Truth and Reality

   The word truth cannot be defined in one true definition. There are many ways of looking at it; multiple ideas have developed all over the world of what is true and what is not true. In the past few weeks in class, we have been reading "The Things They Carried" a book by Tim O'Brien in which he talks mainly about his and others personal experiences in the Vietnam War as well as before and after feelings about it. As you go farther in the book, he discusses that a true war story has no moral and sometimes must be changed for one to believe or understand it. He brings up that some of the stories he had written he changed and added onto so that you would feel the intense feelings that he felt in those situations.


   We also watched an interview in which Tim O'Brien read the story titled "Ambush" from his book. He again explained that many of the things either didn't occur or were changed greatly. In the story he starts out with talking about his daughter Kathleen asking if he had killed anyone. He goes on to tell that had been watching a trail behind some brush for the enemy. He saw a soldier coming on the trail and without thinking he had thrown the grenade and he couldn't stop staring at the body afterwards. In the actual event, a group of soldiers had gone on an ambush and shoot some of the soldiers coming out of the village, but they only only killed one and he doesn't even know if a bullet from his gun killed him. He never even looked at the body because he had already seen so many and was to afraid. O'Brien also has no daughter named Kathleen. He went on to explain that the reason he had changed it so much was so that the reader would feel the guilt which he felt about the man's death. The line which he mentions from Picasso states "Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth. This supports his point in that his stories may not be completely truthful, but show you the reality of war.
    When I watch movies or read books that are nonfiction, I often don't think about that it isn't real because I become so absorbed in the story line. Also sometimes when watching a movie or reading a book based off a true story, I wonder, did this really happen, or has it been added to make the story better or more clear? Although I will never know, the question still remains in my mind, but as I have read this story I begin to realize that sometimes the truth must be changed so that the reader understands what the writer was trying to get across.