Adeola Ijiyode

Destructive Fictional Truth v. Constructive Fictional Truth

In both D.Ms Thomass The White Hotel and Tim OBriens The Things They Carried,
the significance of fictional truth is explored through the protagonists. In The White Hotel, Lisa
uses fictional truth to distort her reality, whereas OBrien uses fiction truth to face his reality in
The Things They Carried. These contrasting motives show that fictional truth can either be used
constructively or destructively. The use of fictional truth as a coping mechanism can be
compared to other coping mechanisms in Man In The Dark that are used either constructively or
destructively.
Both Lisa in The White Hotel and the narrator in The Things They Carried utilize
fictional truth to cope with hardship in their lives. Lisas fictional truth is in the form of a fantasy
that involves an alternate version of herself that engages in an abundance of sex with a younger
man at a hotel. When being examined by Professor Freud, Lisa tweaks details of her actual life
and lies to Freud due to her inability to accept her reality and the analysis of how her fantasies
relate to her actual life. An example of this is when she later admits that she kissed her familys
Japanese chambermaid when she was younger, but still does not believe that attracted to women
in the slightest, rejecting Freuds theory that she is homosexual (189). Similarly in The Things
They Carried, the narrator's fictional truth is in the form of war stories that tend to lack factual
information but convey a feeling more than a message that accurately describe an experience.
For example, in How to Tell A True War Story, the narrator describes what makes a war story
true. He insists that Its difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen.
What seems to happen becomes its own happening and has to be told that way(71). This quote

explains the narrator's philosophy on storytelling and his motives behind the telling of fictional
truth as he copes with being a war veteran.
Moreover, Lisa uses fictional truth in such a way that it distorts the truth. In order to
elaborate further on Lisas use of fictional truth in The White Hotel, it is important to analyze
both her real life and her fantasies and how the two connect. Lisa admits in one of her letters to
Professor Freud that she altered the truth about a particular incident, I plead guilty also to
slandering Alexei(A)...The incident I described didnt take place...He was quite capable of
shooting people and blowing them up--and obviously done so since--many times--but not of
making love to another girl in my presence, (186). Lisa had originally claimed that Alexei had
sex with another woman in front of her but later recanted her statement. This use of fictional
truth distorted Alexeis character but for Lisa, it may have helped her better portray Alexeis
character in the way she felt for him after he abandoned her. Ultimately, this use of fictional truth
did not serve any useful purpose nor did it help Lisa with her treatment for hysteria. If anything,
Lisas use of fictional truth hinders her progress of healing as she refuses to face the truth of past
and connect them to certain issues she has in the present.
In contrast to Lisa of The White Hotel, the narrator in The Things They Carried uses
fictional truth in such a manner that it reveals the truth in way that could not otherwise be
understood. An example of this use of fiction truth is seen in Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong
in which one of the soldiers was able to bring his girlfriend to visit the military base. The story
quickly turns sour as the soldiers girlfriends becomes savage as she was seen wearing a necklace
of human tongues,(110). Whether the entire story is fabricated or if only certain aspects of it are,
the story remains true because of the idea it conveys of war being detrimental to the human
mind. This fictional truth reveals the possible effects of war that can destroy some people.

Another example in which fictional truth is used to reveal and idea is in The Man I Killed and
Ambush which are two versions of the same incident from slightly varying
perspectives(present time versus reflective). When asked by his young daughter if he had ever
killed anybody, the narrator denies it and thinks to himself I want to tell her exactly what
happened, or what I remember happening, (131). It is never completely clear if the narrator did
in fact physically kill the man or if he was just indirectly involved with the mans death. This
lack of certainty combined with the possibility of the story being fictional furthers the narrators
philosophy about true war stories as it reveals that many soldiers may often feel guilt towards
people who were killed in combat and who they may have killed. The narrators use of fictional
truth is constructive towards his healing living as a veteran because it helps him attempt to come
to terms with some of the things he experienced.
In comparison to Katya and August in Man in The Dark, Lisa of The White Hotel and the
narrator of The Things They Carried, each character had some form of a coping mechanism
whether that be the mindless watching of films, the making up of stories, destructive fictional
truth, or constructive fictional truth. Both Katya and Lisa engage in destructive coping
mechanisms that do not aid in their healing processes. Both August and the narrator of The
Things They Carried engage in constructive coping mechanisms that help them to process their
pain instead of numb it as Katya and Lisa do.