Understanding The Truth

         Truth vs. fiction, these are normally recognized as two different things, but can they also be one and the same? Or are all the stories and historical documents we trust as being actual fact simply a correlation of truth and fiction? In Tim O'Brien's war story novel The Things They Carried, the stories he wrote were fiction with a true underlying basis, but as one would read the story, it'd feel as if one was connecting with Kiowa, Jimmy Cross, Ted Lavender as if one really knew them. It gives a glimpse into the horror of war. The reader can read about Vietnam and can only imagine that some of the same tragedies are going on over in Iraq and others parts of the Middle East.
       In an interview of O'Brien that we watched in class, he enforced that his story is much half truth. The emotions of the stories are true but the characters and much of the actual story line are false. Although I knew it was a fabrication of the truth, I was a little upset, I felt cheated, as if someone told an emotional heartfelt story, and then ended it saying, "Sorry, it's all made up."
       In reality, anything in life can be a interpretation of someone else's view of an event. The history books we learn from, they're based on historical document, but the men and women that were alive during this time that wrote this down, could have viewed it as their own interpretation therefore making it their own interpretation of the truth.  As O' Brien quotes on the last page of How to Tell a True War Story "It wasn't a war story. It was a love story". (85) This is what O'Brien did, although the characters were not true or the exact details weren't the heartfelt emotions were what was true. Just as O' Brien quoted Pablo Picasso's famous quote "Art is all that makes us realize the truth" perfectly fits O' Brien's story and all the stories of life in general, all the fancy details and added facts helps us understand and dig down to what's real.
     I believe that a fabrication of the truth is needed to make a story seemed appealing, many of the movies and books out have a common title "based on a true story" the underlying meaning is true, but a lot of the shocking events and characters are added in to make the story overall more entertaining and emotionally connecting. As long as the details are made up and the underlying meaning is true, that's all that matters right?