7. Theory

O’Brien questions the validity of a true war story. As he focuses on Mitchell Sanders’ story, which seems skeptical, and provides examples of how to identify a true war story, one must not forget the story of Curt Lemon’s death. It is possible that O’Brien is using Sander’s story to distract the reader of the truthfulness of his story. One of his theories, for example, says, “often the crazy stuff if true and the normal stuff isn't” (pg 68, O’Brien). So let’s apply O’Brien’s theory to his own story. The craziness of Lemon’s death is that they were playing with smoke grenades and although they were soldiers, they were being immature and calling each other yellow mother. So, that has to be normal because it is crazy. Now, the normal; a man died in the war. Well, the normal and the crazy are both true. Without the crazy, the actual death would have never occurred. Maybe, it is not really about theory. It is not supposed to be taken literally. It is about perspective. Someone else analyzing this story might have found the large canopy trees crazy. Also, maybe it is a matter of whose perspective one hears the story from. O’Brien might have been looking directly at the action while Sanders was looking a way. All in all, it is a matter of what the person listening wants to believe. It does however prove one of my points. The novel’s stories have a deeper underlying meaning, which I do not believe has been revealed to the reader just yet, but the stories definitely bridge the chapters together, one after the other.