In "How To Tell a True War Story", author Tim O'Brien is telling the story of a fallen comrade in Vietnam. His name was Curt Lemon, but before the story, he begins with a heartfelt, extremely emotional letter being written by Lemons best friend Rat Kiley. It is this letter one can almost materialize the feelings of a solider who is scared and O'Brien then uses that fact over and over that no ones responds to it, which gives the idea of people who have PTSD go seemingly unnoticed. The failure of the sister to respond turns the letter from one of grieving and reconcile to one of pain and guilt that never goes away. From there it becomes a repetition of telling the story of Lemons death in which each time he adds more and more detail. He tells that while playing catch with a smoke grenade, Lemon stepped on a 105 round mine which blew him all over the trees. All the while his best friend watched as his happiness turned to horror in a second. The telling of the story so many times helps show how Rat might feel not only on that day but the rest of his life. He keeps running it through his head over and over and each time noticing more detail and possibly imagining it even worse than it was.
He will eventually develop a sense of fault in that he could have done more, many who feel this way first try to take it out on something. In Rats case it was a baby buffalo that got the brunt of his anger and frustration. When he is done torturing the buffalo O'Brien states "We had just witnessed something essential, something brand-new, and profound, a piece of the world so startling there was not yet a name for it" That something was the suffering in Rat that he will feel for the rest of his life, those couple of minutes in the jungle just playing catch will haunt him until the day he dies. All war stories are told differently each time but its the details that those who tell them leave out until they build up the courage enough to share them. Those are the parts that run on constant repeat in the mind of a those who suffer from this trauma, and most of the time are the most painful to relive and will try anthing to forget.
Well first off I'd like to mention how well worded and thought out this blog is. Very well done on that. Second, as I'm pretty much unsure of what to write at this point, perhaps a slight review or agreement would work? I think it would. Anyhow, I think that a big part of the PTSD element of the story had a big role played on RAT, especially after the whole incident with his best friend being blown apart right in front of his eyes. And as I was only slightly confused at the reason why he would kill the buffalo, this blog made it much easier for me to understand what was going on. Cool.
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