Fighting In The War: A Short Story

Within the chapter “How to Tell a True War Story,” O’Brien writes about a story that Mitchell Sanders recounts to be true. The surrealist part is when Sanders talks about how they heard noises within the forests of Nam. Sanders says, “...but after a while they start hearing -you won’t believe this- they hear chamber music… Then after a while they hear gook opera and a glee club…” (Pg. 71). When he says this he is really adding details to pad the story up. Like when Sanders say, “The whole country. Vietnam. The place talks. It talks. Understand? Nam - it truly talks.” (Pg. 71). He means to say that he added those things that they heard because there were sounds they heard that couldn’t be explained. Later on he says that those things they heard

Joseph Plumb Martin was born on November 1760 in western Massachusetts. He wrote a book in which he described the life of an ordinary soldier during the American Revolution.”A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier” not only informed about the poor conditions in which the troops lived but also is one of the few soldier's accounts of the Revolution in general.

     According to the author Tim O’Brien, people tend to readily accept the ‘facts’ presented of what happened during a war. People do not consider the existence of fallacies regarding the actual stories of what happens in wars, few consider that the ‘facts’ of an incident often change through people’s words. The film ‘Saving the Private Ryan’ by Steven Spielberg features both facts and seemingness part of the war story. Since it is so difficult to fully describe a war using human language, Spielberg ended up revising his stories to make sense out of it. Spielberg included parts that did not occur or exclude parts that did occur in order to make their stories seem more credible. According

Throughout Tim O'Brien's, “How to Tell a True War Story”, the concept of truth and how one tells a “true” war story is discussed. Several factors contribute to the “truth” of the stories the soldiers told; the madness of the war, the civilians back home who didn't experience war or understand that it was hell, and the indescribable ways the soldiers felt. O'Brien explains that people willingly accept the facts of what happened during a war but, what they don’t consider is the deception of these facts that change through people’s stories. All of these factors combined caused the soldiers to react to certain situations and tell stories differently. O’Brien’s stories characterize that “truth” isn’t always a straightforward concept; and that it can be revealed in many ways. It can be the narrator’s intention, to provide the truth but the person listening might find a different truth to the story.

The short story that will be discussed, evaluated, and analyzed in this paper is a very emotionally and morally challenging short story to read. Michael Meyer, author of the college text The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature, states that the author of How to Tell a True War Story, Tim O’Brien, “was drafted into the Vietnam War and received a Purple Heart” (472). His experiences from the Vietnam War have stayed with him, and he writes about them in this short story. The purpose of this literary analysis is to critically analyze this short story by explaining O’Brien’s writing techniques, by discussing his intended message and how it is displayed, by providing my own reaction,

The essay “ How To Tell a True War Story” written by O’Brien complexifies the idea of truth by furnishing readers divergent approaches on to tell how if a story is true or not, in which its readers had to utilize their own sense of understanding to interpret what O’Brien was emphasizing about truth. Interpretation is a psychological process, which requires a mental process to make meaning of a text. Stanley Fish, the author of “ How To Recognize a Poem When you See One”argues that the meaning of a text originated from the reader’s recognition and its interpretive communities. Fish, in his essay, I acquired the true meaning of a text originated from the act of reading and its interpretive communities.

The “Baby Boom” era occurred between the years of the late 1950s thru the 19970s and shaped America and its culture into the type of country it is today. It helps to understand these times to prevent history from repeating itself while better understanding how people were feeling during that time. Also, to better understand what was happening during that time by reading the literature that was written during that time period. Through Tim O’Brien’s “How to Tell a True War Story” to Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”, they reflect the cultural, economic, political, and intellectual upheavals the United States was experiencing. These stories affect your way of thinking about these times, especially the war.

turning my head again I saw Simon dive to my aid. He did not utter a

A characteristic of a true war story is that it is meant to convey an emotion or feeling. In “How to Tell a True War Story,” O’Brien writes, “It comes down to gut instinct. A true war story, if truly told, makes the stomach believe.” One of the emotions that Good Morning, Vietnam conveys is the conflicted feeling that most Americans had at the time regarding the government. The Vietnam War was one of the most controversial conflicts in America’s history.

In the chapter “How to Tell a True War Story” a story is told by Mitchell Sanders and how six guys had a mission they were sent on. The mission was supposed to be them sitting a week out in a dug out area so they can listen for enemy movements. When they get up there it had a spooky feeling to it because of the mist just hanging on the mountain top to the point where you couldn’t see past five feet. The guys stayed up there because they had to and it was their mission. They heard things up there but it was never clear whether it was their minds doing it to them or the entire country of Vietnam actually talking to them. But the thing was that all six of them heard the same noises up there and it was driving them crazy because it never stopped

“The Tragedy of war is that it uses man’s best to do man’s worst” wise words from Henry Fosdick. When it comes down to the time where an individual hits rock bottom, a man either do its best or do its worst. Although, Man can do its best and do its worst at the same time. There are many reasons how man’s best can result to man’s worst. Henry Fosdick statement is both true and false.

Vietnam was a place like no other. It was swarmed with presence of stories, some strange, some nefarious, and some just utterly incredible. But for those who think like me, Vietnam, even in its times of horror and imperfections, can really bring out the very true nature in someone. Like the way someone stands upon his feet after numerous bumps and blows, like the grit that one shows after driven against the wall — the true character of one person is dictated and influenced by his or her environment and how he or she chooses to deal

The New York Times Bestseller We Were Soldiers Once... And Young was authored by Lt. General Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway. In November 1965, Lt. Colonel Harold Moore commanded the 1st Battalion, 7th cavalry at the Ia Drang Valley-one of the bloodiest battles of Vietnam. He eventually retired from the Army in 1977 after thirty-two years of service. After his military career, Lieutenant General Moore resided as executive vice president for four years at a Colorado ski resort before founding a computer software company. Harold Moore currently lives in Auburn, Alabama and Crested Butte, Colorado.

The Experience Of War Many authors have written about war themes, some extracts of the stories and poems that I have read and researched are The Upturned Face by Steven Crane .It is about a fictional war being fought in an imaginary Europe. Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell describes his senses and feeling of getting shot in the neck during battle. Exposure by Wilfred Owen,describes the horrors and reality of being in the trenches of the First World War. And The Making of Me by Robert Westall is about a shell-shocked grandfather who has the responsibility of looking after his grandchild.

War has been a part of human culture since it's birth. It has led to a great many massacres and has shown us the evil that exists within the souls of humanity. Some have even gone as far as saying that war is human nature. To better understand the reasons behind war and how it affects others, I've examined several different societies and cultures so as to better understand the necessity of war and see the cause of their external war attitude. To do so, different variables from two topics (military institutions and external war attitude) were matched up and crossed so as to look into the answers to these questions. The variables were then calculated and through these graphs, I was able to find different societies in which