'True Meaning Of A Story By Tim O' Brien

Throughout the book, O’Brien repeatedly states his struggles in telling “a true war story.” One of the obstacle he faces in telling “a true war story” is the readers’ misconception that “truth” must be an event and not an emotion. To begin, O’Brien claims “A true war story is never moral… If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted… then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie… you can tell a true war story by its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil” (68-69) and “All of us… like to believe that in a moral emergency we will behave like the heroes of our youth” (38). In these two statements, O’Brien has shown us that people want not a

In the book, the Truth About Stories, Thomas King sheds light on the power of stories. King explicitly enforces that one must take caution in the way he or she tells a story, since it will shape one’s thoughts, decision-making and future (2). Through the use of literature, King weaves his way through native history, anecdote by anecdote, informing his readers about the importance of storytelling. “Stories are wondrous things,” the author writes. “And they are dangerous.” (9). To prove this, King mentions two creation stories; the differences in these stories is the way in which they are told. The first is a famous native story called, “the woman who fell from the sky”; this story is told in a complex, persuasive way (10-20). This story discusses a society emphasizing the value of cooperation as the animals work together to create a better world (21-22). The second story, a Judeo-Christian biblical story, describes a Western Capitalist society. It is told in a historical, punitive and direct fashion, underlining a society of boundaries and punishment. King highlights that storytelling is not just simply telling a story, rather it is how the stories are told. King uses these particular stories to show how different stories shape people’s perspectives, which impacts their ideas, thoughts and decision making. Therefore he addresses how sensitive storytelling may be, for once a story is told, it can never be taken back (10). This is true in all realms of life, cautioning

“At night I’d go home smelling of pig. It wouldn’t go away. Even after a hot bath, scrubbing hard, the stink was always there – like old bacon, or sausage, a greasy pig-stink that soaked deep into my skin and hair. Among other things, I remember, it was tough getting dates that summer. I felt isolated; I spent a lot of time alone.” (O’Brien, 41).

O’Brien is interacting with his audience by saying the word “you” at the beginning of the passage. When he says, “I want you to feel what I felt” (O'Brien 171), it is making a personal connection between the reader and the author. The goal of these paragraphs is for O’Brien to tell the readers the difference between his happening-truth and story-truth. In a way, it is kind of a confession to his reader. A confession about how he may not be describing exactly what or whom he saw, but instead is saying something to fill the holes in his memories. With the words he is using like faceless grief and then going on to the harsh details about the body, it shows the contrast between both versions of the story. To help show the difference between

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is a book not easily forgotten. A fictionalized version of O’Brien’s own experiences with the Vietnam War, it details the courage, carnage and camaraderie found on the front lines. Things is a gritty, intense read. On the opposite side of the spectrum lies Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott. Bird is a slightly snarky, entertaining book of writing techniques and tips. At first glance, Things and Bird have little to nothing in common. In reality, though, Lamott’s writing advice can be seen at work in The Things They Carried. In fact, part of Things’ unforgettable realism is achieved through the use of Lamott’s writing tips, especially those concerning honesty and truth.

There are two types of people that fight in wars; those who consider their patriotic duty an honor and those who entered the war by force. In 1990, twenty years after returning from the Vietnam War, Tim O’Brien published The Things They Carried, a disturbing and remorseful collection of short stories that gives detailed, yet fictional, accounts of the horrific events that occurred during the war. Later in 2012, after his tour of duty, Chris Kyle released American Sniper, a humble and passionate memoir that describes what Kyle had to face during his tour. While The Things They Carried utilizes symbolism and similes to inform the reader about the horrors of war, American Sniper uses flashbacks and imagery to demonstrate that some people “come alive” during the war.

What makes you different then someone else? Do you really believe that someone is different than you by the way they look? do we believe this to be true? Who’s to say we aren’t all the same? While undefined I think it is crazy how they are treated.

We often times think of our own twist of what we want to hear. Some people may get emotional or even start feeling bad for the person telling the story. They do not take into consideration to whether or not it is the actual truth or lies they are trying to put across. Not everyone can always believe a true war story because most of the time “the angles of vision are skewed” (O’Brien 68) in the stories. Saying that what seemed to happen is separated from what actually happens. Stories are told for people's entertainment, whether or not it is true. True war stories never hold a proper direction or regulation because there is no moral to them. Tim says that “if at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been the victim of a very old and terrible lie” (O’Brien 65) because a true war story is not the truth. True war stories have no virtue to them so no matter how much sympathy one may feel for a soldier after hearing a war story, they will have to know that what they just heard was a total lie.

In this book, Tim O’brien reveals all his experiences in detail about the war; as well as stories about his fellow soldiers, and makes a true, but over the top about them. He explains how he feels through stories that are difficult to clearly identify as “true.” This book has a lot of themes, death and violence is one of the major themes.

In The Things They Carried, characters Tim O’Brien, Lieutenant Cross, and Norman Bowker deal with guilt in various ways, much like soldier might experience. In the chapter Ambush, O’Brien felt completely guilty by killing a Vietnam soldier with a hand grenade, where he possibly could’ve let the soldier pass by. In the chapter In the Field, Lieutenant Cross felt guilty by leading his soldiers into an unsafe place, that lead to Kiowa’s death. In the chapter Speaking of Courage, Bowker feels guilty by letting Kiowa, a good friend of his, die in the mud field. All three soldiers have had different circumstances, but all three feel guilt in different ways.

The feeling of guilt or shame was brought up in this book multiple times. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross was feeling shame after Ted Lavender had been shot and killed. Norman Bowker was guilty after letting Kiowa go because he could not stand the smell in the field. The narrator, Tim O’Brien, even felt regret after not doing anything to stand up for Linda when he was younger. Guilt or regret stays with someone because they always think about what they could have changed and not what they can do going forward. That is what makes these feelings the heaviest of things they can carry.

You may not have realized it, but in The Things They Carried, there are many sources of symbolism planted throughout the book. The Things they carried by Tim O’Brien is about O'brien's experience in the war; he shares his experience through vignettes. Throughout this essay I will be talking about how Tim O'brien uses symbolism to open descriptions of emotional and physical burdens.

In the 1960’s and 70’s many young men with bright futures were being sentenced to a war that they did not want to fight and found no reason for the war itself. In the novel The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien connects the stories of other soldiers and very few them are fictional. He also describes the feelings and overwhelming emotions each would be going through. Throughout the novel, Tim O’Brien portrays the theme of loss which leads to the theme of guilt, both are because of the war and the decisions they make leading to loss and the feeling of guilt.

Hope definitely impacts the actions of soldiers at war because it is the principle motivation that they have to survive. In The Things They Carried, Jimmy Cross is the Lieutenant for the group that Tim O’Brien is in. The group has been through many rough patches, but he still strives to survive because he has hope to see his beloved Martha again. Hope is his only motivation to even continue fighting in the war. He is seen holding the rocks that Martha sent and looking at her pictures.

Fear is the most powerful emotion humans can feel. It is so powerful that, someone who is extremely fearful or lacks fear, is said to have a mental disorder. Fear is vital, a necessary response to danger that protects us from danger. Yet fear can dictate how you live your life and can motivate you to do questionable things. In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien shows that a soldier’s greatest fear is the fear of shame and that this fear can sometimes cause soldiers to act against their own principles. Tim O’Brien shows this fear through the different characters in his platoon and how they all share a common fear, only differing in the way they show it. While O’Brien told us about a soldier’s physical burdens, he told us that “They carried the soldier’s greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing.”