Lie to Me

Tim O’ Brien is a Vietnam War veteran and in the novel The Things They Carried he writes stories about his experience. Though not all the stories in the novel are true, he makes a strong argument that the fiction in his novel is as good as his experience.  The previous theme of the writer manipulating his readers appears once again in this novel, however O’Brien does it very subtly. He manipulates the war itself, specifically in “On the Rainy River”. The story is not based on O’ Brien’s reality, it is a mere imagination that Brien had, in order to overcome his distress of avoiding shame from not wanting to go to war.

            I loved the “On the Rainy River” story when I first read.  I was caught off guard by the kindness of Elroy; however after researching, I learned that this story was fiction. Tim O’Brien indeed did not want to go to war; instead of crossing the bridge to Canada, he played golf. He did not write about his experience playing golf because it was just not as interesting as the “On the Rainy River” story, and he made the argument that no one would read it if he wrote about playing golf. He is writing for his readers.  When I reread the story, I found the Elory character to be very strange and dream like. There is evidence that even within the context of the world of the novel, O’ Brien did not cross the Canadian border; it is strange that no one in his family knew that he was missing for three days and also there is no evidence of the Elroy’s existence other than O’Brien’s perspective.  O’ Brien could have imagined this story during that time to help him cope with his desire to not go to war. I feel like if I read the story again I would interpret a new reality to this story. This novel is very complex. It is more than a war story, because it plays with the idea of truth versus fiction “A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than the truth” (83). O’Brien simply does this to entertain his readers. He tells a war story in an elaborate manner not only to share his story but rather more to attract readers.