O’Brien, in order for war stories to be true they must possess at least some of the elements from his specific definition.
O’Brien presents a story in which he kills an innocent Vietnamese man walking through the woods. He describes the guilt and remorse he feels for his actions. He references this story several times throughout the book. Around the third time he admits that the guy he specifically described was not real, and that in fact he never killed anyone in the war, but the fact that he witnessed so many deaths put him at fault. “I remember his face, which was not a pretty face because his jaw was in his throat, and I remember feeling the burden of responsibility and grief.
All of O'brien's stories were made up in some parts for coping reasons with war experiences and guilt coming out of the war. O'brien was a soldier but used made up stories to heal. He describes in the chapter “Good Form” that “Almost everything else is invented.” (O'brien 114) And “I want you to feel what I felt.”
In the short story, “The Man I Killed,” O’Brien focuses on this to show that everyone fighting in a war has a story. He spends the story describing the man he killed and searching for justification of his actions. He carries around guilt with him because of it, and his fellow soldiers try to help him justify and come to terms with his action by saying things like, “You want to trade places with him? Turn it all upside down= you want that? I mean, be honest,” (126) and “Tim, it’s a war.
In Tim O’Brien’s THE THINGS THEY CARRIED, there is a chapter called How to Tell a True War Story. In this chapter, he states how you should never trust a “true war story” because many aspects go into a war story. He characterizes them; at the end of the day, you are the listener and should be skeptical. Ask questions and be curious.
Throughout the book, O’Brien tells many different stories about himself and his buddies during the war. He says true war stories have a certain fell to them. According to O’Brien, true war stories don’t generalize and will
War’s Reality We as humans find conflict to be rash and futile, but to the soldiers that fight for our freedom, it is an honor and a privilege, but it is dreadful nonetheless. We are going to be discussing Tim O'Brien's intentions in writing the short story “Where Have You Gone Charming Billy.” It is my understanding that he wrote the story to tell us about war as it is hard to imagine its entirety and that war takes lives. Finally, I believe that he wants us to see how dangerous and terrifying war really is.
(page 68). This is why Tim O’Brien writes the way he does. He wants the reader to believe his story and get a sense of what war is truly
War is the opposite of purity where corruption evolves soldiers into dehumanized reflections of themselves. The nature of war shows how dehumanizing it is, turning soldiers into savages as seen in the story, “How to Tell A True War Story”. War stories, as told by Tim O’Brien,
(172) Had O’Brien told the “happening-truth,” readers would have felt disconnected, and undermined the details that made the soldiers feel what they felt. However, there is a fine line between the two “truths”, that may go unrecognized. In this chapter O’Brien acknowledges that the “story-truth’ and the “happening truth” can morph into one another, and all of the sudden the story-truth becomes reality in his mind. “What seems to happen becomes its own happening and has to be told that way." (67-68)
The word “truth” can be interpreted numerous ways regarding different situations and also the person that is telling the story. In the book, “ The Things They Carried”, Tim O’Brien wrote about his experience in the Vietnam War and how the war had impacted him and his fellow soldiers. Throughout the story, O’Brien begins to doubt himself and the accuracy of the story that he was telling. “ And then afterward, when you go to tell about it, there is always that surreal seemingness, which makes the story seem untrue, but which in fact represents the hard and exact truth as it seemed” (O’Brien 54). Knowing that everything might not be what it seemed, O’Brien began to realize that “fact” and “truth” are two different items.
O’Brien often writes in story-truth to let the readers live that experience with him and feel what he felt during that time. He lets the readers wonder if these stories are true or not. Their goal was to make readers feel the pain, the
Like, we can’t become haywire in emotion while telling a typical war story, as it then crush down the authenticity, the truth behind the words. His story can be taken into account not only for a war story, but for a good number of other classics