“It’s never about war, it’s about sunlight.” This quote is one of the many reasons Tim O’Brien gives on how to tell a true war story. In The Things They Carried four of Tim O’Brien’s own rules demonstrate why his chapter “On a Rainy River” is true. The rules that a true war story has no moral, a true war story doesn’t generalize, a true war story is not just about war, and a true war story is embarrassing prove his chapter true. One of the four reasons, a true war story has no moral, is demonstrated to verify this chapter factual. O’Brien is torn between whether or not he should go off to war. He says, “Embarrassment, that’s all it was. And right then I submitted.” Although he decides to submit there is no lesson learned and it was purely
In this book, Tim O'brien uncovers all his encounters in insight about the war; and also stories about his kindred warriors, and makes a genuine, yet over the top about them. He clarifies how he feels through stories that are hard to unmistakably distinguish as "genuine." This book has a great deal of subjects, demise and brutality is one of the real topics. A major topic and point in Tim O'Brien's novel is what number of circumstances hurt the warriors' lives.
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
The struggle of war is more than a physical struggle. It is the emotional and moral struggles that weigh soldiers down even after the war. In O’Brien’s chapter “On the Rainy River,” he experiences different thoughts on whether
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.
On the topic of morality: to be moral is to know the distinction between right and wrong, or to have that distinction in general. The truth in war, O’Brien argues, is never moral. If the truth is moral, then it is a lie (65). Even if the truth is the story-truth (171), it can be more real more true, and more astonishing than the whole of the real truth.
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.
“Vietnam was lost in the living rooms of America, not on the battlefields of Vietnam”- Marshall Mcluhan. In the novel The Things They Carried, written by Tim O’Brien uses his personal experiences to describe his time spent in Vietnam throughout the war. The reason the novel is written in a nonlinear format because he is writing the novel as he recalls his experiences. However, the main purpose of him writing the novel was to help people understand what the soldiers had went through and the truth about the Vietnam War is known to the public. Tim O’Brien uses themes such as storytelling/memory and morality to demonstrate the impact of the experiences the soldiers endured and how that has affected their daily lives.
Reader Response of “On the Rainy River” The short story “On the Rainy River” by Tim O 'Brien explains to the audience that all men are influenced to go into war, and that they should hide the fears and emotions that they may have along the journey. Throughout the short story the author explains his journey and opens up about his emotions when he was sent to war. Being the audience of this short story explains to you what every man must go through if they were to be sent to war.
(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 was so much more than just war to O’Brien and he able to share this through his writing. " But this is true: stories can save us. ... in a story, which is a kind of dreaming, the dead sometimes smile and sit up and return to the world." (page
One of the important truths of a war story is that it doesn’t leave out the dirty gritty details that really tell the experience. A reader may see this quote and feel strange that O’Brien chooses to point out that war stories aren’t for feeling uplifted, they probably chose this book to get a good story about some soldiers in Vietnam. Rather, O’Brien wants the reader to see that any war story worth telling is going to leave in the terrible parts that cause disgust and retching. War is not something to be used to feel that there is a greater
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,
The Vietnam War leaves a legacy of moral confusion with each and every soldier who serves. Soldiers are fighting for a cause they do not necessarily believe in, killing people who do not necessarily deserve it, and watching their brothers die beside them. Tim O’Briens’ book, The Things They Carried, illustrates the soldiers struggle to define morality throughout the confusion of the war. On the Rainy River, Tim O’Brien faces what he feels is his moral obligation to answer his country’s call and fight in Vietnam, and a personal moral issue with the reason for the war.
Ambiguity Lingers On Edith Wharton, who is an American author, states “The novelist must rely on what maybe called the illuminating incident to reveal and emphasize the inner meaning of each situation” (Wharton). Tim O’Brien uses illuminating moments to show how war makes guilt ambiguous. By examining three specific moments, the reader discovers how difficult it is to deal with the ambiguities of guilt. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross suffers from the ambiguity of guilt about Ted Lavender’s death.
In Tim O'Brien's “Enemies” and “Friends”, O'Brien shows the effect the nature of war has on individuals and how war destroys and creates friendships. These two stories describe the relationship between two soldiers, Lee Strunk and Dave Jensen. In “Enemies”, friendship is broken over a fist fight about a stolen jackknife, which leaves Strunk with a broken nose and Jensen paranoid of whether or not Strunk’s revenge is coming. While in “Friends”, you see how the nature of war creates a bond of trust, even between people who first saw each other as enemies.