The Things They Carried 13

In order for Tim O’Brien to explain and understand the truth behind a true a war story in the novel The Things They Carried, was to make it false but also show the truth about the situation. One event that occurred explaining this situation, was when Rat Kiley’s friend Curt Lemon died when they were playing around with smoke grenades and then Curt Lemon steps on a land mine. Following his friend’s death Rat Kiley writes a letter to Curt’s sister telling her how Curt was a hero and about how much he loved him. Months pass by and she never writes back and Rat Kiley spits at her and calls her dumb. Rat Kiley gets frustrated so he takes his frustration out on a water buffalo by shooting it repeatedly. This event helped people feel the truth at the time and show what soldiers had to go through. Another event which explains this situation was a story told by Mitchell Sanders about Viacom’s. Viacom’s were troops who had to go into different posts and listen for sounds. After a few days they claimed that they heard music, animals, and cocktail parties. So they order air strikes on everything and shoot everything down. When asked by a colonel what they heard they had no answer. After telling the story Mitchell Sanders admits parts of story were untrue. Mitchell Sanders explains how quiet is the moral and O’Brien says a moral cannot be separated from a story. These two events explain how the innocent were corrupted. It also explains how a story might be untrue but it is up to the person to believe it or not.
                In the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest McMurphy tried to get the other patients to use their imagination and see what life would be like without Nurse Ratched’s rule. In the novel McMurphy sets up a boating trip for the other patients. He got permission from Nurse Ratched to go on a boating trip. On the boating trip, all the patients did everything on their own. They all fished and drove the boat without the help of McMurphy. He hoped by having a...