Truth In The Things They Carried Essay

The truth is only believable if it is made up. The Things They Carried is an intriguing novel that stands out from many others in its genre. The author, Tim O’Brien, believes that story truth is truer than happening truth. This idea is prevalent throughout the novel, especially in the chapter called, “The Man I Killed.” Tim O’Brien explains his reasoning behind telling “The Man I Killed” the way he did in “Good Form” saying that “. . . a long time ago I walked through Quang Ngai Province as a foot soldier. Almost everything else is invented.”(O’Brien 171) He explains that though he didn’t actually kill the man, but he felt guilty and in order to make the reader care and understand the way he felt. Story truth in “The Things They Carried,” is most apparent in “The Man I Killed” because Tim O’Brien uses fantastical imagery and intricate thought processes about death that a normal person could relate to in order to make the reader feel what he felt even though he exaggerated the story and didn’t actually kill somebody.
Story truth being truer than happening truth is a primary theme in “The Things They Carried.” Tim O’Brien defends
Death is an obscure concept to most people and by humanizing the boy and making him seem just like one of us who has dreams and a life outside of war. Tim O’Brien re-emphasizes “The Man I Killed later on in the book in “Good Form” talking about how if he had only told you about how he walked by the boy, then you would not have had any sympathy or interest in the situation. Tim O’Brien’s stories are worth something more to a reader than other stories about war because they offer a deeper and truer insight that comes from a place of fiction. In books, you will find that most of the time you learn more from a fictional story than a true