Truth In The Things They Carried Essay Sample

“If wars can be started by lies, they can be stopped by truth” (Julian Assange) O’Brien created a novel based off his experience in the war, telling the listener real and fake stories to let them believe their own truth. Tim O’Brien in the novel The Things They Carried portrays many vignettes on the “truth” behind the Vietnam War. One example comes from a vignette named “Speaking of Courage”. This chapter explains how Norman Bowker served during the war, and had a hard time dealing with the death of his friend, Kiowa. The other example comes from a vignette named “How to Tell a True War Story”. This chapter illustrates the difference between a true war story and a fictional war story, a true war story cannot be told, while a fictional war story can be.  These are examples on how O’Brien reveals truth about the war in his vignettes and brings awareness to the reader about real war stories.

Norman Bowker plays an important role in this novel, as his story in Speaking of Courage describes how the Vietnam War robbed him of his will to live. Bowker was so miserable with his life after the war, that he circled the lake in his home town twelve times. The story goes on to tell that Norman’s friend, Kiowa died tragically in the war where he was fighting. Kiowa was shot in the shoulder and drowned to his death, despite Bowkers effort, he sinked into the mud. During war,  soldiers are awarded medals for their achievements and sacrifices. The problem is that, many people fake their way to the top and lie about what they did, to earn those medals. And the people that genuinely deserve those medals, do not ending up getting them. O’Brien explains that most men from the war do not earn those medals truthfully and lie about it. “Knowing full well that many brave men do not win medals for their bravery, and that others win medals for doing nothing.” (O’Brien 135) During Bowker’s drive around the lake, he reminisced about the past. To himself, he made up scenarios in his head about people he knew or saw on the road. These scenarios consisted of how he almost won the silver medal, what happened to Kiowa and made up conversation between his dad and Sally. Kiowa’s death stuck with Bowker and made him believe that the medals aren’t fair because they don’t show true bravery.

The chapter “How to Tell a True War Story”, sheds light on telling war stories. Fictional war stories tend to be easier to say and talk about traumatic experiences. On the other hand, a true war story is not easy to tell. This is because the speaker has PTSD and has a difficult time talking about it. But not only that, those listening cannot understand how difficult it is to talk about the war. Soilders have a tough time explaining it, and it is hard for those listening to separate the truth from lies.“In any war story, but especially a true one, it’s difficult  to separate what happened from what seemed to happen. What seems to happen becomes it’s own happening and has to be told that way. The angles of vision are skewed.” (68) Often,vetterans have a tough time relating to others because everyone has a different experience in war, or they don’t have any experience at all. That’s why people tend to believe fake war stories maybe even more than fake ones, because they weren’t there to experience it and they cannot tell whats real and fake.

Tim O’Brien did an extravagant job protraying soldiers truths behind the war stories. He shined a light on a very important topic that most people miss out on. Soilders are some of the most respected people in our country, for fighting and sacrificing themselves for the nation. However, soldiers from the Vietnam War weren’t shown the respect they deserved. That is why the examples from Speaking of Courage and How to Tell a True War Story give great evidence as to how the real war stories are told and taken in by the vistiners. O’Brien’s vignettes show what it’s really like living through the war, and how fictional war stories can be far from the truth.