Why Tim O'Brien Lies
All of us are guilty of lying at one time or another. Whether it was a little white lie like whether the toothfairy is real or not, or if it was something significant, such as if you committed a serious crime, we have all done it. Lying is definitely a part of society, and no one really likes it or appreciates it. Especially when it concerns matters of the heart. In the book The Things They Carried, author Tim O'Brien lies frequently. There are times he will tell a sad, heart touching story, then tell you that it was not even true. This is incredibly frustrating to anyone that reads the book. However, I do not think that any publisher in the world would publish such a book if there was not a purpose for creating the fabrications in the first place. So it is to my sincere belief that Mr. O'Brien tells these fabrications for the purpose of proving a point, and for the benefit of the reader. I have loved this book from the beginning, although had it not been for class discussion, I would not have caught on to much. I could feel, however, that there was something about this 'work of fiction' that made it different from the others that I have read before. I sit there sometimes with my mouth gaping op
The Boston Globe says The Things They Carried is "a book so searing and immediate you can almost hear the choppers in the background." That is what story-truth is. Had it not been for the 'lies' that Mr. O'Brien told in his book, we would not have been given the gift of being able to 'hear the choppers in the background,' or to have that feeling of warm sympathy inside you that comes when you have a partial understanding of what war is like. These 'lies' are what make the book worth reading. The lies in The Things They Carried put into reality the fact that there is a horrendous weight that soldiers carry with them when they leave a war. It is with them through the rest of their life, and the civilians that did not go to war can never fully understand what they went through. But by listening to their story-truths, we can take a glimpse into their thoughts and feelings and hopefully understand why sometimes 'lying' helps us see things in a way that telling the truth never can. In story-truth, there can be exaggerations and even falsehoods. But in happening-truth, it is just the facts, and all the details are correct. No frills. It is what really did happen. But it does not include what was happening inside your mind. That is why story
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 845
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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