What is Truth? The Merriam-Webster Dictionary states the definition of Truth as “The body of real things, events, and facts.” In his book, The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien tells numerous achronological stories based on his experiences in the Vietnam War. At the end of the book, O’Brien states that the stories told are works of fiction, with only inspiration taken from his own experience. Throughout the book, O’Brien has several sections of commentary on Truth. Truth is what we make it, what we believe is what is true for us. There are differences between Real Truth and Fake Truth. The term “Truth” is a contradictory statement. If one tries to generalize anything into one “Truth”, it does not work as it does not capture all the aspects
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Almost everything is true. Almost nothing is true. At its core, perhaps, war is just another name for death, and yet any soldier will tell you, if he tells the truth, that proximity to death brings with it a corresponding proximity to life.” (O’Brien …show more content…
The actual meaning of “Truth” is that what is true is what we believe to be the truth. Whatever or however we feel about something is what the truth is. The first step in doing this is believing in truth. Lynch mentions this later on in his talk:
“I said that in order to accept that we really live in a common reality, we have to do three things. The first thing is to believe in truth.” (Lynch 8:48)
If you believe that what happened is the Truth, then it is the Truth. O’Brien has some more commentary on this:
“I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth.” (O’Brien 121)
O’Brien is implying that the stories he told, and the characters he created, are closer to the “Truth” than what actually happened, because that's what he believes. These all support the fact that Truth is what we make it. O’Brien states that what actually happened in Vietnam and what he wrote about are factually different, while they can both be considered “true” because he believes it to be true. This can be expanded to be an axiom to live by, people can question your morals, religion, or values. But if you believe them to be true, then as far as you should be concerned, they’re true. The Axiom of Truth is like the happening-truth and the story-truth, both true in their own
Almost everything is true. Almost nothing is true. At its core, perhaps, war is just another name for death, and yet any soldier will tell you, if he tells the truth, that proximity to death brings with it a corresponding proximity to life.” (O’Brien …show more content…
The actual meaning of “Truth” is that what is true is what we believe to be the truth. Whatever or however we feel about something is what the truth is. The first step in doing this is believing in truth. Lynch mentions this later on in his talk:
“I said that in order to accept that we really live in a common reality, we have to do three things. The first thing is to believe in truth.” (Lynch 8:48)
If you believe that what happened is the Truth, then it is the Truth. O’Brien has some more commentary on this:
“I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth.” (O’Brien 121)
O’Brien is implying that the stories he told, and the characters he created, are closer to the “Truth” than what actually happened, because that's what he believes. These all support the fact that Truth is what we make it. O’Brien states that what actually happened in Vietnam and what he wrote about are factually different, while they can both be considered “true” because he believes it to be true. This can be expanded to be an axiom to live by, people can question your morals, religion, or values. But if you believe them to be true, then as far as you should be concerned, they’re true. The Axiom of Truth is like the happening-truth and the story-truth, both true in their own