In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, the line between fact and fiction is blurred through a compilation of confusing, yet intriguing short stories that are supposed to portray O’Brien’s time in the Vietnam War. In the chapter entitled “The Ghost Soldier,” O’Brien reflects on the times he had been shot and unable to fight. During this time, the reader is able to see O’Brien’s psyche take a major turn. Although his disillusionment is seen in a variety of places throughout the novel, O’Brien especially uses his actions in the short story “The Ghost Soldiers” to portray how war can affect a man not just physically, but psychologically as well. O’Brien’s ambiguity in his story telling is just one of many effects on his brain from the war. O’Brien is constantly faced with the question of whether or not an event actually happened, or if it was so astonishing to see in the first place, that it must have been a made up story. Being emotionally destroyed plays a roll in the story telling as he is not completely aware of what is true and what is not. In “How to Tell a True War Story” he states, “In any war story, but especially a true one, it’s difficult to…show more content… Just as Vietnam had changed O’Brien, it had changed her as well. In just a few weeks Mary Ann was no longer a sweet, innocent girl but a soldier that felt at peace with the war (O’Brien 93-94). Just as Mary Ann was, O’Brien was forced to find his inner truth about himself because of the war and now that he had, he did not like who he had become. Although he had only been in Vietnam for less than a year, what he had seen and dealt with was far beyond what any person should have to, and with that, comes certain psychological and emotional
