Jessica Contreras

December 15, 2019

Mrs. O’Keefe/ English IV

How Good are War Stories?

The Things They Carried​, A book about the Vietnam War and the personal point of view
from the soldier, Tim O’Brien. The book talks about many different things such as the soldiers
and in different points of view or the belief of someone else’s point of view. In the excerpt of the
chapter,​ How to tell a true war story​, from ​The Things They Carried​ by Tim O’Brien, O’Brien
talks about how you can tell a true war story from a false one. O’ Brien uses different literary
devices in this chapter as he’s talking about his teammates as well as himself. Specifically, two
of the most important devices that he uses that lead to the narrative structure would be Imagery
and Flashback. These two devices bring up the universal topic that good war stories are
remembered and include detail.
To start off, Imagery was one of the main devices that was brought into the book,
especially this excerpt since O’Brien talks about a specific say and specifically what they did. To
illustrate, O’Brien says, “We crossed that river and marched west into the mountains... The trees
were thick; it took nearly an hour to cut an LZ for the dustoff” (p. 78). Equally, this meant how
O’Brien and his teammates were marching through the mountains as well as O’Brien was
describing the scenery. Being that, It connects back to my claim since O’Brien is imagining this
scene pretty well. For instance, O’Brien talks about this scene pretty well since he adds good
detail on the setting of where everyone was when Curt Lemon had passed away. This brings up
how good stories are remembered and includes detail because for O’Brien being in the war, he
sure did tell a story pretty well in good detail as well as remembering the setting and very
minimal details about specific things. This makes O’Brien look like he remembers every detail
about the war as well as things that are completely unnecessary, however, they still attract the
reader to the setting and make the audience imagine themselves in the actual setting with
O’Brien.
Subsequently, along with imagery, flashbacks were another important device that was
brought to the book. O’Brien uses flashbacks the most in this book obviously because he talks in
the past tense since this book was made after the war as well as he is talking about his experience
as a soldier in the Vietnam war. In this excerpt, it says, “This one does it for me. I’ve told it
before---many times, many versions--but here’s what actually happened” (p. 78). Indeed, this
meant that O’Brien has told this story many times, many different ways. Thus, this supports my
claim since O’Brien is telling this story many times, as well as he is going back to his memories
in order to tell this story to his audience. This brings up the universal topic as well because
O’Brien has given may different stories and in many different ways in which he still remembers
the real story as well as gives in further detail as to how this actually happened. This helps attract
the reader since it catches attention since he is now telling the truth and the real truth to his
audience.
In the end, the two most important devices that O’Brien uses to lead the narrative
structure was Imagery and Flashback, as well as these two devices, brought up the universal
topic, that good stories are remembered and include detail. This can be similarly connected to
many people in our modern world. Many people especially solders and such have been
diagnosed with PTSD. They have gone through so much that scarred for life. However, they do
remember every single moment since they have to live with worry and trauma. This can connect
to O’Brien because many people with PTSD also are very imaginative with their stories when
telling it to others as well as they can remember little details when going back to the time they
were actually experiencing the situation.