Blog #7- O'Brien

I think that the truth in this story is that it could have been anything or anyone. It's not necessarily the who or how or what's in a war story, it's the experiences and the wholeness of the group that hold the truth. The truth of war is that it is unpredictable, and beautiful, and horrible, and a million other contradictions. As O'Brien says, "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." The truth of war is that it isn't a nice, clean, cut and dry story. The lines are all blurred.

Even though coming up with a definition of "truth" this story (and in war) is impossible, and even though one can't really make a distinction of whether or not the story is entirely or at all true (most likely, even the people who lived through the experience can't tell what parts of their story are true or not, if in fact the story was meant to be true), the "truth" this story is valuable because it delves into the psyche of human beings under these types of situations. It is human nature to repress traumatic experiences. Therefore, is it truly possible for a soldier to tell his or her story in it's entirety with 100% truth? I would find it hard to believe if someone claimed that they could/had/are. Either way, the truths that do come out of it, and the realizations brought on by war are important and are telling.

It is hard to decipher a true war story from one that is fiction. The more I think about it, the more skeptical I become that this story is true. I also don't think that it matters for this story. And although I'm not sure if the story within the essay is fact or fiction, I would still classify this essay as a whole as creative nonfiction because of the circling and the searching for the true meaning. As with "Alive" and "Westbury Court", it's almost like this war story is just the vehicle driving the true point of the essay. Whether this story is true or not isn't the point. The point is (I think...) that that truth in a war story is not about names and places, it is about feelings and experiences, it is about everything and nothing all at once, depending on the connections the reader(listener) has with the subject matter and the ways in which each individual reacts to what is being told.

I'm not sure. There's too much going on here for me to feel certain about my interpretations, but this is my story and I'm sticking with it.