O'Brien's "How to Tell a True War Story"

The most effective part of the chapter “How to Tell a True War Story” is the example O’Brien gives after each war story description. For example, O’Brien first statement is that a true war story doesn’t have a moral and is never uplifting. O’Brien then illustrates this statement by telling the story of Rat Kiley and his letter that never gets answered. This story perfectly embodies his point because after I read that story I didn’t feel anything close to happiness. How terrible for Kiley to have poured his heart out to someone he wanted to share his pain with and then never get a reply. The rest of the chapter is brimming with other lessons about true war stories; a true war story is too crazy to believe. A true war story never seems to end. A true war story can not distinguish between what happened and what seemed to happen. O’Brien then shares a piece of his past to corroborate every story so that the reader can see each aspect of a war story. This chapter’s mixture of lesson and memories is so amazing in that O’Brien writes a true war story while telling how to write one.

Another fascinating part of this chapter was the description of the different sides of war. O’Brien shares that war is hell, but also much more complex than that. O’Brien’s idea of war is a war of fear, excitement, pity, and love. In most movies and books today war is seen with only two sides: war as hell and war as heroes. This chapter showed me that war is so much more than just hell and courage. I was shocked to hear O’Brien describe the beauty of war. I had never imagined that war could be beautiful, especially for a veteran. However the description of the “purply orange glow of napalm” gave me a little insight into how something seemingly so ugly from a different side.