The author Tim O’Brien uses his novel The Things They Carried to explore the reality in intangible dreams. The character Tim O’Brien clings to memories and perceptions collected over a lifetime of loss as the only common ground between him and the life his physical self takes. Whether Tim or Timmy, the character can only describe how he felt, not how events actually happened. He equates codified ideas just to the harsh physical life upon which his story is based and thus raises the question: does it matter if something actually happens as long as it could have happened? The stories Tim brings to life, though ultimately false, convinced enough critics to warrant widespread acclaim; the war story that serves as the base for O’Brien’s novel is held as a pinnacle of “what Vietnam was really like,” yet every word was a lie. Such a contradiction would not be out of place in the Bokononist ideology created by Kurt Vonnegut in Cat’s Cradle. The stories Tim tells himself are harmless untruths, which Bokonon advertises as an easy fix for the true horror of life. The lies Tim tells himself are so close to reality because, as he claims, all of his stories could have happened and likely did to others. The character Tim writes his false stories to mask or even release the pain blocking the real ones, a true Bokononist response to seemingly endless despair.