Week 8 Topic (Vietnam lit)

After reading Literature of the Vietnam War and Tim O’Brien’s “How to tell a true war story”, I concluded that Vietnam literature, as O’Brien says “it’s difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen” (71) and “of course, a true war story is never about war” (85). For example, O’Brien’s story “The Dentist,” is a story about Curt Lemon. How when a dentist came to the Rocket Pocket to check the soldier’s teeth and do minor work on them. This story does not talk about the war, about who is fighting against who, it is talking about a man who is afraid to go to the dentist, about a man facing his fears, about a man trying to prove that he is not a coward and not afraid of facing the dentist at the end.
Vietnam war literature is about soldiers’ fears, experiences, and life changing moments. It is all about how living in war, not about war itself, but how living during war changes people. Vietnam war literature is about real facts mixing up with the imagination.