Happening Truth

I believe Davidson & Lytle would look at Tim O’Brien’s “The Man I Killed,” and recognize that this story is authentic by O’Brien’s telling of his “happening truth.”

In Tim O’Brien’s “The Man I Killed,” he describes killing a Vietnamese man who belongs to the NLF. The descriptions are very detailed each time he tells of this man’s death. I can feel his pain not only because of his repeated depictions which focuses on different aspects of the death nor because his platoon buddy, Kiowa who keeps encouraging him to let the event go, but because of need to create his “story truth” that speaks very clearly to his agony.

The two dominate myths (the western and the WWII combat epic) of the American cinema are not portrayed in the story. In this story, O’Brien feels grief for killing his man. He does not believe that “Americans have come to Vietnam to protect innocents and promote democracy…” If he felt that way, he would not need to think about this man’s life and how miserable he looked in death (Davidson & Lytle 409).

Each time he describes the man the reality is balance with a “what if.” He imagines this man may not want to fight but felt the pressure from his family and hamlet to participate in fight these invaders. He imagines that he might have gone to a university to study Mathematics. The ring on this man’s hand and picture in his personal belongs makes O’Brien think he may have been married.

O’Brien makes it clear to the reader, which part of his story is real and which is imagined; both make this authentic.