Stories

I love writing. Okay- maybe not required writing (like this right here, im not so enthused about it, sorry). But in general, writing for me is an outlet. It's a way to get things off my mind and off my chest. It helps me breathe a little lighter. I believe that O'Brien feels almost the exact opposite. on pg 172 he says "What Stories can do, I guess, is make things present. I can look at things I never looked at. I can attach faces to grief and love and pity and God. I can be brave. I can make myself feel again." What i gather from this is that O'Brien writes to relive the past. Unlike myself, O'Brien writes to revisit all the feelings. I find that kind of odd though because his stories are about the war- and for me atleast, I think it would be hard to revisit some of the memories he has captured in this story. O'Brien even sates on pg 171 "I want you to feel what I felt." Which makes me wonder if he writes these stories for himself or for his readers.. but really i think its a combination of both.