A True War Story Never Lives For Long

War stories are never real. Politicians speak of it as if it was a canvas, and they’re painting a picture full of emotions and morals. “THEY DIE WITH VALOR; THEY DIE HEROS”, yeah sounds like something bureaucrats would say. In addition, soldiers’ war stories are never truthful. All the events happen so fast that they can never process the actual truth of what transpired. They are simply telling the beginning and the end. They have no honest idea of what happened in between because wither they were looking away or caught up in their own world. It is the unseen middle events which hold the true war stories, yet they are lost in an instant. The biggest burden for a soldier is not the completion of a mission; it is to find the words that describe the event. No man, woman, child or even soldier can ever find the correct words to tell a war story with accuracy.

War stories are based off human perception; the location of a soldier can create an entirely different story. Consider this example of a Private John (made-up with no relation to the book) was gunned down. One soldier on the left side of Private John said, “As Private John was gunned down he turned away from me as he fell. He died knowing I could not bear to see the light of his eyes disappear”. This is only one perception. Another soldier standing to the right of Private John may say, “As he was gunned down he looked at me with animosity. I knew at that moment he was blaming me for his death”. Which story is true? Each bring different reactions to the table, each tell how Private John died in a different light; the only true fact of the story is that Private John died. If a true war story does not depict emotions or have morals, then was a true war story told? The answer is yes. Only Private John can tell the true story, and with his death the story dies alongside him. The only perception that matters is that of the actual person affected.

Tim O’Brien’s novel and all war stories told are false because each story is written under the perception of a man or a group of men that only witness these events. Granted, they may have lived them and their emotions are real. However, a true war story is not based on these criteria. It is based solely on the individual who experiences ever single moment and almost always it is the soldier that dies, like Lavender.