Reaction to Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried

How To Tell a True War Story starts with the line, "This is true," then we hear towards the end that it is a true war story that never happened. So now I do not know what is true and what is not. The story is not true, but maybe rat is. Maybe the story is true and the part about it not happening is a lie. I like to think that the tone and theme of the story is true. O'Brien captures the feeling of a moment, but not the fact. The fact might very well be boring or pointless, but the feeling could be just as real as a factual story.

The title of this story is also instruction, we are supposed to learn something from this story on how to tell true war stories. If anything this story reads like a writing book, give examples of the desired product then telling you what it should and should not be. Instead of proper writing it is instructing on truth.

His format is thus: This is true, true story, end of story, what truth is and is not, listen to this part in the story that is true, repeat. O'Brian is performing a autopsy on true war stories and his findings are that there is no such thing. Because true war stories are never about war, they are always about something else. False war stories that pretend to be true war stories that are about honor and the like are not real war stories because things like that do not happen in war. So there are stories about war that are lies, or stories that seem to be about war, but are really about something else - take your pick.

We can go a step bigger than this and gather that any story is always about something else. Stories are always about life and life has so many aspects that labeling any story is only limiting it by key words in the text. Sure the story has war in it, but it is operating on a much larger perspective drawing its material from the past, present, social constructions, and everything in between. Then trying to complicate this process with the truth makes it even worse. The truth is not objective so trying to record it you really are over looking the tone of moments. People need to feel that they are there, but telling a story about the daily life of war might be dull. So you have to pack as much in as you can to get the full effect. It does not matter if it is true, because it feels true - all you have to do is listen. Because otherwise you're just a dumb cooze.