Ambiguity, Stories and Emotion - 1433 Words

â€Å"All of us, I suspect, can imagine beholding things we ought not to have beheld. All of us can understand such pain† (O’Brien 4). Pain is universal but it is difficult to describe pain to someone who hasn’t experienced it in the way you have. Events affect people differently and without stories it would not be possible to even try and comprehend the pain of others. How a story is told changes the emotional response of the audience and with that their understanding of the events. Tim O’Brien explores the necessity of ambiguity between fact and fiction in order to create a visceral response to war in his short story â€Å"How To Tell A True War Story† which is a chapter in the novel The Things They Carried. O’Brien is able to examine this more†¦show more content†¦Irony is also used in one of the stories depicted in this chapter; when Kurt Lemon dies â€Å"Dave Jensen [sings] â€Å"Lemon Tree† as [they] threw down the parts† (O’Brien 79) of Lemon’s body from a tree. This ironic situation is very upsetting rather than amusing but it is useful in maki ng the reader question if that really happened because it is such an inconceivable and almost offensive moment. If it did in fact happen, then it can be seen as the soldier’s coping mechanism, whereas; if it did not occur, the narrator specifically used this to invoke an emotional response in the reader. Both the title and the singing of â€Å"Lemon Tree† are incredibly ironic which makes it ambiguous as to whether it is real or invented. Nature is arguable the most real and natural thing on earth and can create a sense of truth when it is mentioned in a story because it is universally seen as pure and real. In â€Å"How To Tell A True War Story† there is a nature motif, which adds to the realism of the stories being told. The motif adds to the imagery of the stories and makes it easier for the reader to visualize them make them easier to believe. However, the continual description of nature and the questionable portrayals of it, â€Å"The trees talk politics, the monkeys talk religion† (O’Brien 71), can also make the stories incredibly difficult to believe. At some points the overShow MoreRelatedIntrospection in How to Tell a True War Story, and Into the Wild1494 Words   |  6 PagesTrue War Story† Tim O’Brien expresses his thoughts about the true war story and how the war story is changed according to the person who tells it. Jon Krakauer illustrates Chris McCandless’s jou rney into the Alaskan wilderness and reasons for McCandless’s gruesome death in an isolated place, in his book â€Å"Into the Wild.† O’Brien relates introspection and a soldier’s war story by saying that the war story portrays the feelings of a soldier. A soldier’s war story is not the exact war story; it is theRead MoreAmbiguism In The Demon Lover By Elizabeth Bowen1059 Words   |  5 Pagesfolklore theme of the demon lover in her short story in which a woman is left traumatized during the blitz in World War II. The story follows a married middle age woman who is haunted by the ghost of her love from her youth. This ghost was known to be killed in the First World War nearly twenty-five years earlier. 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His chaotic childhood with economic struggles and estranged family transferred into his stories as well. (Discussion) The overbearing chaos and horror within his stories â€Å"Jerusalem’s Lot†and â€Å"Children of the Corn† originates from King’s personal experiences as described in On Writing. (Thesis) The unresolved conflicts of his stories resemble the problems in his childhood that were never fixed. He doesn’t skimp on pain and chaos in his stories as life didn’t hide painRead MoreIn The Study Finding Meaning In Art: Preferred Levels Of1345 Words   |  6 PagesIn the study finding meaning in a rt: preferred levels of ambiguity in art appreciation, researchers Martina Jakesch and Helmut Leder of the university of Vienna, Austria conducted an experiment with the intentions to discover which factor was most impactful on a participant’s interest and liking of a painting (levels of ambiguity). The factors involved were: how much information was given about each painting, how much information was true about that particular painting, or how much information aboutRead MoreThe Things They Carried By Tim O Brien994 Words   |  4 Pagestoo difficult to live in the present while constantly thinking about the past and because of this are unable to move on. These can be burdens that they have been carrying for a long time or even recently. In the short story, â€Å"The Things They Carried,†Tim O’Brien uses symbolism, ambiguity, and a non-linear narrative structure to illustrate emotional burdens. The concept of symbolism is used by O’Brien to portray the different emotional burdens the soldiers are feeling. These symbols are mainly itemsRead MoreThe Effect of Dual Narration by Michael Frayn on the Readers Understanding of the Text730 Words   |  3 Pages because Frayn has written the Novel in such a way that Frayn can expose emotions and feelings. He uses dual narration to bring out ideas and personal reflections using an adult Stephen and a younger Stephen. This dual narration is very effective, it conveys the thoughts of both adult Stephen and younger Stephen. Firstly, the novel begins (chapter one) with adult Stephen narrating the story, ‘adult’ Stephen begins by recalling a scent which he brings him about as heRead MoreCompare And Contrast Bergson And Davis Theories1743 Words   |  7 Pagestheory has three elements that he believes constitute why we laugh and claims, â€Å"†¦the mechanical encrusted upon the living,† promotes laughter (Bergson 10). While Davis’s theory is concerned with the foundation of laughter with incongruities and ambiguities. As well the audience, who finds something funny, instead of the object that is funny. Bergson’s theory begins with three fundamental observations regarding laughter. The first observation is, â€Å"†¦the comic does not exist outside the pale of whatRead MoreMoral Ambiguity in The Stranger Essay727 Words   |  3 Pagesevil behavior, in the context of the story. He could easily been seen as disrespectful and seditious toward his mother and the established procedures of mourning, which seem to be fairly definite at that era in France. However, this evil mold can easily be shaken if one considers that Meursault may be more shaken than anyone else present at the funeral. Considering the other events in the novel, it seems as though he does not have a large capacity for emotion. Based on this, it is not unreasonableRead MoreThe Tell Tale Heart By Edgar Allen Poe1427 Words   |  6 PagesMeghan Amorim ENWR 106:29 Professor Ghoshal 27 September 2015 The Tell Tale Heart In â€Å"The Tell Tale Heart†, by Edgar Allen Poe, the reader is presented with the short story of a madman who narrates his murder of an old man because, â€Å"he had the eye of a vulture --a pale blue eye, with a film over it† (Poe 105). The narrator has thought thoroughly about his plan to murder this old man, and the murderer then stashes his body underneath the floorboards. Eventually, his guilt overcomes him and he starts