True War Stories

In “How to Tell a War Story,” Tim O’Brien writes on end, sharing war story examples, ultimately proving that true war stories have no moral, no happy ending, and many times, no real conclusion whatsoever. True war stories are difficult to tell simply because of the absence of an easily understandable storyline. It becomes increasingly difficult when ideas of life and death, right and wrong, run so closely together that they are indistinguishable. Specifically speaking, O’Brien mentions the paradox between peace and war from a soldiers perspective. “To generalize about war is like generalizing about peace. Almost everything is true. Almost nothing is true. At its core, perhaps, war is just another name for death, and yet any soldier will tell you, if he tells the truth, that proximity to death brings with it a corresponding proximity to life” (O’Brien 78). The soldier living at all times so close to death, finds that he is ultimately experiencing life more directly. These contradictions are essential to a “true” war story by O’Brien’s definition.