Dear Mr. Optimist

It's quarter to 4 in the morn and I need to study and do work but you have a swell day, Mr. I have not slept since Friday, but hey let's celebrate. It's your day, Man. Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday and if it's not your birthday Merry Unbirthday, Mr. Optimist.

Unassigned Short Story Comparison (lonely)

Townsfolk in Salem during the 1690s would lie that women in their neighborhoods were witches; these cases caused an influx of paranoia and soon after, the execution of accused women. Unable to rest until all ‘witches’ were found, the people continued trials for awhile, each time finding  a short-lasting solace after each death until they found another victim to prey on. Much like the townsfolk, Hemingway's’ “Soldier’s Home” and O'Brien's “How to Tell a True War Story”  mutually fabricate the truth and use the fabric of their lies to knit themselves a temporary security blankets.

In this case, perspective played a part to make a difference in how the characters were each recognized. People can never really fully understand something until they've been in that person’s shoes; some people sugar-coat tragic situations while others make a finger prick seem like a deep, life-threatening wound. Which one would a person typically pay more attention to? Taking into consideration the vast amount of trauma soldiers experience, attention to the ‘wound’ is a given. By this I mean that some soldiers experiences could not be made to seem interesting and ‘fun’ unless they were turned into something a bit more viable and offered a comfortable nesting place. “All of the times that had been able to make him feel cool and clear inside himself when he thought of them,” refers to Krebs lying about the war and “If at the end of a ar you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from a larger waste then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie.” For this, it seemed to make sense that they were traumatized and felt the need to do lie in order to make themselves heard.

As humans, we need some form of escapism to  get rid of the angst of life. For many, communication is a means of venting when people, whether it be verbal or interpretive dance, people like to know that they hold someone’s attention. “By the time Krebs returned to his hometown in Oklahoma the greeting of heroes was over,” from Soldier’s Home shows that he couldn't quite hold the attention of his peers since it would be dejavu to them, “Later he felt like talking but no one wanted to hear about it,” suggests his need for attention, much like Rat who was frustrated with not being heard in How To Tell A True War Story as he says, “The dumb cooze did not write back,” which showed how frustrated he was with his friend’s sister not writing back to his heartfelt letter. So, Rat and Kebs both felt frustrated when their voices became lost amongst the crowd.

According to these stories, these soldiers were so distraught that they couldn’t even fathom loving anyone, as we can see from the lines, “He did not want consequences ever again. besides he didn’t need a girl” in Hemingway’s story.“You dumb cooze,” was used consistently by Rat; this showed his lack of respect and appreciation for women, often putting their opinion to the side as invaluable. I noticed while re-reading these stories that neither Rat  or Krebs made no mention of hobbies, either; they had lost their love for people and possibly their hobbies, as well. Sex is usually a form of escapism for most people so without love or intercourse they couldn't  find his way out of this unloved scenario. In general, the main characters of Soldier’s Home and “How To Tell A True War Story.” Truly, they couldn’t honestly love someone even if there was attraction, so I feel that they lied to themselves about love in order to protect themselves from being hurt as Keb’s quote earlier in this paragraph showed.

In another instance, the characters were unsure of how to communicate their problems in a way that would make people seem interested. For this, they brought out their security blankets once more and tried to lie in order to make their stories more plausible. With this I would like to end my statement by saying, much like the townsfolk, Hemingway’ “Soldier’s Home” and O’ Brien’s “How to Tell a True War Story”  both fabricate the truth in an attempt to create a comfortable atmosphere for themselves, which failed, as they tried to define truth while inserting “white lies.”