Tim O Brien's How To Tell A True War Story

In the short, story “How to Tell a True War Story” Tim O’Brien, the author, confuses the reader with his unique idea on how to tell a real story. Despite the fact, that O’Brien was drafted to go to the Vietnam War in 1969 he uses his friends and partners’ stories throughout his war years, to tell the world that everything about war is mistaken. Throughout his collection, The Thing They Carried (1990) he emphases that fear is what motivate soldiers to go to war. Indeed, fear drove him; he went to Vietnam mostly because of the fear of what his family would say about him if he did not do it. In the story “How to Tell a True War Story”, O’Brien played both roles, the audience that do not believe the story even if it is the truth and the storyteller, who is regularly using the experience to tell accurate and devastating war stories.
Tim O’Brien begins the story telling the reader that this particular story is true, letting the readers know that there is only one truth, despite their final reflection on the story. Moreover, he proved his point with his friend Bob “Rat” Kiley’s story. Kiley’s story does not have moral behind it; it mostly show how Kiley felt about his close friend Curt Lemon and the anger he felt when
The story is both, told from a soldier perspective, but also from a storyteller’s. O’Brien plays with the reader ideas of what is right and wrong in war; he confuses readers by telling Curt Lemon’s death as a lovely story. Indeed, he succeeded when an old woman came and told him that, the story made her sad. O’ Brien was trying to communicate and show people the truth, through his story. Furthermore, it is also clear in the story that sometimes people fail to understand or believe this kind of story because they did not experience them even though the storyteller did an excellent job telling