Blog 7 "Tim Obrien's How to Tell a True War Story"
The truth when it comes to war can be twisted and contorted. War, who knows what exactly happens in these wars except people who witness it first hand. Who even knows if those telling the war stories were in their right state of mind, they must have been in chaotic situations. Couldn't the environment affect how one perceive a story? Couldn't a person's point of view and purpose affect the story that they tell?
O'Brien plays with his audience. He does this on purpose. O’brien made the reader feel bad about the water buffalo. He evoked in his reader an intense emotional response for the water buffalo. This is more intense then the feelings of the readers towards Rat's death. He says people don’t get it. He says people sees all the violence but doesn’t feel sorry for the right people.
In reality, when people hear about wars and stories of wars, they may easily believe the parts that they want to believe. They may believe the parts that appeal to them, the parts that they are familiar and comfortable with. This is just human nature, people tend to focus on what they are accustomed to. When it comes to thoughts that are too graphic, to dramatized and too extreme, a person is more likely to distance his or herself from the story. He or she may become sort of desensitized to the situation, sort of the way people watch violent movies and are used to seeing blood and death and are not phased by the extreme content, because they know that it is far from their reality. People take from a story, what they want to take from a story. They believe only what they are comfortable in believing.
I guess this peice is considered nonfiction because it does tie in real events. It talks about the writer's relationship to the subject. It explores the topic as well as allows a reader to analyze his or her personal beliefs about the topic itself.This peiece allows a reader to question his or her past experiences and personal ideas about story telling.
Posted in: on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 at at 11:38 PM
