Tim O Brien's The Things They Carry: Non-Fiction Or Fiction?

Words: 1590
Pages: 7

Author of the book The Things They Carry, Tim O’Brien says, “But this too is true: stories can save us.” This novel is labeled as a memoir and a work of fiction, but this becomes a problem when O’Brien’s life events as a soldier in Vietnam coincide with his fictional war stories. Personally, I think both non-fiction and fiction literature words can save a reader through the morals and personal experiences of the characters that the author purposefully creates. When an author creates a work of fiction, most of the time he creates a number of characters to go along with a story. Characters are invented to teach readers about how to act or how not to act. Just like real people, fictional characters can be seen as role models through their actions. In A Street Car Named Desire written by Tennessee Williams, all the characters, Stella, Stanley, Blanche, and Mitch all can teach us either in a positive or negative way. For Stella we can learn many things such as a being both a devoted sister and wife to Blanche and Stanley, respectively. Unfortunately, she has an abusive husband whether she realizes it or not. She …show more content…
She describes her first love as, “He was a boy, when I was a very young girl. When I was sixteen, I made the discovery—love. It was like you suddenly turned a blinding light on something that had always been half in shadow” Blanche loved him dearly but soon she realized that the love of her life and husband didn't feel the same way. “I didn't know anything except I loved him unendurably but without being able to help him or myself. By coming suddenly into a room that I thought was empty—which wasn't empty, but had two people in it…the boy I married ad an older man who had been his friend for years….” With this incident Blanche is treated very unfairly by her husband and is heartbroken which later affects her with choosing the right man. She even loses her husband to