The Power of Exaggeration

     Tim Obrien makes it very clear that most war stories are not completely true. The real events that happen in war can be so shocking and traumatic that most people are unable to truthfully recall what happened. It is not important what physically occurred, but it is important how the event made these men feel. Tim Obrien is able to amplify those feelings by exaggerating in his all of stories to make the reader understand the emotions that the soldiers felt during these war stories. In the short story "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong," Rat Kiley uses immense exaggeration. A young woman probably did not fly into Vietnam and did not actually go out on ambushes, but the story makes a valuable point. The point being, the Vietnam War changed the soldiers and made them unrecognizable to themselves. Everyone is affected by the war, despite one's gender, age, etc...
    Exaggeration is present in almost every single short story, although it is hard to decipher where the exaggeration begins and when it ends. One thing is certain, the emotions are real and honest in every short story, which is so valuable to the reader's development of a closer understanding of the war.

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