Twisted Truths

In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien shares stories from his years as a soldier in Vietnam. Over time, these stories have been embellished in his mind and are now a mixture of both historical fact and his perceptions. The stories become part of his own history because they reflect his emotions during his time in the war and how difficult it was for him to be there. The events that O’Brien went though during the war were burdensome, making it necessary for him to create a narrative to cope with what happened. By placing himself as the narrator of the book, he is the protagonist of the story. However, since it is also a work of fiction, he is also able to detach himself from the events. The actions that O’Brien makes the reader relate to need a type of detachment. When he states, “in a true war story nothing is ever absolutely true” (82), O’Brien is explaining to the reader that war is all about perspective. O’Brien also explains that a war zone is so tense, scary, confusing and emotional that it is difficult not to exaggerate or twist the truth. The author explains that war is impossible to “generalize” (81), but in order to tell a story, one must oversimplify information. The narrator’s story about the baby buffalo frightens the reader, who then cannot wait until the segment is over and hopes that it is a fictional story. Even if the passage may be fictional, the emotions O’Brien creates are gut wrenching and realistic. The author forces the reader to participate in this because he or she needs to experience how it might feel to watch a friend die in war. His feelings about the war capture you and compel you to empathize with him. The characters’ realistic emotions are the only truthful aspects of the text, which further allows the author to deceive the reader throughout the story.