Essay on Mathematics: Fiction and Story

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on one extracts from a story and fictional stories often have deeper meanings behind them while also causing us to think: does a fictional story convey a certain truth better than a nonfictional story? Story telling is an ancient form of art, one practiced throughout human history and one that seems to have no cultural or religious boundaries. We’ve all heard stories that we still remember to this day; these stories usually have an important message that we are expected to pick up upon from the teller. The story that stands out the most from my childhood is “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.” Yet, as I went to school, I read countless numbers of books for certain classes, some of which I have no recollection of ever reading. However, I still remember the story that I was told when I was a little boy in my pajamas. Why? Because of the importance of the moral of the story. I did not care that this story was made up, and was not true at all. All I extracted from the story was the truth; you can fool people once, perhaps twice, but when you are in dire need of help, do not be shocked if no one comes to your aid. O’Brien applies the same idea to his stories, as the war stories he tells are fictional, but the message is not. The story that Mitchell Sanders tells O’Brien is once again false, yet Sanders wants to pass on the definitive truth to O’Brien. And when he finishes telling the story, he is almost disappointed at his story telling, as he cannot “quite get the details right, not quite pinning down the final and definitive truth” (O’Brien 273). The moral of Sanders story being that these men will continue to put their life on the line, leaving behind families for their country, sometimes for no valid reason at all. They will continue to fight while their politicians and leaders continue to send them to war. The reason being that the leaders are not fully aware of what war is truly like, as they themselves are fighting this war from behind an office desk. Sanders states: “..you got to listen to your enemy.” (O’Brien 273). Sanders story highlights the argument that stories do not have to be true; the fictional ones can convey the message just as well, if not better as fiction makes the story interesting, it gets us to think, to imagine rather than to listen to a boring truth. Similar to the women that usually approach O’Brien after he tells the baby buffalo story, I too felt sad, and lost a bit of faith in the whole war idea, trying to move past it. Yet, the image of the mutilated buffalo kept popping back into my head, forcing me to reason with Rat Kiley’s actions. At first thought, just like the woman that confronted O’Brien, I would also think war just has that effect on men, driving them over the edge. Men commit actions they never
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