The Power of Storytelling
As said by Harold Goddard, “The destiny of the world is determined less by the battles that are lost and won than by the stories it loves and believes in.” In other words, the winning or losing of battles and wars is far less significant than the devoted and trusted memories that are passed down. This clever quote can be easily illustrated in Tim O’Brien’s, The Things They Carried, and Elie Wiesel’s Night. Both of these novels involve exhilarating memories of young men during times of hardship and battle. The purpose of the two is not to depict historical loss or gain, but furthermore to enhance reader’s minds with stories of experience, adversity and personal quests.
It is clear that in the novel Night by Elie Wiesel, young Eliezer’s story is not one in a million. Thousands of children were separated from their parents and thrown into concentration camps, stripped of not only their clothes and possessions, but their general human rights. Thousands of children, men, and women experienced the same exact tormenting hardships, yet, Elie’s seems so unique and exceptionally meaningful. The story, the memories, and every single sensation came directly from the eyes of Elie Wiesel, who then transformed these experiences in to a powerful story. This novel is not simply a Holocaust novel. It is not an informative tale about the suffering of thousands of innocent people. This is the direct memory of a young boy’s journey from him home in Sighet, to a Ghetto, to Birkenau, and finally back home. The influence and significance of Elie Wiesel’s voice in the telling of his story holds much more power than hearing the story of the battle alone.
The notion that story embodies such significance is also evident in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried. Similar to Elie’s story, Tim and all of the other soldiers who fought in the Vietnam War are much more than statistics in history. Their battles have still waged on, even though the war has long been ended. Hearing of all the things these courageous soldiers carried takes the story to a whole other level of emotion and purpose. One may not believe all of the extreme stories that were told in the novel, but it is hard to not take them for what they are worth. We already know that soldiers have it rough, but what we do not know is that certain soldiers, like Kiowa, died in a field filled with waste. Or, other soldiers like, Curt Lemon and Rat Kiley, who liked goofing off as a means of taking their mind off battle and Curt died during their game of “toss the grenade”. Hearing the stories of these soldiers, what they did on a daily basis, how they survived both mentally and physically is enormously noteworthy and truly has the power to alter one’s state of mind.
Both novels share several common characteristics. Wiesel and O’Brien have a way of turning an ordinary war story into something so unique and breathtaking that it truly shocks the reader. What is the Vietnam War for some people, O’Brien turns into a personal anecdote of anxiety, fear, and admiration. When he talks about the Rat Kiley torturing and finally killing a baby water buffalo, we are taken to a whole different level, out of the ordinary war story. It is apparent that this war is more than merely winning or losing, and all of Rat Kiley’s feelings of guilt and relentlessness come forth during this scene. Or when Elie, like many prisoners in concentration camps, was tripping over dead bodies of men, women and children on a death march in the freezing cold snow. What is the Holocaust for some people, Wiesel turns into a delicate and in-depth sketch of faith, horror, and trepidation.
The function of story, in many cases, is not to merely present facts. It is to bring the reader or listen into the actual tale, to see what that person saw, hear what that person heard, and feel what that person felt. In Elie Wiesel’s Night and Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, the power of their stories far overreaches the bottom line of the actual battle. Their detailed account of memories, whether they seem true or unbelievable, is what truly strikes the reader. The memories that these brave characters share with us is what truly catches people, what sticks out the next time they decide to tell a story about a war.
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