The Truth Behind a True War Story

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The Truth Behind The True War Story One would think that a true war story would be one of the easiest stories to tell. The presumption being that a man (or woman) goes to war, experiences it in all its guts, glitz, glamour and glory, returns home in part or in whole, writes about what they have seen, and everybody gets an honest image of what war really is. However, the title of the Tim O’Brien tale, “How to Tell a True War story,” suggests this is not always the case. This title invokes the notion that telling a true war story is a tricky proposition which requires a bit of guidance and longshoreman “know-how.” Why is this? It’s not like writing about teenage romance or mystical monsters, where the author must portray great streams of emotion, or create conjured up images of ghoulish beasts seen only in our nightmares. Then again, reality can sometimes be a nightmare in and of itself; as O’Brien points out, “In any war story, but especially a true one, it’s difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen.” (Meyer 320) It’s just about the facts, right? Is the truth so boring that people feel it must be “spun” in order to make it interesting enough to read? While telling any type of true story most certainly requires a certain degree of guile, grace and discretion, a war story must be doubly so. Perhaps this is why Tim O’Brien prefers writing “fiction” and seldom writes “true” war stories. After all, he served in Vietnam during the great conflict himself. He was assigned to the 3rd Platoon, A Company, 5th Battalion 46th Infantry, as an infantry foot soldier. O’Brien’s tour of duty was 1969-70 (Merricks). If stating the facts in a truthful fashion is not enough, then what else could it be? Brad Buchholz of the Statesman mentions that, “The Things They Carried was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, a war novel that reads like poetry,
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