English - TTTC Final Project (Big Fish)

Katie Weiskotten 6/1/10
English - TTTC Final Project - Big Fish Mod 5

In both The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien and the movie Big Fish, the main focus is storytelling. As we learn in both, there are many ways to tell a story. Both the novel and movie are focused on the sharing of experiences with others. Both of the main characters, Tim O'Brien and Edward Bloom, told stories that they exaggerated for effect. Their reasoning was so they could keep the person listening hooked. Exaggerating the details and stretching the truth always seemed to make for a more interesting plot. All of the stories these characters told made the listener question what parts of them were the actual truth. With the passing on of experiences and stories from one person to another, the truth often became blurred. Edward Bloom's son William Bloom said, "Everything my father tells is a complete fabrication." Edward's stories have become part of his being and he finds it hard, even for himself, to distinguish between what is real and fake. Both this movie and novel evaluate what stories truly are, and if the generally accepted "truth" in them is actually what it seems to be, and display how big the role of storytelling and the truth that exists in stories are.

Storytelling in both the novel and movie played a key role in the main characters’ lives. The Things They Carried consisted of stories that the author, Tim O’Brien, wrote about his time in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. In Big Fish, Edward Bloom told people all around him the stories of his life from his adventures all over the world. All of the stories that these two people told were, in a way, part of them. They carried them around and protected them like they were their favorite possession. Both of the stories and characters have a lot in common, and are two very comparable pieces of work. Both characters told their stories with exaggerations and fabricated details to make it more interesting. O’Brien says in his novel that in true war stories, it is “difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen.” He explains that when someone is listening to a true war story, they must know that what happened probably didn’t happen exactly as it was being told, or even at all, but they have to make themselves believe it anyway to get the full effect. The same with Bloom’s life stories in Big Fish, he told stories that had variations of the truth in them. For example, he exaggerated the size of the fish throughout the story, making it seem hard to believe, but the people listening to him wanted to believe him and go along with the story. The main point in holding onto these stories, for both O’Brien and Bloom, was to keep the memories of important times in their lives with them. These memories gave them comfort, even if some of the stories weren’t the most optimistic or uplifting. They kept them for themselves, to reminisce upon. But O’Brien and Bloom wanted to share their stories with others, too. Like O’Brien said about all soldiers and veterans, they just need to talk to someone. They just want to share their stories, and have others feel some of what they felt during that time in their life, during the war. Everything Edward said to the people in his life seemed to be at least somewhat made up, but he believed everything he himself said. He wanted desperately for other people to believe him, too. There are many ways of telling stories, as we learned in both the novel and movie, and they all have a different way of impacting the person listening. O'Brien and Bloom's stories were what made them who they were.

In both the novel and the movie, the characters were part of a larger story, and they told smaller stories involved in the big picture. The stories told by both O'Brien and Bloom all had a hint of fantasy and fairytale to them. In The Things They Carried, details were added to the story to make it more appealing to the person listening. When O'Brien was retelling the story of Mary Anne and her time in Vietnam, for example, he would say things about her that weren't necessarily true. He made up some of the parts that told of the Greenies and where they lived, and how Mary Anne joined them and became essentially "evil". Bloom also added details to all of his stories to make them better. He told true stories, but they were branches off of the truth. He made the fish seem bigger than it really was, he made the two Japanese singers conjoined twins when they were really not, and he added the idea that in the town of Spectre, no one wore shoes because it was so perfect, and no one ever wanted to leave. Both of these men needed to tell someone their stories to make them more believable to others and ultimately, themselves. When O'Brien told his war stories, people always listened and believed him. Edward Bloom would tell his stories too, but his son William wouldn't have any of it. William said that he had listened to his father's stories for far too long. He told his father, "You believed your stories so much longer than you should have," and that he "didn't know who his father was anymore." William had had enough of his father's "lies" and "elaborate mythologies," and didn't want to listen to fake stories involving fake people and places anymore. He just wanted to know his real father, he wanted to know the "truth". But, for Edward, the definition of truth was hard to explain. O'Brien, in The Things They Carried also dealt with his daughter not really caring about the things that happened to him, either. She didn't understand what he was telling her, and didn't believe it to be "real". Therefore, she had no interest in listening to what he had to say about the war. Both characters had to have faith in their own experiences, and know that, even if some of the things they told were made-up, and people didn't believe them, they believed in themselves that everything they said was the truth; their truth.

Both storytelling and the "truth" of the stories being told played a key role in the development of the movie and novel. Exaggerations and added details enhanced the stories being passed on from one person to another, making them better. Even if these ideas were not "real" nor the "truth," they added emotion and feeling to each story. What was important to both O'Brien and Bloom, they incorporated into their stories. Whatever they felt was real and factual they put into the stories, because it actually happened to them, accompanied by emotions. Whatever they decided to tell people was fine and can be classified as "truth" because it was good enough for each of them. It was their own truth.