I already talked about how Tim didn't really kill the one guy.
"...twenty years ago I watched a man die on a trail near the village of My Khe. I did not kill him. But I was present, you see, and my presence was guilt enough." - p. 171
Then he goes on to say that's not even true either, and here's the part where I'm just going to be talking in circles, I think. "I want you to know why story-truth is sometimes truer than happening-truth." - p. 171
I understand that; really I do. I sort of do, anyway. I feel like that sentence is itself a lie, but I have to believe it because that's what his entire moral seems to be. It doesn't matter, though; I want to know what really happened and what didn't. I don't like this feeling of being inundated with lies.
I think it is commendable that you noticed this because I've had quite a few people tell me they thought he really did kill that man even though it clearly says "I did not kill him." so congrats. It is difficult to realize that these stories are exaggerated so that the reader can feel as the soldiers did at the time though.
ReplyDeleteWellthanks! =]
ReplyDeleteBoth Hemingway and O'Brien have a weird sense of what's normal to throw in the middle of your plot. Hemingway says "That has nothing to do with the story," and O'Brien says "This is the true," and "This is one story I've never told before."