Summary Of How To Tell A True War Story By Tim O Brien

War can change a man’s life more than life can change a man itself. Many of us just simply don’t understand until we truly experience it. Tim O’ Brien, the author of “How to Tell a True War Story,” goes in depth in the day to day lives of American soldiers in their involvement in the Vietnam War. While American soldiers, highly regarded as the best throughout the world, the Vietnam War resulted in a failure that tarnishes the reputation that America was known for. To further justify the consequences, Tim O’ Brien describes the hardships and horrors that soldiers experienced through the use of profanity, asyndeton, and symbolism to convey on the realities of war. Throughout O’ Brien’s story, his gives the audience a way to relate to the soldiers

To use pathos effectively, O’ Brien develops a strong tension through the use of pathos to describe the torture of a baby water buffalo. To emphasize the connection between the baby water buffalo and the Vietcong, the durability of the animal impressed the soldiers. O’ Brien further describes, “Somebody kicked the baby buffalo. It was still alive, though just barely, just in the eyes. “Amazing,” Dave Jensen said. “My whole life, I never seen anything like it.” “Never?” “Not hardly. Not once” (O’ Brien, 1998, p. 180). Regardless of the harm the baby water buffalo experiences, it still manages to survive. This scene symbolizes the persistence that the Vietcong soldiers present when facing the Americans. When told historically at a glance, it may appear that the Vietcong have a distinct disadvantage, they actually never give up which determined the victor of the war. Rat, further frustrated, became unable to have vengeance for Lemon’s death. Again, the transformation of the soldiers’ wellbeing supports another example of symbolism. For instance, O’ Brien illustrating the torture scene, “Rat shot it in the nose. He bent forward and whispered something, as if talking to a pet, then he shot it in the throat” (O’ Brien, 1998, p. 180). Seeking closure, he tortures the baby water buffalo as if it represented a