Vishal Patel
ENGL-2030
Prof. Mackin
12/03/2013
How to tell a War Story vs. Soldier Home War can be expressed as a setting in which rival antagonists are involved in an operational battle. Different authors have over time written war stories and their outcomes on characters. Tim O’Brien wrote “How to tell a true war story” while Ernest Hemmingway wrote “Soldier’s Home”. Both stories clarify to readers the effects of war on an ordinary person. Both stories are matching in numerous features because both authors had a time in the army. O’Brien served in the Vietnam War and he prefers a storyteller in his story that is an equivalent as him. This makes the reader deem in O’Brien’s stories as if they really happened. Whereas, Hemmingway, served in the World War I and footings his story on actual life experience such as falsehoods, relationships and demise. In both stories, we are told that warriors in warfare do everything that they like. This is backed in ‘Soldier’s Home’ when Krebs does not done anything to get a work or earn money throughout the day. In ‘How to tell a true War Story’ O’Brien is of the view that a soldier desires for a flawless world while in the combat region. On his homecoming, Krebs is straightforward and unsharpened on his response not considerate how others make it. Both stories have the theme of physical and emotional load in which the individuals are both figurative and literal. Both O’Brien and Krebs carry burdens that are emotionally hefty. The load is comprised of terror, grief, yearning and love. Each man’s burden is correlated which resume to haunt and describe them. They outlived the war but endless to carry grief and puzzlement. O’Brien experiences in war displays that the motivating factor in war is the panic of feeling embarrassed before peers. Krebs also has the fear of telling to the townships individuals and even his own household. Tim O’Brien elects to have a fictional storyteller who is also know by his name Tim O’Brien. He shows that the narrator has the control to outline the opinions of his listeners. In both stories, the writers use the stories to allow the listeners tackle the late happenings. They use narratives to pass their memorandum. Loneliness and isolation features are highly prominent in both stories. O’Brien clarifies that there is aloneness and also isolation in Vietnam throughout the war. He says that loneliness and isolation are damaging the same way as ammunition. Krebs on the other hand is detached and lonesome in his home town since coming back from the battle. He is disenchanted and is incompetent to fit in his culture or even his family. The protagonists in both ‘How to Tell a True War Story’ and ‘A Soldier’s Home’ tell the stories of their lives and also about war and its effects on their lives. This can be understood in the alterations of war stories by O’Brien and the public isolation of the protagonist in Hemmingway’s story. In both stories, the protagonists are disturbed by their period in the army service. O’Brien accepts that fiction is necessary and important to his stories. He agrees on his tension that is post stressful and admits to telling untruths through his literature. Hemmingway’s representation on stress affected by war varies from that from O’Brien because his war veteran, Krebs is improving from the effects of combat on him. Krebs does not like memorizing his
