How to Tell a True War Story

How does OBrien use a combination of semi-autobiography and narrative proficiency to explore the opinion of story and memory in his defraud story?

In the construction of history, historians often rely on individual and collective memory as well as documented evidence. However, this may be a problem as memory is not static and often varies over time. This concept is explored in Tim OBriens short story, How to Tell a True War Story in which the composer reflects upon his past struggle days and how these memories and stories affect him today. In this short story, OBrien switches in between his habit as a reflecting soldier and his role as a story put forwarder to effectively show the runniness of memory and how it comes to construct the past. As a storyteller, OBrien reveals he has the power to shape his story by adding or subtracting conglomerate parts just to get at the real the true, suggesting that in a true war story zero point is absolutely true. This is reinforced when he goes on to tell different versions of Curt Lemons death where he either died from a rigged 105 round or from the sunlight.



Both accounts are true. It is clear a landmine blew up Lemon, only when from OBriens point of view, it was the sunlight, which pick[ed] him up and lift him into that head. Thus, the death of Curt Lemon acts as a sign that reinforces the difficulty in conveying truthfully what happened in a war story due to volatility of memory as well as varying interpretations of what actually occurred. Hence, the truth is shown to be remarkably elusive. Therefore, the combination of semi-autobiography and narrative techniques explore the concept of history and memory.If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Orderessay



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