One of the many stories from Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried that really made me think, was “How to tell a true war story”. This story is exactly about how it is named, it is about telling a true war story. He basically describes what a true war story is, he says how it is now moral, nor does it have an ending, or that a true war story has to make your stomach believe. But actually it wasn’t the whole story that made me wonder, it was just the one quote that says “And in the end, of course, a true war story is never about war” (85). How can a WAR story, not be about war at all? Its ironic…but true. All of these stories are never about war, they are all about feelings, moments, and anecdotes that someone lived in war. they are not about the good guys and the bad guys, and the reasons about war, or about the political leaders. They all are about what a soldier went through during war; they all tell a soldier's everyday life in war. I had never though about it at all, but it is true. You can see it in the entire book, in all of Tim O’Brien’s stories, they are all small recollections of moments that Tim lived, and they are not about war at all.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
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2 comments:
I had been throwing around the same thought. I even browsed the www.imdb.com website for the top 50 war films of all time to see if there was a true war story. But what is a true war story? For soldiers, it must never be solely about fighting. The overall theme I gathered from browsing this sight was that in fact these stories are based around conflict. From a conflict of love in "Casablanca", to a conflict of religion in "The Pianist", War evolves around conflict. So are we as a listener, reader, or writer of war in fact the one mistaken about what war really is? Maybe from stories being passed on, we assume that war is all fighting and killing where in fact the story of war is about the details and the fighting is just a side point. Or in fact I may be completely wrong :)
Jack, on the contrary, I think you're completely right :)
Good post, Cristina!
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