How to tell a true war story

[pallis03]

Paige Allison
ENGL 151
Jeb Wyman
10am

How To Tell A True War Story

In the beginning the story seems like it is meant to be a sort of instruction manual on how to write a true war story. Though it is a bit of a “how to”, the story turns out to be so much more and informs the reader about what soldiers can be like and the after effects after being in battle. The story sort of tells the relationship between the experience of war and recounting that experience without saying it outright and more by showing the reader.

Its clever because the narrator or voice is instructing from present tense which allows the narrator to sort of drift around in time recounting certain events. Tim O’Brien starts off by saying, “this is true” and proceeds to give an example of Rat writing a fallen comrade's sister a letter. After O’Brien sets the scene the narrator comes back on and explains that the true war story: is never moral, does not instruct virtue, does not suggest a model of proper human behavior, embarresses you, and is true to how men actually act.

For example the narrator says, “as a first rule of thumb, therefore, you can tell a true war story by its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil.” I think this is really important because it goes back to how a real story isn’t some moral lesson that an author concocts, that is a raw open wound of a thing that sometimes isn’t easy to look at (read). Also, word choice is very important in making true war story, as the narrator says, “If you send guys to war, they come home talking dirty.”

           I think something that makes this story so believable and well crafted is that it talks about the sort of distorted perception of a soldier when something traumatic happens. When Curt Lemon gets blown up, the narrator describes the scene as almost beautiful, concentrating on the sunlight and the blossoming tree full of moss. The narrator doesn’t really stop to describe the carnage. He speaks of the event without really being specific and was very detached which could be a way of him dealing with such trauma. This really shows that the soldier was actually there and is suppressing what they actually saw. Only finding meaning in what they saw in the future after years of suffering from PTSD which is described later in the story.