How to Tell a True War Story
Firstly, we would like to thank you for coming to our presentation.
The book The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien is a true war story. However, we do not want you to go away from this presentation believing that these events ever happened. How, you may ask, is this possible?
We must ask ourselves, what does true really mean? Does it mean factual, the events happening one after another, in linier progression? Or does it merely mean genuine? Or is it a combination of both, skillfully woven together by the storyteller?
The purpose of a war story is to convey the emotions that they felt. To feel the way they felt. Do you hear the gunshots? Feel the heat from the napalm? Smell thier fear mixed with the reek of the stagnant rice paddies? Can you feel the leeches clinging to your skin? Do you feel the terror and yet, the wonder, that they felt?
This is what they experienced, this is what they lived for months, for years. This is what they knew.
And this is their story.