An Analysis Of Mr. O 'Brien's Essay Titled'
Olivia Cousins Roosevelt English 101 Essay 02 Lies are complicated things. They can range from a little white lie to lies which can create a web of deception that can produce a noose that chokes you, binding you very move you make. However, the nature of a lie is dependent on the individual who tells it. For example, the retelling of events is often skewed because of personal perspectives. As Mr. O’Brien states, a true war story is never believable. One example is Sanders’ story about a six man patrol group. Sanders tells, how while on patrol, the men were not allowed to make a sound. They were supposed to be silent as death itself. They were camouflaged in a bush for seven straight days, and had to be invisible. Mr. Sanders describes how spooky this seemed because the patrol took place in a mountain jungle with a fog that was so thick, “you can’t find your own pecker to piss with” (72). Within this
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O’Brien describes a solder called Rat and how he lost his friend. Rat had then mailed a letter to the guy’s sister. In the letter, he spills out his heart and soul, just talking about this man known as her brother and how great he was. She never replies, O’Brien then states that a true war story “does not instruct, nor encourages virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing things men have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it.” (68). The question that comes to mind though is: What about the sister? O’Brien and Rat did not even know if the sister ever received the letter. They had sheer optimism that the letter made it safely to her home and that she read it. But because they needed to have faith in something, and this may as well have been the mail system, they blamed her when she could have been dead for all they knew. They only believed in what they could see. O’Brien knows this but only applies the concept when his comrade, Curt Lemon,
O’Brien describes a solder called Rat and how he lost his friend. Rat had then mailed a letter to the guy’s sister. In the letter, he spills out his heart and soul, just talking about this man known as her brother and how great he was. She never replies, O’Brien then states that a true war story “does not instruct, nor encourages virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing things men have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it.” (68). The question that comes to mind though is: What about the sister? O’Brien and Rat did not even know if the sister ever received the letter. They had sheer optimism that the letter made it safely to her home and that she read it. But because they needed to have faith in something, and this may as well have been the mail system, they blamed her when she could have been dead for all they knew. They only believed in what they could see. O’Brien knows this but only applies the concept when his comrade, Curt Lemon,