The Beauty of War

Tim O’Brien instructs the reader on how to tell a true war story while simultaneously telling a true war story that he experienced in Vietnam. O’Brien argues that there is no place for generalizations, or indulging in abstraction or analysis in true war stories. Perhaps it is too difficult for those who have taken part in a war to provide a lot of analysis, this could be left for an historian. Telling a true war story first-hand gives it a raw quality. O’Brien says, “a true war story is never about war” it is about the more personal, specific details of events and emotions. He discusses a side to war that the reader may be unfamiliar with, “it’s not pretty, exactly. It’s astonishing. It fills the eye. It commands you. You hate it, yes, but your eyes do not… a powerful, implacable beauty.” The colors of the rocket’s glare and napalm are almost seen as beautiful in O’Brien’s eyes, however this idea is juxtaposed with the grotesque description of O’Brien and Jensen peeling the body parts of their dead friend off a tree and Rat Kiley torturing a water buffalo. Although both of these images are vile and horrifying they are also depicted as being partially positive. On the buffalo torture, O’Brien says, “we had witnessed something essential, something brand-new and profound” and after retrieving the body parts of Curt Lemon, O’Brien says that “what wakes (him) up twenty years later is Dave Jensen singing “Lemon Tree” as we threw down the parts.” This creates a powerful and arguably beautiful image, with Jensen paying tribute to his friend in what must have been a horrific and surreal situation.

As a veteran, O’Brien is able to give the reader a true sense of how it can feel to be in a war. He says that “a true war story is never about war” and that his story is about love. The love that he describes can be noted in Rat Kiley’s letter to Lemon’s sister. Love between friends who have gone through the same ordeal, together.