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How Does Tim O Brien Use Story Telling In The Things They Carried

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In his novel The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien explores the power of storytelling as a means of conveying the complex experiences of soldiers in the Vietnam War. Throughout the novel, O’Brien distinguishes between "Happening Truth," which refers to objective facts of events, and "Story Truth," which refers to the subjective emotional and psychological realities of those events. Through the use of these two concepts, O’Brien creates a series of interconnected stories that blur the line between fact and fiction, and ultimately serves as a testament to the enduring power of storytelling itself.

The novel is comprised of a series of interconnected stories, each of which focuses on a particular aspect of the Vietnam War. In each story, O’Brien uses "Happening Truth" to describe the objective facts of what happened during the war, while "Story Truth" allows him to explore the emotional and psychological realities of those events. For example, in the story "The Things They Carried," O’Brien describes the physical objects that the soldiers carried with them during the war, such as weapons, food, and medical supplies. However, he also uses "Story Truth" to describe the emotional weight of these objects, such as the fear and anxiety that came with carrying a gun, or the comfort of having a personal memento from home. …show more content…

For example, in the story "The Man I Killed," O’Brien describes the killing of a young Vietnamese soldier by one of his fellow soldiers. While the "Happening Truth" of the story is that a man was killed, the "Story Truth" is the emotional weight that the killing carries, both for the soldier who committed the act and for the narrator himself. By exploring these emotional and psychological realities, O’Brien is able to create a more nuanced and complex portrayal of the Vietnam War and its impact on those who lived through

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O’Brien says that a true war story is something you believe with your stomach and has no moral. For O’Brien, something isn’t true unless it feels true. A true war story should leave you with a deeper emotional connection. For example, the death of Rat Kiley’s best friend is a true war story because it has no moral.

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The Stories Told by the Soldiers In the book The Things We Carried by Tim O'Brien, he tells the reader stories about his experience in the Vietnam war. He tells stories about before, during and after the war. O’Brien explains his feelings towards the war by hinting it in many of his stories. He uses juxtaposition, diction, irony, metafiction, and repetition.

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and I was afraid to look. And now, twenty years later, I’m left with faceless responsibility and faceless grief” (180). O’Brien tends to use happening-truth throughout The Things They Carried as a way to express what he was going through and felt but without all the detail. Although O’Brien used another type of truth known as story-truth. O’Brien writes: “here is the story-truth.

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“A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than the truth” (83). The theme of “happening-truth” versus “story-truth” is a constant opposition Tim O’Brien uses to convey his “true war story” to his audience. Many times in the book The Things They Carried, O’Brien lies to the reader to attempt to give the reader realistic events, so they can relate to the emotions O’Brien felt during the Vietnam war. O’Brien makes it clear in the chapter “Field Trip” that a person who has not been to war cannot comprehend what it was like. He uses a fictional character, Kathleen, to be a stand in for the reader; she is innocent and free from the burden of serving in wartime.

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The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien is a fictional account of the Vietnam war that seeks to reveal a truth about storytelling. He shows this through several examples, most notably in "Speaking of Courage", where he describes a veteran who can't fit in and drives around the lake, "The man I killed", where the narrator, Tim kills a Vietcong soldier, and "In the Field", which is the opposite of that as it is more direct and isn't as fictionalized. He shows the audience what really happens with "Notes", and "Good Form". Using this book, Tim O'Brien seeks to reveal the truth on how using fiction in narratives can show a deeper truth than just the happening truth.

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For example, he tells the story of Curt Lemon's death and proceeds to analyze and explain why it holds an element of truth. Ultimately, he surmises, "truth in a story is not necessarily due to 'factual' accuracy." Instead, if the story affects the reader or listener in a personal and meaningful way, then that emotion is the truth of the story. O'Brien tests these ideas by relating the stories that others told in Vietnam, like the story of a soldier who brought his girlfriend to Vietnam and grows more and more terrified as she becomes fascinated by the war and ultimately never returns home. The soldiers who hear the story doubt its truth, but are drawn into the story nonetheless, showing that factual accuracy is less important but emotions is kinda the big

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Stories are for those late hours in the night when you can't remember how you got from where you were to where you are". (O'Brien 38) O’Brien uses his stories to reach his audience. There are generations of people who have no clue what war is really like, whether it is because of our misconceptions based on what media portrays or the fact that there are people who have not served in the military. Some people might know about Vietnam and know the outcome of the war, but they don’t have the experience and real life understanding of how that story ended. They might not be able to fully understand the feelings of a soldier.

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“The Things They carried” is O’Brien’s third book and was published in 1990, twenty years after O’Brien coming back from war. The main subject of the book is the Vietnam War, and it consists of twenty-two interconnected short stories. There is no clear distinction between the reality and fiction in the book. O’Brien uses his own name for the main character of the book. In some stories, he writes about his true memories of the war, and in some parts he writes complete fiction.

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After reading The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, it is astoundingly clear that truth plays an essential role in the story’s overall meaning and portrayal as an authentic Vietnam War story. In this complex narrative, the topic of truth has been interpreted in many specific and intricate ways. Many interpret his usage of truth similarly to one another, stating how “war inevitably imposes a compromised version of the interpretation of a genuine experience”, causing O’Brien to project altered truths so the experience can truly connect and express its true state (Wesley 2). This common trend seen in these authors’ coverage of truth is that they examine the synthesized, story truth that Tim O’Brien utilized in his story aimed to better emphasize

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It’s ironic that one would want to relive the horrors of war. Traditionally, a veteran would do anything in his power to forget everything he saw and experienced at war. However, for Tim O’Brien, it’s the exact opposite: Storytelling is the way that he copes, the way he keeps the dead alive, and the way he allows for outsiders to feel what he felt during the war. In The Things They Carried, O’Brien portrays the power of storytelling by using it to rehumanize the soldiers during the hardships of war.

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In the context of this ambiguity, O’Brien introduces two perceived forms of truth he refers to as “happening truth” and “story truth.” Happening truth is a raw, unprocessed event whereas story truth is built upon the actual event but transformed by hindsight. By establishing a binary between happening truth and story truth, O’Brien prompts his readers to question the validity of writing as a whole. A deconstructionist would read Tim O'Brien's book and recognize that Vietnam, although a polarizing subject, is not the true center of the text; Vietnam is but a stage on which O’Brien’s binary

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In The Things They Carried the author, Tim O’Brien, often shares his own war experiences, and in most, if not all of his stories, he mixes lies in with truths in order to compose them to be believable and comprehensible. Many times throughout the novel, O’Brien fails to acknowledge when he’s falsifying his stories, however, he notes that he actually adds lies in the reports on his wartime experiences, but doesn’t provide when he does so. He claims so many people don’t believe the reality of war that he truly experienced that he’s obliged to lie. Although he may be protecting the audience from the harsh reality of war, at times it’s burdensome to decipher myth from fact. He often leaves the reader wondering what actually happened, what did not

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The book, The Things They Carried by Tim O’brien shows us how a true war story should be told. This book follows a platoon of soldiers fighting in The Vietnam War and reveals the truth about war through their struggles. O’brien argues that “A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it.

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The Power of the Narrator Truth is not what was seen or heard or happened, but what was felt. It can neither be generalized nor objectified because it is unique to the person who experiences it. The author’s best option to make the story feel true for the reader is to make it relatable to them by using the narrator. For the reader to relate to the story most, the narration of the story should alter depending on the content of the story. Tim O’Brien focuses on the relationship between narration, truth and feeling in his compilation of stories called The Things They Carried.

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He fought a war in Vietnam that he knew nothing about, all he knew was that, “Certain blood was being shed for uncertain reasons” (38). He realized that he put his life on the line for a war that is surrounded in controversy and questions. Through reading The Things They Carried, it was easy to feel connected to the characters; to feel their sorrow, confusion, and pain. O’Briens ability to make his readers feel as though they are actually there in the war zones with him is a unique ability that not every author possess.

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