A True War Story

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Recommended: What is my personal identity and why

People are always saying how they are trying to figure who they are or what they want to pursue, or accomplish in life. While on the other hand, they are not truly searching for their true-self. One must open up to new experiences, people, places, etc, in order to see the different faces and walks of the world. This is what enables individuals to develop new perspectives and notions. Ultimately, these new experiences help one grow as a person and realize what they believed what was right or moral, was actually not. Author of “How To Tell A True War Story,” Tim O’Brien writes about how to distinguish a true war story from a fraudulent war story. As he gets deeper in his essay, talking about personal experiences in war, O’Brien discreetly indicates the truth is modified in a couple of ways: the truth is seen differently in other eye’s or perspectives, or as time passes memory gets impaired, thus, the truth modifies. …show more content…

During this period of time, crime rates escalated frantically due to the high percentage of fare beaters, broken windows, and graffitied-up walls. The Power of Context and Broken Windows theory suggested in order to solve the big, primary problems, the smaller problems had to be take care of first. Robert Thurman, author of “Wisdom,” discusses the pathway towards the acceptance of being wrong, in a particular manner. In order to discover one’s own self, one has to realize our “self” is a delusion. By opening up to new things and experiences, one will find their true self. In order to push an individual to the next level, something extra must occur in accepting the fact an ego-self alters the mind in every situation, and letting go of this “i” enables human beings to grow as people. However, in pursuance of liberation from this entity, one must accept

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    To write a true war story that causes the readers to feel the way the author felt during the war, one must utilize happening-truth as well as story-truth. The chapter “Good Form” begins with Tim O’Brien telling the audience that he’s forty-three years old, and he was once a soldier in the Vietnam War. He continues by informing the readers that everything else within The Things They Carried is made up, but immediately after this declaration he tells the readers that even that statement is false. As the chapter continues O’Brien further describes the difference between happening-truth and story-truth and why he chooses to utilize story-truth throughout the novel. He utilizes logical, ethical, and emotional appeals throughout the novel to demonstrate the importance of each type of truth. By focusing on the use of emotional appeals, O’Brien highlights the differences between story-truth and happening-truth and how story-truth can be more important and truer than the happening-truth.

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    Many times readers lose interest in stories that they feel are not authentic. In addition, readers feel that fictitious novels and stories are for children and lack depth. Tim O’ Brien maintains that keeping readers of fiction entertained is a most daunting task, “The problem with unsuccessful stories is usually simple: they are boring, a consequence of the failure of imagination- to vividly imagine and to vividly render extraordinary human events, or sequences of events, is the hard-lifting, heavy-duty, day-by-day, unending labor of a fiction writer” (Tim O’ Brien 623). Tim O’ Brien’s “How to Tell a True War Story” examines the correlation between the real experiences of war and the art of storytelling. In O’Brien’s attempt to bridge the gap between fiction and non-fiction the narrator of the story uses language and acts of violence that may be offensive to some. However some readers agree that Tim O" Brien's "How to Tell a True War Story" would lack authenticity and power without the use of crude language and violence.

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    Capturing the realities of war is not everyone's cup of tea. One has to be feel the emotions that inspire vivid imagery in words. True war stories can be written based off of true events that have occurred and bring out emotions in the poets who witness them. Brian Turner, author of 2000 lbs, stated in an interview that while in Iraq, he felt “very isolated from the relevance of what felt like a prior life”(poemoftheweek.com). Its seems like a split from life at home to a warzone with conflicting feelings. He began capturing his experiences of the war in the form of poetry. Brian Turner turned his Iraq war experience and his masters degree in literature and poetry into an opportunity to oppose the resolution of conflict through war. Tim O’Brien is a Vietnam Warr veteran who struggled with PTSD and Turner’s opinions in his story, “2000 lbs,” share similarities with “How To Tell A True War Story”. Turner’s poem 2000 lbs describes a suicide

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