This whole discussion about truth versus fiction has really got me thinking. How much of it really matters. Initially many people would say that it matters a whole lot. Fiction is fake and non-fiction is the truth, they are polar opposite ideas so obviously the distinction is far beyond important. Many people will argue that fiction is an escape from reality whereas non-fiction is more dull and to the point.

However, this is not always the case. Now I’m sure you are probably asking how that could even be remotely possible. For instance The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is a collection of short war stories. O’Brien takes you through the war of Vietnam and tells the brutal details of war.  At about halfway through the book, I found out that so many of the details in the book were made up. At first I was mad. I thought, why would he fill our minds with such false memories that he never truly had. But as I continued to contemplate this, I realized that it does not matter if the facts are one hundred percent true. This is because sometimes you need to add the details to make the reader feel what the author was feeling at that time. During the war I’m sure that O’Brien repressed so many of the tragic events. While he images were forgotten, the emotions lingered and in order to evoke these same emotions from the reader O’Brien had to create false scenarios.

So in the end does it really matter if the facts were not entirely true? Does it matter as long as you still understand he point that O’Brien was trying to make? Does it matter at all? I don’t know. I suppose the answer is subjective to each person. So, does it matter to you?