How To Tell A True War Story Summary - 1168 Words

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How To Tell A True War Story Summary Improved Essays

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Open Document Essay SampleCheck Writing Quality Show More Linus 1 Anoivel Linus Stephens, Melissa English 135 04 October 2017 A Summary, Analysis & Response to “How to Tell a True War Story by Tim O’Brien” O'Brien’s “How to Tell a True War Story” tells a story about Rat Kiley, one that he premises is true. According to O’Brien, Rat's friend, Curt Lemon, was killed, and following this Rat writes to Lemon's sister as any good friend would. In his letter Rat talks about her brother and the crazy stunts he would pull. Rat believes the letter is touching and personal; however, the sister never writes back, and Rat feels offended and becomes enraged, as the reader is left to wonder as to why the sister never replies to the letter. Afterwards O'Brien explains that Lemon's death was actually …show more content… So, knowing this, how can one discern the truth in a war story? O’Brien uses the different stories that he is told when he was a soldier during the Vietnam war as a means to explain the art of extrapolating the truth in a war story. O’Brien explains that “a storyteller has the power to change the experience and opinion of his or her listeners”. Just like war distorts a soldier’s understanding of right and wrong and confuses their emotions, O’Brien explains this by telling a story about when Rat encounter a baby water buffalo and attempted to feed it “so rat shrugged stepped back and shot it through the right front knee and then proceeded to torture the poor animal over and over with gunfire meant to maim rather than kill before breaking down into tears ” O’Brien then explains that this event had occurred after the death of “Lemon” after his sister had not replied back, and that no one tried to stop him because they knew he was venting. O’Brien then tells the reader about how he and his fellow soldiers who had witnessed such a horrific sight thought “Amazing, never have I ever seen something like that, but that’s Nam for you, the garden of evil”, both he and the other soldiers seemingly unfazed by the horrific actions of their fellow soldier showing just how war distorts one’s perceptions of right and …show more content… An example of this is when O’Brien insists that the story is absolutely true, but then, contradicts himself afterwards by telling it in a more general discussion of storytelling then saying that “it’s difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen.” With all the evidence gathered the only conclusion we can arrive at is that truth in a true war story is pointless. O’Brien explains that “war is hell,” but said statement has almost no effect because of how cliché it is. Truth is what “makes the stomach believe,” just like when you imagine the image of Rat Kiley torturing a buffalo because his emotional turmoil about Curt Lemon’s death. The image of a suffering innocent baby buffalo that refuses to die is a far more realistic and hence more believable and by using those images O’Brien has twisted and turned his readers opinion on the story even if it were not true chances are you would believe it, and that is the only truth about a war

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