Question 1: How do these stories complicate our traditional (and sometimes romantic) ideas regarding war?
Answer The stories complicate our traditional ideas regarding war as traditionally we have the notion of men go to war due to their bravery, Patriotism, Love of family and so as to keep family safe but from the stories the motivating factor is fear of shame which is least of what we expect as a motivating factor to go to war.
Quote: On The Rainy Day story Obrien's joins the war against his will due to the fear of what his family or community will think of him if he doesn't "It was a kind of schizophrenia. A moral split. I couldn't make up my mind. I feared the war, yes, but I also feared exile. I was afraid of walking away from my own Life, my friends and my family, my whole history, everything chat mattered to me. I feared to lose the respect of my parents. I feared the law. I feared ridicule and censure. My hometown was a conservative little spot on the prairie , a place where tradition counted, and it was easy to imagine people sitting around a rabble down at the old Gobbler Cafe on Main Street, coffee cups poised, the conversation slowly zeroing in on the young O'Brien kid, how he damned sissy had taken off for Canada. At night, when I couldn't sleep, I would sometimes carry on sick arguments with those people. I'd be screaming at them, telling them how much I detested their blind, thoughtless, automatic acquiescence to it all, their simple-minded patriotism, their prideful ignorance, their love-it-or-Leave-it platitudes, how they were sending me off to a war they didn't understand and didn't want to understand. I held them responsibly. By God, yes, I did. All of them -"
Question 2: In the second story, what is the narrator talking about in regards to a "true war Story?"
Answer: The narrator is talking about that is Tim O'Brien the events that occur in the battlefield later how these events are later told as stories and depending on the ending of the story, the story might be true or an event that never happened.
Quote: "Among the men, there would be grumbling, of course, and maybe worse, because their days would seem longer and their loads heavier, but Lieutenant Jimmy Cross reminded himself that his obligation was not to be loved but to lead. Question 3:
What does the complication of truth say about human nature?
Answer: Regardless of the generation ones lives in, human beings have been proven to bear innate feelings of love and care for one another, however, war has been found to fasten and disintegrate these feelings in equal measure. For instance, one at times feels deep love for those distant loved ones and at times the feeling of hatred as in the case of Martha and Reverend depending on what one was undergoing through in their life.
Quote: :"He felt shame and hated himself .He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence, Lavender was now dead ,and this was something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of his life."
Question 4: Also, consider the way the second story is structured. The narrator speaks to the Reader directly and reminds us of several occasions that we are reading a story (or series of Stories).What does this do to our suspension of disbelief?
Answer: In his constant reminder, the author is trying to dissuade the reader from bias or the formulation of a negative attitude towards the military service but to rather relay the true picture of what happens on the battlefield for the reader to make his own judgment.
Question 5: What do you think O'Brien is trying to achieve with the story? Does he succeed?