Truth and Fiction in OBriens The Things They Carried

Truth and Fiction in Obriens The Things They Carried The Viet Nam War has been the most reviled conflict in United States history for many reasons, but it has produced some great literature. For some reason the emotion and depredation of war kindle in some people the ability to express themselves in a way that they may not have been able to do otherwise. Movies of the time period are great, but they are not able to elicit, seeing the extremely limited time crunch, the same images and charge that a well-written book can. In writing of this war, Tim OBrien put himself and his memories in the forefront of the experiences his characters go through, and his writing is better for it. He produced a great work of art not only because he experienced the war first hand, but because he is able to convey the lives around him in such vivid detail. He writes a group of fictional works that have a great deal of truth mixed in with them. This style of writing and certain aspects of the book are the topics of this reflective paper. It is evident from the first that OBrien is writing about himself. It is difficult to confuse since he uses his own name, his own place of birth and other true details of his own life to form the narrator of the stories. The truth of the stories is a grounds for understanding the credibility of the author. He is trying to make the reader understand that these are not just random stories that he dreamed up while sitting in front of a type writer orShow MoreRelated OBriens Things They Carried Essay: Truth, Fiction, and Human Emotion1272 Words   |  6 PagesThe Things They Carried: Truth, Fiction, and Human Emotion  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There are many levels of truth in Tim OBriens The Things They Carried. This novel deals with story-telling as an act of communication and therapy, rather than a mere recital of fact. In the telling of war stories, and instruction in their telling, OBrien shows that truth is unimportant in communicating human emotion through stories. OBriens writing style is so vivid, the reader frequently finds himself accepting theRead More Relationship between Fiction and Reality Explored in The Things They Carried1214 Words   |  5 PagesRelationship between Fiction and Reality Explored in The Things They Carried      Ã‚  Ã‚   In many respects, Tim OBriens The Things They Carried concerns the relationship between fiction and the narrator. In this novel, OBrien himself is the main character--he is a Vietnam veteran recounting his experiences during the war, as well as a writer who is examining the mechanics behind writing stories. These two aspects of the novel are juxtaposed to produce a work of literature that comments notRead MoreThe Things They Carried By Jonathan Culler1683 Words   |  7 Pagesseem. In a similar manner, author Tim O’Brien coins the term â€Å"story truth†, a derivative of â€Å"real truth†, within his novel The Things They Carried, to discuss how retellings of wartime events are often altered to convey the emotional significance they possess. It is through these two works, Culler’s analysis of performative language and O’Brien’s notion of story truth, that the necessity of fictionalization to convey a personal truth to its f ullest extent and effect is revealed. For Culler, performativeRead MoreEssay about The Things They Carried Literary Analysis764 Words   |  4 PagesLiterary Analysis of The Things They Carried: Metafiction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Tim O’Brien brings the characters and stories to life in The Things They Carried. He uses a writing style that brings stories to life by posing questions between the relationship of reality and fiction (Calloway 249). This is called metafiction and it exposes the truth through the literary experience. Tim O’Brien uses metafiction to make the characters and stories in The Things They Carried realistically evocative of the VietnamRead MoreTim O Brien : A Man Who Has Positively Affected The World1119 Words   |  5 Pagesâ€Å"Fiction is the lie that helps us understand the truth.† This quote by Minnesota author and veteran, Tim O Brien, displays his passion for writing stories that make truth come to life. Tim O’Brien is a remarkable man who has positively affected the world through his literary works regarding the Vietnam War. His personal life and authorship through his military experience, have led to making him one of the most influential war authors to date. Tim O’Brien was born in Austin, Minnesota on OctoberRead MoreTim OBriens The Things They Carried: An Analysis1542 Words   |  6 PagesStudent Network Resources Inc.  ©2003-2010 ________________________________________________________________________ Tim OBriens The Things They Carried is a short story told in the form of a catalogue. OBriens title provides both an accurate description of how the story is organized mainly by lists, with the narrative seeming an almost accidental intrusion but also as a sort of recurrent musical refrain in the text itself. The title phrase is repeated at semi-regular intervals in theRead MoreThe Things They Carried By Tim O Brien1621 Words   |  7 PagesTim O’Brien’s use of fictionalized writing in the delivery of â€Å"The Things They Carried† was the best writing style possible for a war story. Fiction, as opposed to a more conventional historical account, allows him to paint a more realistic portrayal of soldiers’ actual combat experience during the Vietnam conflict by use of imagery, real life accounts, and third person omniscient point of view. â€Å"The Things They Carried† is a story that I can personally relate to because of my service in the UnitedRead MoreWar And Trauma In Tim O’Brien’S â€Å"The Things They Carried†.1525 Words   |  7 PagesWar and Trauma in Tim O’Brien’s â€Å"The Things They Carried† Often in literature, we find ourselves reading stories with layers upon layers of meanings found in them. Tim O’Brien’s â€Å"The Things They Carried† is no exception to this idea. O’Brien tells his story in such a way that as we read the complex descriptions of what the characters are experiencing, the line between fiction and reality are often blurred. This helps further advance our understanding of the issue Tim O’Brien is trying to portrayRead MoreThe Importance of Metafiction as a Literary Device in the Things They Carried867 Words   |  4 Pagesof history in which some great pieces of fiction were created. The Things They Carried, by Tim OBrien is a great example of one of these pieces of fiction. A big part of this novel was OBriens theme of metafiction. Metafiction is a type of fiction that self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction. This in another sense means that metafiction is the act of writing about writing. This literary de vice is used in The Things They Carried, as OBriens method to systematically remind his readersRead More Fact Verses Fiction in OBriens The Things They Carried Essay1454 Words   |  6 PagesFact Verses Fiction in OBriens The Things They Carried The difference between fairy tales and war stories is that fairy tales begin with Once upon a time, while war stories begin with Shit, I was there! (Lomperis 41). How does one tell a good war story? Is it important to be accurate to the events that took place? Does the reader need to trust the narrator? In The Things They Carried, Tim OBrien examines what it takes to tell a good war story. He uses his own experiences in