In Tim O’Brien Essay

In Tim O’Brien’s â€Å"How to Tell a True War Story,† the author tries to humanize war by letting the reader know how absolutely difficult telling a war story is. He does this by giving many unsolicited pieces of advice about how to tell a true war story, but many of them directly contradict each other or do not make sense when compared side-by-side. In giving these pieces of advice, he is also telling war stories that either do or do not fit his own criteria. And yet, he humanizes the people involved in fighting this war by giving the reader these lessons. One great example of this is when he tells the story of Rat Kiley and Lemmons. O’Brien begins by telling the reader that â€Å"a true war story is never moral†(O’Brien). He continues with, â€Å"If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie† (O’Brien). Then he tells us first the story of Rat Kiley writing this letter to the sister of his best friend who died. Kiley pours his heart out to this woman and she never writers back, and he has a derogatory comment about the sister. This certainly is not uplifting, but Rat Kiley has been humanized. The reader can somewhat imagine writing this letter and understands what it would take to write a letter like this, and then to have it unacknowledged. While O’Brien tells us almost nothing directly of the character of Rat Kiley, the reader learns mounds of information about his character nonetheless. O’Brien continues on to tell us about the death of Lemmons, and then he explains that even his own telling of the story is subjective. What he thinks he saw versus what might have actually happened are two different things. We didn’t know Lemmons, but again, we feel like we know something of his character from hearing this story. O’Brien is able to provide such beautiful or not so beautiful characterizations of these men without really telling the reader anything. But these men are humanized for us. They are not statistics in a war; they are real men. Another lesson O’Brien teaches is that â€Å"In a true war story, if there’s a moral at all, it’s like the thread that makes the cloth. You can’t tease it out. You can’t extract the meaning without unraveling the deeper meaning. † He tells us that true war stories do not generalize but they make us feel it in our stomachs. We can’t generalize to something simple like â€Å"War is hell. † He then tells us another story of Rat Kiley when he slowly slaughters the water buffalo. The reader is horrified, but also at some level understands why Rat Kiley did this. The water buffalo becomes a symbol of the breakdown during war itself. The incredible need for violence and retribution is strong. It is a horribly sad story of the slaughter of an animal. But based on what we already know about just what Rat Kiley has been through, we understand him on some gut level. War is hell, but it is also mystery and beauty. â€Å"Though it’s odd, you’re never more alive than when you’re almost dead. † The reader can understand this and understand the characters better because of it. These men are not monsters; they are just men. They are fighting a terrible war and are forced to do terrible things, but they are human. â€Å"At the hour of dusk you sit at your foxhole and look out on a wide river turning pinkish red, and at the mountains beyond, and although in the morning you must cross the river and go into the mountains and do terrible things and maybe, die, even so, you find yourself studying the fine colors on the river, you feel wonder and awe at the setting of the sun, and you are filled with a hard, aching love for how the world could be and always should be, but now is not† (O’Brien). This passage describes all men in war, and even though Rat Kiley has done terrible things, we understand a little bit about what he must be thinking. We understand how these men value their lives even more because of war. In O’Brien’s unique way, these men are truly humanized. By providing the reader with various instructions throughout the story about what a true war story isn’t and what a true war story is, these men are deeply humanized. The reader understands from Tim O’Brien that war is never as simple as it seems, and neither are the men who fight the war. He tells us horrible stories about these men, and yet, these stories help us to understand the men better. With the commentary O’Brien provides about how to write a true war story, the reader understands so many things. We understand that these â€Å"true† war stories may not even actually be true in the most common sense of the word. We understand that, no matter what, they are never simple. The lessons are never clear. They are not pretty, and if they are, they are not true. In other words, the characters of war are as complex as the reasons we fight wars. While it would be nice to have a tidy moral, there are none. At the bottom of it all are human lives. These men are not heroes and they are not monsters.