The Things They Carried free essay sample

They Carried true events and emotional truth were intertwined and often confused. War is confusing. It is clear that each person in the story interprets the truth differently. When telling a war story, the actual events, and the feeling the events create are not the same. The intensity of the emotion differs. Tim O’Brien chooses to express the truth in a war story by embellishing the events that occur. He does this in order for the reader to feel what a true war veteran felt during the war. In The Things They Carried story-truth expresses the emotion of each soldier fighting in the war. It replicates that emotion and lets the reader feel it. It is more relevant than happening truth, because happening truth wouldnt always convey emotion. The instant something is witnessed in war it is no longer the truth. Tim O’Brien states, â€Å" you always look away and then back for a moment and then look away again. We will write a custom essay sample on The Things They Carried or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The pictures get jumbled; you tend to miss a lot† (71). The truth is instantly jumbled. When telling the story the person will add details and better the happening truth. It becomes the interpretation of the person witnessing it. When embellishing the happening truth it becomes the story truth. Tim O’Brien writes, â€Å"there is always that surreal seemingness, which makes the story seem untrue, but which in fact represents the hard and exact truth as it seemed. † (71) Exaggeration brings feeling to a war story. The reader not only listens, the reader feels and understands the feeling the writer is giving off. A war story should make the reader feel what is read, not think what is read. Tim O’Brien says â€Å"It comes down to gut instinct. A true war story, if truly told, makes the stomach believe. (71) For a war story to be a true war story, the reader should be able to feel the story inside of them. The reader should react as if the experience the writer went through happened to them. Tim O’Brien expresses his writing in story truth. Tim O’Brien states â€Å"I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth. †(179) Story-truth is sometimes truer than happening-truth because story-truth gives the reader the chance to feel the story. Happening-truth generalizes the story, which makes the reader just listen. One has to feel the war story to believe the war story. By the reader believing the war story, it becomes the truth to the reader. Story-truth is more relevant than happening-truth because it doesn’t matter if the story is true or not, what you feel is true. What the writer sees automatically becomes an interpretation. A writer never can tell a story exactly the way it occurred, because one never saw the whole story as it happened. When telling a war story altering the happening truth gives the reader and understanding of what it felt like to be in a war. Tim O’Brien wants to take all the emotions the veterans felt and give them to the reader. .