Aphorism

"I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth" (page 179). O' Brien makes this statement about life. It shows a wise observation about "truth." Sometimes what actually happens is not as true as the story told about what happened. By telling the occurrence in story form, the reader is able to feel the emotion that goes with it. Rather than simply stating the facts, O' Brien puts emotion into the story in order to get the reader's sympathy. The story-truth allows the reader to relate to the characters in a way that would not be possible if only the happening-truth had been told. Although the story-truth does not always tell the events that actually occurred, it is more true in the sense that it shows the true feelings of the soldiers in the story. The story-truth shows the part of the war that O' Brien wanted shown. He wanted the war experience to be shown rather than the actual facts and events that occurred.