Listening to a True Story

A passage in the chapter "How To Tell A True War Story," in The Things They Carried, is about an innocent baby buffalo who is ruthlessly killed by Rat Kiley. The story in and of itself invokes horror and disgust; that such a harmless creature could be viciously murdered. More than anything, it "makes the stomach believe (74)."

The story is brutal, casually describing the outrageous behavior of Kiley, motivated by the loss of his friend Curt Lemon:

"He (Kiley) shot randomly...quick little spurts in the belly and butt...he bent forward, and whispered something, as if talking to a pet, then he shot it through the throat (75)."

As Kiley shot the animal, the members of the platoon simply looked, and didn't do a single thing. After Kiley finished shooting the animal, he retreated from the group openly weeping. The ending is anything but uplifting, and leaves the reader devoid of thought, for the events described were so absurd and disturbing that one can only feel emptiness:

"Kiowa and Mitchell Sanders picked up the baby buffalo...and dumped it in the village well...Sanders took out his yo-yo...'over here, man, every sin's real fresh and original (76).'"

There is no moral at the end of the story or moment of power; each person accepts the events as they happened.

This passage is important to discuss, because despite being brutal, according to O'Brien,  the story is a true. It leaves the reader empty, with nothing to gain besides the horror, emptiness, and unfulfilled dreams. The story brilliantly portrays the pain of war, the struggle of soldiers, and the degrading qualities of war.

O'Brien argues that a true story can be identified by its "absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil (66)." He later writes, "if you don't care for obscenity, you don't care for the truth; if you don't care for the truth, watch how you vote (66)." The point, O'Brien argues, of having brutality in stories is to make it real, to "make the stomach believe (74)." Brutal stories allow us to truly question motives, question, in this case, how war robs soldiers of innocence. Painful stories makes us uncomfortable, embarrassed, but for the purpose of learning. If one does not discuss stories, or experiences or ideas, then stereotypes, villainy, and ignorance will endure because nothing is being done to question the principles of society.