Tim O 'Brian's How To Tell A True War Story'

To be engaged in war is to be engaged in an armed conflict. Death is an all too ordinary product of war. It is an unsolicited reward for many soldiers that are fighting for their country’s own fictitious freedom. For some of these men, the battlefield is a glimpse into hell, and for others, it is a means to heaven. Many people worry about what happens during war and what will become of their loved ones while they’re fighting, but few realize what happens to those soldiers once they come home. The short stories "Soldier's Home” by Ernest Hemingway and "Speaking of Courage” by Tim O'Brien explore the thematic after effects of war and how it impacts a young person's life. Young people who

Another effect of the war on Krebs was his loss of faith. During a discussion with his mother, Kreb revealed that he did not feel as if he was in “His kingdom” (Hemingway). World War I consisted of horrific and unspeakable images. These images were composed of soldiers dying in combat and distant clouds of smoke from bombs. World War One consisted of “artillery destroy[ing] ..

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

     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

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,

Not every man who 's fought in a war planned on doing so. In fact, not all of them even want to. It 's rare to find enough people voluntarily willing to lay down their lives for their country, so more often than not militaries used what we would call “citizen soldiers.” Citizen soldiers are exactly what they sound like, regular citizens taken from society and turned into people capable of serving in the military. Although it may seem obvious when plainly written out, citizen soldiers had vastly different experiences compared to career soldiers, and Stephen Ambrose attempted to pin down that specific experience in his book Citizen Soldier. Ambrose uses oral interviews from World War II veterans and other materials to explain the experiences of the common American soldier who served in WWII between D-Day and the eventual surrender of the German forces. However, when examining his book, it 's important to ask how successful Ambrose was in painting an accurate picture of this kind of soldier 's life during his service. Is the information he uses specific to the men who served in Europe, or can it also be linked back to the soldiers in the Pacific? This paper will evaluate his work by comparing it to oral interviews from WWII veterans both from the same areas that Ambrose 's veterans serve in and in locations not included in his work.

Not only do soldiers carry the emotional burdens of themselves, but they often carry the emotional burdens for others. Soldiers who work together end up becoming brothers. One mistake during war and their brothers are dead. This is a heavy weight for a soldier to carry. “He carried a strobe light and the responsibility for the lives of his men” (12). Soldiers often have to make difficult decisions on what

In the chapters “How to Tell a True War Story,” “Speaking of Courage” and “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” of The Things They Carried, author Tim O’Brien seems to be emphasizing the lack of both empathy and sympathy from the rest of society towards soldiers and veterans. In “How to Tell a True War Story,” Mitchell Sanders tells Tim O’Brien a story about six men on silent patrol up in the mountains in Vietnam who begin to hear strange noises and radio for the place to be demolished. When the colonel asks them why they did this, the men say nothing and simply stare at him thinking, “you got wax in your ears… you don’t even want to hear this” (72). Later, Sanders informs O’Brien that the moral of the story came to him. He states that the moral is about how

The story by Tim O’Brien shows how the soldiers are themselves and can also be serious. O’Brien also sees how Vietnam changes the soldiers and how they see the world now. There will be people that will ask if it’s true or not true they can asks what happened. There can be different ways to tell a story but they can ask what happen. O’Brien would know which story he really believes. O’Brien will give use by looking at Rat’s point of view, and Sanders point of view of Lemon death and how Rat copes with a letter. Here are three points’ that will go with O’Brien story the history, biography and literary criticism.

War has been a topic that is upsetting and off-limits for many. Although, it shouldn’t be. War has become a rising issue as veterans come back home. Authors use languages such as imagery, strong diction, and rhetorical strategies to stress the importance of talking about war. Some may also use personal experience to raise awareness of the effects on both sides of the war and to deal with post-traumatic events that happen to veterans.

War stories are usually an emotional or depressing version of someone’s experience during their time in war. In Tim O’Brien’s short story, “Where Have You Gone, Charming Billy?” and Youtube video, “How to Tell A True War Story” he expresses many of his emotions and his journey after he returned from combat. He explained how scary the war can be, encouraging you to stay away from warfare so you don't have to deal with the guilt he feels, and how depressing and how much his life has changed since returning from his deployment.

The Things They Carried is a book written by Tim O’Brien. It features many different stories from many different people who fought or participated in the Vietnam War. There are two particular stories, “How to Tell a True War Story” and “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong,” that stand out because they use surrealism. Surrealism is the word to describe what most people may perceive as “unreal”. These stories use surrealism by creating elements in the story that almost sound impossible, but the author insists that they are true. Throughout the story, we are constantly asking what is real and not real. But, if we use examples from the book, it may be easier to define what is real and unreal.

Some of the most popular pictures are those of soldiers running up to their families right after getting off of the plane from a tour of duty, crying, and thankful that they are back home and safe. But how many of us actually care about those soldiers beyond knowing that they are home and safe? Ron Kovic’s autobiography, Born on the Fourth of July, is out to prove that going through a war has an affect beyond what most of the population sees; there are life-long effects, especially for those who come back injured and maimed. Every aspect of Ron Kovic’s life changed when he came back from the war and couldn’t move over half of his body and, for

In “How to Tell a True War Story, the author, through his fictional personality Tim O’Brien, attempts to define the truth in war stories, but instead concluded that none were completely factual. Supported by the paradox from the beginning and end of this chapter, he presented this information in the form of a realization in front of the readers, first claiming that his stories were “true” but later agreeing that “none of them happened.” One of the most notable examples he used was his account of Curt Lemon’s death, a game of catch with a grenade resulting in an accident. As O’Brien recalled the event, Lemon seemed as if he was lifted away through the trees, his face glistening in the sunlight. Therefore, in my mind, I imagined a graceful departure

As I sat down to write this essay I tried to remove my emotional response to the question and think about it from the perspective of someone that hasn’t been in combat. Why wouldn’t someone want to write about war? As we have learned this week through Bierce’s works some of the most gallant and noble scenes human beings can participate in happen through the act of war. It brings out the absolute best and worst in man often in the same moment. The problem for me is that when we write so often we draw on our own personnel experiences to help communicate that story, if I want to write a love story I will draw on my own experiences with love. If I want to write a story about family I can use the way I am raising my own as a baseline for the feelings and emotions I am trying to give to the reader. War is so outside of the “normal” human experience that it takes a very talented writer to breach this experience without ever having lived it. Some writers have attempted to interview veterans and use those stories as there baseline for what they are writing. This in my opinion can work to a point but falls short due the writer using the emotions that these interviews illicit in them, not what the person they are interviewing actually experienced. I believe that anyone has the right to write about war, but the writer should use extreme caution in the telling of these