This is the final draft for this essay

1. The things they carried essay How to tell a true war story How to tell a true war story is not about the physical wars that go on in the world. How to tell A true war story is about telling a story about the war that goes on inside a human, all of the emotions raging inside someone, where love is always the winner, but sometimes anger, frustration and cowardice get ahead. A war story is aobut love, not war. War, in a sense, is love, as well as being the opposite of love. IF you are fighting for a cause, and you love that cause, you are fighting for love, making it a love story. If you are fighting the opposite of what you love, it is still about love, just what you don’t love. _it has no moral -a true war story cannot be believed. If you believe it, be skeptical _a true war story never seems to end -a true moral you cant tease out of a story, its like unraveling cloth, the thread being the moral -true war stories do not generalize. They do not indulge in abstraction or analysis _war is hell. Its true and yet it is not true, because it is and yet your stomach tells you it’s not _the water buffalo; rat keeps shooting it until its almost dead. “over here man, every sin is fresh and original” _war is also mystery, terror, adventure, courage, discovery, holiness, pity, despair, longing, love. War is nasty; war is fun War is thrilling; war is drudgery War makes you a man; war makes you dead The truths are contradictory. War is terror but its also astonishing in a grostesquly beautiful way To generalize about war is to gnerealize about peace. Almost nothing is true, at its core, war is just another name for death Often in a true story there is never a point Thesis; A true war story is not about war, but everything that war is not. A true war story is not written to be about war, but about everything war is not Write pro one pro two pro three Page that has a snapshot of your paper -anchor thesis about the lady who never listens -use the line about the people who never listen You can use the same story, just pick out a different element from the same story Try relating everthing to your thesis, and maybe add a sentence after your thesis to clarify thesis Outline; Title -Intro; >What Tim Obrien writes about; generalization, love, courage, morals, making a point >Thesis; A true war story is not written to be about war, but everything war is not Paragraph one; >Curt lemon; how that story was not about war, but about love. How it was about beauty, and trust and friendship >the basis on the chapter(story) itself >about sisters who never write back and about people who never listen Paragraph two; >when Tim goes back to the place where Kiowa died, down by the Song tra bong, and he lays in the mud in his underwear >war is about making memories, about remember what you have done to others and what you did to yourself >about thinking for other people and what you can do for them Paragraph three; >the first paragraph, the things they carried; war is a journey, whether you get where you are going or not >war is about making the leap from one person to another, finding yourself in a way few people do Paragraph three; About the people who never listen About Kathleen, who couldn’t relate Conclusion; >war is about everything and nothing. War is the sole story of someone’s life, and yet they might not even be touched (affected) by it >war is love and hate combined, because you can love your country and hate the war, or you can hate your country and love the war >how to tell a true war story describes everything in the war except the war itself >no one can prepare you for that, and no one can say this is exactly what I went through, feel it too > A true war story is not written to be about war, but everything war is not, and that exactly what Tim O’Brien writes about. Kings Floyd Due November Period J How to Tell a Real War Story Tim O’Brien writes much more than just war stories. He writes about love, and about hate. He writes about the moral of a story, and how sometimes there is none. He writes about stories that have no point, and about stories that generalize a point made. In the end, a war story is not a war story. A true war story is not written to be about war, but everything war is not Pros One of the most significant qualities of a war story is not about war itself but about love Another quality of a war story involves reminiscing about the past, and to remember Another point of a war story shows ignorance Kings Floyd Due November Period J How to Tell a Real War Story Tim O’Brien writes much more than just war stories. He writes about love and hate. He writes about the moral of a story and how sometimes there is none. He writes about stories that have no point, and about stories that generalize a point made. In the end, a war story is not a war story. A true war story is not written to be about war, but about everything war is not. War stories are for people who never listen and cannot relate to war. In the short story, “How To Tell a True War Story”, Tim O’Brien tells the tale of Curt Lemon and Rat Kiley. The title of the story gives the impression that the main topic will be about war, however it has almost nothing to do with war. The centers around hope and kindness, obliviousness and ignorance. One of the most significant qualities of the story is about love. The plot focuses on the love between two best friends, Curt Lemon and Rat Kiley. They are tight as brothers, thick as thieves, and even when Curt is blown away by a booby trap, Rat still takes the time to write his sister, telling her all of the great qualities Curt had. However, the sister never wrote back, which is a covert metaphor for people who don’t care and never listen. At the end of the short story, “How To Tell A True War Story”, O’Brien expresses his feelings about the woman who liked the story; “I’ll picture Rat Kiley’s face, his grief, and I’ll think, You dumb cooze. Because she wasn’t listening (O’Brien 85).” The woman comes up to him and tries to empathize. She says how war is pain and suffering. Tim, in his own way, is annoyed, because the woman did not understand. Moreover, she just didn’t listen. Floyd 2 O’Brien went back to the Song Tra Bong with Kathleen because he wanted to remember what happened there, to reminisce old memories. He took off his clothes to his underwear, cleansing himself to his bare minimum. He lays down in the mud and thinks back to the time where Kiowa died. Kathleen cannot comprehend what her father went through, what he is going through, and so she wanders off to talk to their guide. She says to her dad, right before he goes into the mud “Well I don’t get it. I mean, how come you were even here in the first place (183).” Kathleen doesn’t understand, and is oblivious to her father’s pain. Tim O’Brien doesn’t expect people to understand about the war if they have never gone through the traumatic experience. When Tim tells the story to the curious woman, she says what a lovely story it was. She comments on the details, but she didn’t grasp the whole concept. She didn’t listen for the big picture, and she can’t empathize with Tim. “Often in a true war story there is not even a point...You close your eyes. You smile and think, Christ, what’s the point?” (82) She is overlooking his pain and his sorry, his memories and his fears. She acts likes she cares, but she doesn’t. If she did care, she would have listened, and heard the real meaning. If someone has experienced being a soldier, war can be the story of their life. All of your memories can come from war; all of what they know is affected by war. War is impossible to describe, because it is more of a feeling then an experience. When Tim O’Brien looks back on the story that Mitchell Sanders told him, he thinks about what Mitchell really meant; “For the common soldier, at least, war has a feel-the spiritual texture-of a great ghostly fog, thick and permanent. There is no clarity (82).” Tim O’Brien feels the war, he knows it, he lived it. War can never be truly expressed, and if someone doesn’t experience something, how can they ever even try to comprehend it. The story about Curt Lemon was a love story, not a war story. The woman Floyd 3 who came up to Tim at the end of “How To Tell A True War Story” didn’t listen, because she missed the whole point of the story. She would never be able to listen, can never and will never be able to relate to war. Looking back at the story, Tim O’Brien’s last words of that short story are “And in the end, of course, a true war story is never about war…It’s about love and memory. It’s about sorrow. It’s about sisters who never write back and people who never listen. (85)” Floyd 4 Works Cited O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Broadway Books, 1990.