Stories and Their Impact - Essay Example

Alex responded that stories give context to events. Alex wrote a book about a forest fire in Montana in which many firefighters died. The story of Lavender dying and the Lt. blaming himself reminds of this story, also in “The Things They Carried”. The Lt. carried the guilt and blame because he placed his daydream as an important factor in the story. Pete suggested stories help dampen loneliness. He wrote of “interviewing” Mt. Hood. In paragraph 5 of page 3, Pete quotes “Leaves of Grass” by Walt Whitman to explain his sense of stories.

Like the Mumford Sons music, poetry and other art forms of storytelling give the company and relieve isolation through the understanding of the common experience. Pete’s retelling about the mountain reminded me of “On a Rainy River”. This story of a physical barrier to freedom, the river between Canada and the U.S. explained O’Brien’s reluctance to turn his back on his own history, his own stories. And, since as Pete reminds, stories are for eternity, when memory is gone.

O’Brien did not want to have his story end in shameful cowardice, as he suggested draft-dodging would be. O’Brien’s hometown people would not understand such an act. Stories shamed him into staying in the U.S. and being drafted. Stories, whether in the form of music, poetry, art or essay, express the mutual experience from an emotional level and put context in our lives. As Pete suggests, just have fun with them.