How To Tell A True War Story Versus Soldier's Home Essay

Title of Essay: How to Tell a True War Story vs. Soldiers Home

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How to Tell a True War Story vs. Soldiers Home

War is considered a behavior pattern, where organized violent conflict is engaged in between separate social entities; and there are many authors that have written stories portraying this behavior and its effects. In the stories How to Tell a True War Story by Tim O Brien, and Soldiers Home by Ernest Hemingway, both authors illustrate to the reader the effects of war on an average person, and how that plays out on their emotional being. Both authors served time in the army, at different points in time, and they both portray in their stories the lives of young men coming back home from the war and having to face normal life after being traumatized by the atrocities of war.

In Soldiers Home, the setting takes place in Krebss hometown, but its as if Krebs doesnt feel home, he doesnt feel like he belongs. He comes back home from war much later than everyone else; sounds like he is avoiding coming back after being traumatized by life-and-death situations that his family and friends back home could never comprehend entirely. Hemingway reinforces the portrayal of his felling out of place back home by calling him by Krebs, instead of Harold (like everyone else), which could probably be a war nickname he feels more comfortable with. Krebss mother tries to encourage him to move forward and do something with his life, when she compares him to Charley Simmons, who is just your age, has a good job, and is going to be married (169), while Krebs is just looking for an easy, uncomplicated life. He doesnt want to suffer any more consequences, he doesnt want to have to chase a girl, or a job, he just wants to wake up late, take a walk, read his books, and avoid anything else that could sparkle any more emotions in him, so he lies, to everyone, because it is less complicated to tell the people what they want to hear instead of the ugly truth.

In How to tell a true war story, OBrien uses a collection of small stories twisted with information about a true war story, which is the main problem that will follow, the truth. He portrays a strong friendship between characters Rat Kiley and Curt Lemon, through Rats letter to the sister that never writes back. Rat mails the letter. He waits two months. The dumb cooze never writes back. (544) clearly expresses his feelings and how emotionally unstable and vulnerable he is; and how he describes the scenery and the beautiful landscape as his friends about to be blown to pieces, he then goes on to talk about Curt Lemon, this almost crazy story, emphasizing it is all exactly true, but after telling it he insists that it is difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen. He retells the story over and over, slightly different each time, still emphasizing how it is true. There is an impossibility of being able to actually express a true war story; he goes on to suggest cannot even believe a true war story. People back home want to heart about the war, but in reality they couldnt possibly tell the truth, because no one would believe them. In the end, of course, a true war story is never about war.(552).

Speaking from the point of being in the war, the authors have been through the most traumatic repeating events ever in their lives, which overwhelmed their abilities to cope and bring together the ideas and emotions involved with that experience, the characters lives were changed forever, and not for the better. They were emotionally hurt and their lives scarred for eternity. Both authors illustrated what war can do to an average person, Hemingways Krebs lied so much that it made him sick to his stomach, and OBriens Rat Kiley lied and stretched the truth further each time so that his true war story could sound more convincing. In the end, no one really cares about the truth of what happened, if they spent weeks or even months in a watch post waiting for nothing to happen, or if they made mistakes costing them one of their own friends lives, people want to hear what they want to hear, be it gruesome, be it loving, they want excitement, they want a hero, so the conclusion of all this is that there is no truth in a true war story, because the truth is really irrelevant, and only those who have lived it and experienced it will ever know its true meaning.

Works Cited

OBrien, Tim. How to Tell a True War Story. The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2009. 543-552. Print.

Hemingway, Ernest. Soldiers Home. The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2009.165-170. Print.