Tim O'Brien writes that a true war story is not about war itself, but about everything that war is not. He discusses three qualities of a true war story based on the short story "How to Tell a True War Story." First, the story focuses on love between two soldiers rather than war. Second, it is about remembering the past rather than the present war. Third, it shows the ignorance of those who have not experienced war and do not listen or relate to those who have. A true war story expresses the inexpressible nature of war and is for those who cannot comprehend what soldiers experience.

1. The things they carried essay
How to tell a true war story
How to tell a true war story is not about the physical wars that go on in the world. How to tell A
true war story is about telling a story about the war that goes on inside a human, all of the
emotions raging inside someone, where love is always the winner, but sometimes anger,
frustration and cowardice get ahead. A war story is aobut love, not war. War, in a sense, is love,
as well as being the opposite of love. IF you are fighting for a cause, and you love that cause,
you are fighting for love, making it a love story. If you are fighting the opposite of what you
love, it is still about love, just what you don’t love.
_it has no moral
-a true war story cannot be believed. If you believe it, be skeptical
_a true war story never seems to end
-a true moral you cant tease out of a story, its like unraveling cloth, the thread being the moral
-true war stories do not generalize. They do not indulge in abstraction or analysis
_war is hell. Its true and yet it is not true, because it is and yet your stomach tells you it’s not
_the water buffalo; rat keeps shooting it until its almost dead. “over here man, every sin is fresh
and original”
_war is also mystery, terror, adventure, courage, discovery, holiness, pity, despair, longing, love.
War is nasty; war is fun
War is thrilling; war is drudgery
War makes you a man; war makes you dead
The truths are contradictory. War is terror but its also astonishing in a grostesquly beautiful way
To generalize about war is to gnerealize about peace. Almost nothing is true, at its core, war is
just another name for death
Often in a true story there is never a point
Thesis; A true war story is not about war, but everything that war is not.
A true war story is not written to be about war, but about everything war is not
Write pro one pro two pro three
Page that has a snapshot of your paper
-anchor thesis about the lady who never listens
-use the line about the people who never listen
You can use the same story, just pick out a different element from the same story
Try relating everthing to your thesis, and maybe add a sentence after your thesis to clarify thesis

2. Outline;
Title
-Intro;
>What Tim Obrien writes about; generalization, love, courage, morals, making a point
>Thesis; A true war story is not written to be about war, but everything war is not
Paragraph one;
>Curt lemon; how that story was not about war, but about love. How it was about beauty,
and trust and friendship
>the basis on the chapter(story) itself
>about sisters who never write back and about people who never listen
Paragraph two;
>when Tim goes back to the place where Kiowa died, down by the Song tra bong, and he
lays in the mud in his underwear
>war is about making memories, about remember what you have done to others and what
you did to yourself
>about thinking for other people and what you can do for them
Paragraph three;
>the first paragraph, the things they carried; war is a journey, whether you get where you
are going or not
>war is about making the leap from one person to another, finding yourself in a way few
people do
Paragraph three;
a. About the people who never listen
b. About Kathleen, who couldn’t relate
Conclusion;
>war is about everything and nothing. War is the sole story of someone’s life, and yet
they might not even be touched (affected) by it
>war is love and hate combined, because you can love your country and hate the war, or
you can hate your country and love the war
>how to tell a true war story describes everything in the war except the war itself
>no one can prepare you for that, and no one can say this is exactly what I went through,
feel it too
> A true war story is not written to be about war, but everything war is not, and that
exactly what Tim O’Brien writes about.

3. Kings Floyd
Due November
Period J
How to Tell a Real War Story
Tim O’Brien writes much more than just war stories. He writes about love, and about
hate. He writes about the moral of a story, and how sometimes there is none. He writes about
stories that have no point, and about stories that generalize a point made. In the end, a war story
is not a war story. A true war story is not written to be about war, but everything war is not
Pros
1. One of the most significant qualities of a war story is not about war itself but about love
2. Another quality of a war story is to reminisce about the past, and to remember
3. Another point of a war story is to show ignorance

4. Kings Floyd
Due November
Period J
How to Tell a Real War Story
Tim O’Brien writes much more than just war stories. He writes about love, and about
hate. He writes about the moral of a story, and how sometimes there is none. He writes about
stories that have no point, and about stories that generalize a point made. In the end, a war story
is not a war story. A true war story is not written to be about war, but about everything war is
not. War stories are for people who never listen and cannot relate to war.
In the short story, How To Tell a True War Story, Tim O’Brien tells the tale of Curl
Lemon and Rat Kiley. The story is a war story; however, the plot is not about war. The plot is
about hope and kindness and obliviousness and ignorance. One of the most significant qualities
of the story is that the plot is about love. The plot is about the love between two best friends,
Curt Lemon and Rat Kiley. They are tight as brothers, thick as thieves, and even when Curt is
blown away by a booby trap, Rat still takes the time to write his sister, telling her all of the great
qualities Curt had. However the sister never wrote back, which is a covert metaphor for people
who don’t care and never listen. “I’ll picture Rat Kiley’s face, his grief, and I’ll think, You dumb
cooze. Because she wasn’t listening.”(O’Brien 85) When he tells this story, a woman comes up
to him and tries to empathize. She says how war is pain and suffering. Tim, in his own way, is
annoyed, because the woman did not understand. Moreover, she just didn’t listen.
When O’Brien went back to the Song Tra Bong with Kathleen, he went back to
remember, to reminisce. He took off his clothes to his underwear, cleansing himself to his bare

5. Floyd
Page 2
Period J
minimum. He lays down in the mud, in the dirt, in the muck, and thinks back to the time where
Kiowa died. Kathleen cannot comprehend what her father went through, what he is going
through, and so she wanders off to talk to their guide. “Well I don’t get it. I mean, how come you
were even here in the first place”(183) Kathleen doesn’t understand, and is oblivious to her
father’s pain.
Tim O’Brien doesn’t expect people to understand about the war if they have never gone
through the traumatic experience. When Tim tells the story to the curious woman, she says what
a lovely story it was. She comments on the details, but she didn’t grasp the whole concept. She
didn’t listen for the big picture, and she can’t empathize with Tim. “Often in a true war story
there is not even a point...You close your eyes. You smile and think, Christ, what’s the point?”
(82) She is overlooking his pain and his sorry, his memories and his fears. She acts likes she
cares, but she doesn’t. If she did care, she would have listened, and heard the real meaning.
If you have been a soldier, war can be the story of your life. All of your memories can
come from war; all of what you know is affected by war. War is impossible to describe, because
its more of a feeling then an experience. “For the common soldier, at least, war has a feel-the
spiritual texture-of a great ghostly fog, thick and permanent. There is no clarity.”(82) Tim
O’Brien feels the war, he knows it, he lived it. War can never be truly expressed, and if you
don’t live something, how can someone ever even try to comprehend it. The story about Curt
Lemon was a love story, not a war story. The woman who came up to Tim at the end of How To
Tell A True War Story didn’t listen, because she missed the whole point of the story. She would
never be able to listen, can never and will never be able to relate to war. “And in the end, of

6. Floyd
Page 3
Period J
course, a true war story is never about war…It’s about love and memory. It’s about sorrow. It’s
about sisters who never write back and people who never listen.”(85)

7. Floyd
Page 4
Period J
Works Cited
O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Broadway Books, 1990.