How to tell a True War StoryBy: Tim O’Brien

Metafiction: Works that explore the nature, structure, status and function of storytelling

Theme: the central idea, the focal point, of a story which various elements such as plot, character, setting, and point of view revolve

*verisimilitude: ˝of being true or real˝ is a resemblance of the truth, reality or a fact's probability. From Latin verum meaning truth and similis meaning similar (Oxford)

Themes:Accuracy v. Dramatic Impact

Listening Maturity/coming-of-age

Contradictions of life*Not necessary for Seminar test

About the Author Tim O'Brien was born on October 1, 1946 in Austin, Minnesota. He earned his BA in Political Science from Macalester College, in 1968. That same year he was drafted into the U.S. Army, and was deployed to Vietnam, where he served from 1968 to 1970 as an infantryman. After completing his tour of duty, he went on to Harvard to earn his graduate degree and interned for the Washington Post. His writing career officially began in 1973 with the publication of If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home, memoirs about his war experiences. His work has been characterized by metafiction where the lines between fiction and reality become blurred. One very noteworthy work of his that exemplifies his use of metafiction would be The Things they Carried. He has been awarded the National Book Award in 1979 for his book Going After Cacciato and In the Lake of the Woods for which he won the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for Best Historical Fiction in 1995. O’Brien currently writes and lives in central Texas, and teaches full-time every other year at Texas State University–San Marcos.

SynopsisThe narrator of the story opens with an experience his friend in the war had. Bob Kiley, aka Rat, wrote to the sister of his fellow soldier, and fallen friend Curt Lemon. His sister does not write back and that commences the narrator’s explanation of war stories. According to him, a true war story is obscene, embarrassing, and has an “uncompromising allegiance to evil”. He continues the story of Lemon’s death when Lemon and Rat Kiley were tossing around smoke grenades. As they were goofing off, a land mine went detonated under Lemon’s feet, killing him instantly. The narrator comments on the blur between the reality and surrealism in this story and in war stories in general. He then relays a story that another platoon member, Mitchell Sanders, told him. The story, which Mitchell swears is “God’s truth”, is about a six member patrol group that goes on a mission in the mountains. They have strict orders from their superiors to not to radio any backup into the area unless they hear anything suspicious. The men take their job quite seriously, and stake out the area for a week. Eventually, the sounds of the jungle transform into sounds similar to the cries of an enemy party. They call for as much backup as they can possibly muster and destroy their surroundings despite the fact there was no present enemy at the time. The soldiers try to convince their colonel what they heard and how they feel, but none of the authorities want to listen to their story. It is obvious to the narrator Mitchell wants him to believe the story of the patrolling guards also. Later on in their trekking after Lemon’s death, Rat Kiley finds a baby buffalo and begins to systematically blow pieces of it away with his gun, yet the buffalo still holds on to his life. After marveling at its ornery, the crew ultimately dumps the buffalo into a well. The narrator continues to muse on the contradictory nature of war and its place on the human psyche. He then continues the Curt Lemon story and remembers how he and another soldier, Norman Bowker, had to pick up the gore remains of Lemon. The narrator’s closing thoughts on how to tell a true war story focus on civilians, usually women’s, reactions to his stories. Due to their reactions, he ultimately decides that a true war story, and subsequently life, is never simple and as important as you may think it is. It involves gruesome realities, uncaring audiences, and dumb “coozes” who refuse to write back. 

Notable Quotes

“In any war story, but especially a true one, it’s difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen” (474).

“But the guys don’t say zip. They just look at him for a while, sort of funny-like, sort of amazed, and the whole war is right there in that stare” (477).

“Trees and rocks- you got to listen to your enemy” (477).

“ Like a killer forest fire, like cancer under a microscope, any battle or bombing raid or artillery barrage has aesthetic purity of absolute moral indifference-a powerful, implacable beauty- and a true war story will tell the truth about this, though the truth is ugly” (479). “ You feel an intense, out-of-the-skin awareness of your living self-your truest self, the human being you want to be and then become by the force of wanting it” (480). “Though it’s odd, you’re never more alive than when you’re almost dead. You recognize what’s valuable” (480). “In war you lose your sense if the definite, hence your sense of truth itself, and therefore it’s safe to say that in a true war story nothing much is ever very true” (480).    

Please answer 2 of the following questions:1. How does Rat Kiley’s torture of the baby buffalo connect to the inner turmoil he is experiencing after the death of Curt Lemon? Does the buffalo symbolize anything? If so, what? Provide evidence from the text to support your answer.

2. The narrator notes that soldiers often fabricate details of war stories. Do you believe the story Mitchell Sanders told the narrator? Why do you think the fabrication is necessary to gleam a meaning from a “true war story”?

3. O’Brien tries not to directly comment on the Vietnam War. Based on this story, what do you think is the viewpoint/opinion he harbors on this matter? Use examples from the text to support your answer.

4. What does the aspect of youth in combat add to the overall message of the story?

5. “Story truth is sometimes truer than ‘happening’ truth.” Elaborate. 

By Jessica Crosby and Arianna Bradley