Final Exam English True War Story
Shailey Ostlund
Final Exam—English 11 AP
For a story to be considered a true war story, according to Tim O’Brien in his book The Things They Carried, it has to fit specific parameters set up by O’Brien himself. There has to be no moral, no generalizations, no covering up the brutality of war, and it doesn't have to be real. The characters and plot points don't have to be real or even believable this is true, however the story does have to portray real feelings and emotions about war, and not try to fancy it up by saying it is awful or it is hell, this—according to Tim O’Brien—is a generalization and what ruins war stories. The Quinton Tarentino film “Inglorious Basterds” fits all of these requirements for what Tim O’Brien would call a true war story.
The film Inglorious Basterds is a film about WWII in Nazi occupied France. Throughout the film there is a narrator who comes in at random places describing little plot details that without him the audience would not know, nor mostly even care about. He uses moments of time, sometimes without even saying anything, to describe things that may be false and may be true. This is the same thing with Tim O'Brien; he has whole chapters dedicated to a self inserted explanation of what is going on, sometimes telling the audience that the previous story wasn't real, and sometimes adding detail that one would think isn't necessarily relevant to the plot. This happens in Inglorious Basterds many times; once this happens where the narrator doesn't say anything, but shows the audience a five second blip of two people, who we already assumed were sleeping together despite both of their spouses, having violent sex. This had no point to the plot it seemed at the time, however when the reader looks back on it, it fit with the theme of war and the reality of some of the more hushed aspects of it, making it more of a war story than it would have been without that five second scene.
One of the story lines in Inglorious Basterds follows
Final Exam—English 11 AP
For a story to be considered a true war story, according to Tim O’Brien in his book The Things They Carried, it has to fit specific parameters set up by O’Brien himself. There has to be no moral, no generalizations, no covering up the brutality of war, and it doesn't have to be real. The characters and plot points don't have to be real or even believable this is true, however the story does have to portray real feelings and emotions about war, and not try to fancy it up by saying it is awful or it is hell, this—according to Tim O’Brien—is a generalization and what ruins war stories. The Quinton Tarentino film “Inglorious Basterds” fits all of these requirements for what Tim O’Brien would call a true war story.
The film Inglorious Basterds is a film about WWII in Nazi occupied France. Throughout the film there is a narrator who comes in at random places describing little plot details that without him the audience would not know, nor mostly even care about. He uses moments of time, sometimes without even saying anything, to describe things that may be false and may be true. This is the same thing with Tim O'Brien; he has whole chapters dedicated to a self inserted explanation of what is going on, sometimes telling the audience that the previous story wasn't real, and sometimes adding detail that one would think isn't necessarily relevant to the plot. This happens in Inglorious Basterds many times; once this happens where the narrator doesn't say anything, but shows the audience a five second blip of two people, who we already assumed were sleeping together despite both of their spouses, having violent sex. This had no point to the plot it seemed at the time, however when the reader looks back on it, it fit with the theme of war and the reality of some of the more hushed aspects of it, making it more of a war story than it would have been without that five second scene.
One of the story lines in Inglorious Basterds follows