Immoral War

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In a perfect world war is supposed to be an action that one country takes after they have exhausted all other options. While the causes of war may vary, they are all similar because they are supposed to eliminate the world of some type of injustice. Kate Wilhelm, author of the story “The Village,” does not accept the notion that war is required for the greater good; she instead creates a story depicting a war that seemingly has no purpose. Tim O’Brien, author of the story “How to Tell a True War Story,” also believes that there is nothing good that can come out of war. Daniel Robinson’s critique, “Getting It Right: The Short Fiction Of Tim O’Brien,” analyzes “How to Tell a True War Story” in order to simplify O’Brien’s fiction into qualifications that make a war story true. “The Village” satisfies O’Brien and Robinson’s qualifications of what makes a war story true thus validating Wilhelm’s overall theme that war is immoral.
Wilhelm paints the image that war is filled with graphic and obscene events, which satisfies O’Brien and Robinson’s qualification that war stories are disgusting, in order to prove her argument that war has no morality. Wilhelm describes the obscene images of war when she states, “She scrambled to her feet and lurched forward to join the others in the street. She could taste blood and there was a stabbing pain in her jaw where the teeth had been broken by her fall” (Wilhelm 104). Wilhelm’s inclusion of these obscene details demonstrates her desire to prove that war has no morality by creating a scenario where ordinary Americans were being attacked. The prospect of Americans being involved in a war on American soil has not been a reality since the Civil War; the human toll that Wilhelm creates on Americans w...

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...op a war story based solely on facts supports the credibility of Wilhelm’s story, and thus supports her argument that war is immoral.
Wilhelm argues that war is immoral because of the horrendous acts that occur during war, the lack of a point to war, war stories are unbelievable, and war stories rely on perspective. She argues her theory through her fictional story, “The Village,” however her story is validated through both O’Brien and Robinson. Although O’Brien’s “How to Tell a True War Story” is also a work of fiction, it is dependent on the real life connections that Robinson draws from the story and real life events. Together O’Brien and Robinson create qualifications that serve as a guide to determining the credibility of war stories. Wilhelm’s story satisfies those qualifications and therefore it is obvious that her argument that war is immoral must be true.

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