How to Tell a True War Story

How to Tell a True War Story Summary | Detailed Summary

The author begins the essay, How to Tell a True War Story, by telling the reader there is no moral in a true war story. The moral is so imbedded within the story that it cannot be isolated. If a person thinks he has found the moral he soon will find that he has only uncovered another aspect of the story. If the war story is true there is no sufficient rebuttal. A war story does not generalize wars, rather it tells a specific story.

For example the common generalization, "war is hell," while a true statement, is not a true war story because it does not excite any emotion. A true war story is known instinctually because it makes a person feel something.

The author introduces a true war story that he has actually experienced. His group is walking toward the mountains. He looks over at his friends Curt Lemon and Rat Kiley. The two best friends are playing catch. Suddenly Curt Lemon steps on a booby trap and dies. Sometime later the group is confronted by a baby water buffalo. The baby water buffalo is completely out of place. It is quite simply in the middle of nowhere. The group catches the animal and brings it to the place where they set up camp.

Later that night Rat walks over to the baby buffalo. He pets the animal and offers it a can of pork and beans. The buffalo refuses the food. Rat stands up and shoots the animal in its right knee. The baby buffalo falls down and quickly gets back up, all without making a sound. Rat keeps shooting the buffalo in its flank, hindquarters, ears, mouth, back, tail, and ribs. Rat is not shooting the animal to kill it, rather to hurt it. Rat shoots the buffalo so many times that he has to reload his gun. After doing so he shoots it in the left front knee. The buffalo falls again but this time it cannot get up. Rat takes a couple more shots. The animal still does not make any noise and only its eyes are moving.

The group notices that Rat is now crying and he walks away with his rifle. After Rat has left the other men go to the buffalo. The animal is still alive. The men are amazed by the event they have just witnessed. Two of the men pick up the buffalo and throw it down the village well.

The author flashes back to present time. He argues that the generalization that "war is hell," is true but that it does not fully explain all that war is. War is a collection of contradictions. "...war is mystery and terror and adventure and pity and despair and longing and love. War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery. War makes you a man; war makes you dead." Even though war is certainly grotesque it is also beautiful, the way the troops move, the color of discharged ammunition, and the landscape.

Everything about war is a contradiction and the line between opposites is often blurred. Those in war do not even know what is happening therefore parts of a true war story are not even true. Most of the time a true war story does not have a point rather it is just a story about war. Sometimes a person awakes from a dream thinking the point has been understood, but he and quickly forgets it.

The author wakes up remembering the day Curt Lemon was blown up by the booby trap. He and Dave Jensen had the gruesome task of climbing trees to retrieve Lemon's body parts. Dave Jensen sang the song "Lemon Tree." The author wakes up twenty years later thinking of Dave Jensen singing. A true war story is identifiable if its truth matters. The story may indeed be fiction but it holds the truth of war. Therefore it is a true war story.

The author explains that people usually like his story about Rat Kiley and the baby buffalo. However the audience never understands that the story is really a love story, not a war story. The same war story can be told over and over again by adding or subtracting various details. All of these details can in fact be made up and it would still be a true war story if it conveyed the truth about the actual war, rather the feelings, emotions, and events that come out of it.