Actuality In Tim OBrien's The Things They Carried

Actuality In Tim OBrien's The Things They Carried

In Tim O'Brien's shocking war story, "The Things They Carried", the author does a few things that would be considered odd in the modern world of literature, these include telling the readers beforehand whether or not the story will have a happy/ tragic ending, and the factuality. His habit of revealing the result of the story beforehand, is much like the prologue of Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare states, "Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage; The which, if you with patient ears attend, What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend (p. 7). " This practice has been executed for centuries, and has the reader focus more on the story details to see how everything will play out, instead of getting wrapped up in how ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...The purpose of this quote within the story, is to remind readers of the emotional journey and how war can affect people, years after it's all over these men won't be thinking of whether their friends died on a Wednesday or a Thursday, because it won't matter. Their friend will still be gone. Personally, I find his random tidbits of what is factual and what is O'Brien's imagination to be annoying and pointless, because the only people who could know the truth would be the people who lived it. As a reader, it'd be wise if he were to just write the stories and let his audience make up their own minds about what they read; that's what defines a story. He states, "War is hell, but that's not the half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love. War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery. War makes you a man; war makes you dead. (Pg. 76)." This excerpt from the text meant more to me than majority of this novel whether it fits his definition of a "true war story", because it's the most honest depiction I've read in awhile. When it comes down to it, it isn't about the factuality or even the small details, a true story is based on the way it made the reader feel.

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