The topic of my final for my English seminar class is going to be the notion of truth and fiction in Tim O'Brien's brilliant short story "How to Tell a True War Story." I absolutely love this story. I don't know if I get it. I don't know if the narrator gets it. The certainty of ambiguity in this story is fantastic. What I gather from the story is that the only way to truly tell a true war story is to never stop telling it. You had a point, but it got lost in the story because the it wasn't actually important. A true war story (from what I gather) doesn't depend on detail, but on story telling and not on story telling at the same time. You know a true war story because you can never know if it's true. You dumb cooze...
That's my ramblings on the story so far. I have some pieces on truth and fiction, and the destruction of language after witnessing an event too powerful to comprehend relating to Holocaust literature. Unfortunately, I need to find more. If anyone has suggestions, I'd gladly entertain them!
If anyone just wants to discuss this or another story from The Things They Carried, then by all means please do.
The Things They Carried
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TheEllipticalDisillusion
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TheEllipticalDisillusion
- Insolent Pup
- Posts: 550
- Joined: Wed Apr 26, 2006 5:26 am