How to Tell a True War Story Essay Sample

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How to Tell a True War Story
Tim O’Brien’s essay “How to Tell a True War Story” was published in 1897 as part of his book “The Things They Carried” (O'Brien 80). The essay is a complicated account of the experiences in Vietnam and the presentation of these stories. The complexity of O’Brien’s presentation can be explored from the perceptions presented by Martha Stout through insights presented in her essay titled “When I Woke Up Tuesday Morning, It Was Friday,” and Daniel Gilbert’s “Immune to Reality.” Based on Stout's perspective, there are different factors that relate to trauma and by which people can utilize to distance themselves from it. In this context, patients present coping mechanisms that they utilize to address the challenges associated with painful memories, and the dissociative and fugue states that they suffer. Gilbert highlights that there is a need to be careful with the explanations offered because they might limit the emotional impact of the story. Gilbert adds that the explanations, certainties, and positive perceptions that people tend to take in the attempt of avoiding the unpleasant aspects of the story impacts on the story by limiting the things people enjoy such as mystery.
O’Brien’s essay focuses on the complex relationship that exists between storytelling and the actual experiences of war. As a Vietnam War veteran, O’Brien has a clear understanding of the actual experiences of war and presents substantial insights about the feelings, attitudes, perceptions, and ideologies associated with writing war stories. The different conceptualizations presented by O’Brien relate to some extent to the notions of Stout and Gilbert. From the accounts of the two authors, there are different contexts in O’Brien’s essay that interact with the frameworks presented through the synthesis of Stout’s and Gilbert’s work. To select the appropriate framework, it is imperative to understand the approach employed by O’Brien to communicate the inherent ideologies and how the audience can employ the Stout and Gilbert points of view to understand the context of the story. From this perspective, O’Brien tells the story from the soldier’s and the storyteller’s point of view. This highlights the interaction of the real-life experience of war and the perceptions that exist among the writers while telling war stories. In this light, O’Brien shows that the storyteller drives the ideas and format of the story by distorting the message and how it is perceived by the audience. Fundamentally, the author shows that the war story can be different based on how it is told. The focus on the main components of a true war story is linked to the constructs of imagination, memory, and truth. The imagination implies that the situations experienced are exaggerated and might compromise the truth, while memory might be distorted. O’Brien states “Often the crazy stuff is true and the normal stuff isn’t because the normal stuff is necessary to make you believe the truly incredible craziness” (3). In this light, memory serves substantially to the cons...