The power of story truth and happening truth in the life of Tim O’Brien
The author Tim O’Brien finds the way to tell his Vietnam War experience in his book by giving the story-truth and not happening-truth. The story-truth that never happened to him shows how he felt inside during the fighting for his life. The happening-truth seems to him not as interesting as the fiction that he tells in the story “The Things They Carried.” The story-truth is the better way to share human experience, and it is demonstrated the work by Tim O'Brien.
In the story “On The Rainy River” the author and the main character Tim O’Brien describes his story-truth and happening-truth experiences about the Vietnam War. In the fiction story, he faces the conflict of whether he should or should not go to war after being drafted. He says, “I was drafted to fight a war I hated” (O'Brien 40). He had two reasons why he …show more content…
He claims that he was telling the truth through non-fiction. Through writing about what almost, could have, or should have happened, he felt that he can show what Vietnam War was. In the book, he allowed his characters “the one who carried my name but wasn’t me—to think about all this stuff” (Ackerman). By creating a fictional character, Tim was able to portray and pass on his emotions to these characters. He mentions that the book is emotionally closer to what the war actually was. He states that the “ambiguity of the experience is captured through fiction” (Ackerman). In addition, he mentions that he was forced to fight, it was not voluntary. Most of the guys were drafted. It wasn't a choice for them; they were not able to say no. This relates to the song “Fortunate son” because it provides an example of how the middle class wasn’t fortunate. They were born without privileges to choose whether or not they want to fight the
The author Tim O’Brien finds the way to tell his Vietnam War experience in his book by giving the story-truth and not happening-truth. The story-truth that never happened to him shows how he felt inside during the fighting for his life. The happening-truth seems to him not as interesting as the fiction that he tells in the story “The Things They Carried.” The story-truth is the better way to share human experience, and it is demonstrated the work by Tim O'Brien.
In the story “On The Rainy River” the author and the main character Tim O’Brien describes his story-truth and happening-truth experiences about the Vietnam War. In the fiction story, he faces the conflict of whether he should or should not go to war after being drafted. He says, “I was drafted to fight a war I hated” (O'Brien 40). He had two reasons why he …show more content…
He claims that he was telling the truth through non-fiction. Through writing about what almost, could have, or should have happened, he felt that he can show what Vietnam War was. In the book, he allowed his characters “the one who carried my name but wasn’t me—to think about all this stuff” (Ackerman). By creating a fictional character, Tim was able to portray and pass on his emotions to these characters. He mentions that the book is emotionally closer to what the war actually was. He states that the “ambiguity of the experience is captured through fiction” (Ackerman). In addition, he mentions that he was forced to fight, it was not voluntary. Most of the guys were drafted. It wasn't a choice for them; they were not able to say no. This relates to the song “Fortunate son” because it provides an example of how the middle class wasn’t fortunate. They were born without privileges to choose whether or not they want to fight the