Accurate Representations

     How do we portray history? It is a question that really has no right answer, and many people will not give same response. A soldier who fought in Vietnam might have a different answer compared a historian who has never fought in battle. An important aspect of our history is the deaths of soldiers who fought for our nations freedom. Is it more accurate to signify these soldier’s deaths in a nonlinear narrative or a linear cenotaph? A nonlinear narrative is typically a story told by a soldier and a linear cenotaph is structure that gives exact names and events to a war. A nonlinear narrative is a true representation of American soldiers’ history because the human minds are not made to remember events in the past in linear fashion. Using a nonlinear narrative connects with more people and paints a picture for them so they can connect it to their personal lives. A soldier’s memory, and even his wife’s memory on the Homefront, does not contain the events of the war in chronological order. They remember what is most important to them and the events that make them who they are today. O’Brien writes, “When Ted Lavender was shot, they used his poncho to wrap him up, then carry him across the patty” (O’Brien 3).  He interrupts his descriptions of the soldiers and flashes to this scene because this memory of Ted Lavender appears in his head. He cannot help what occurs in his memory and when it happens. If we remember historical events in a linear manner then we have no emotional connection to them; they are arranged in a timeline in our head, that never stops to see the beauties and tragedies of a war. Although some may perceive this way of remembering history to be just a story and not represent the accuracy of the war, it is true to say nobody knows the “truths” of war. What might be true for one soldier can be false for another. The point is that many people exaggerate or underestimate the events of war. Although we try, there is no way to perfectly portray our nations bloody history, even if we record every date on a piece of paper.

                                                                 

   VS