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True War Story

939 Words4 Pages

The theme of “How to Tell a True War Story” is war, the true stories, and how it is perceived to those who don’t understand it. Author O’Brien really shows the readers the true meaning of war and its truths and lies. O’Brien does this by giving a gung-ho story, and a tear jerking story of how it is easily told in a lie, and then explain what truly happens. “How to Tell a True War Story” gives insight on how telling a story should be told and how to identify a false story to a true story. Truth plays a great role, in fact the truth is used to underlie what really happened and what the soldiers thought happened. The truth creates a conflict in the story, such as when the men heard the music playing in the jungle; that music is not really what …show more content…

War is not about coming home a hero, it is the survival of your life and when you’re there; there is no way out, hence don’t listen to stories given about the great stories because it may be a lie. In addition, O’Brien says that a true war story “is never moral. It does not instruct nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior…you can tell a true war story by its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil” (O’Brien 347). This quote proves the fact that we are born to expect events such as war to be an honor, however it is a hell; if it sounds too good to be true than it is a true war …show more content…

O’Brien shows the different methods of telling a story. For example, he uses the story of a man who jumps on a grenade to save three others, hence it is easy to tell this story and for others to believe it because it is heroic and great. However, he then brings up an alternate story of how a man jumps on the grenade but all the others die as well. O’Brien proves a point, most people would believe the first example this shows that ultimately a lie can be "truer than the truth." O’Brien is trying to teach the readers to be more open minded and think, ask questions, and verify. O’Brien is not trying to give the readers a story of war; he wants to give an accurate telling of particular stories, teaching readers the truths and lies to a story, and finally the way people fail to accept the truth and decide to take a lie, no matter how accurate the story

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And in the end, of course, a true war story is never about war. It's about sunlight. It's about the special way that dawn spreads out on a river when you know you must cross the river and march into the mountains and do things you are afraid to do. It's about love and memory. It's about sorrow.

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