The Role of Truth in The Things They Carried Essays

The Role of Truth in The Things They Carried Essays The Role of Truth in The Things They Carried Paper The Role of Truth in The Things They Carried Paper Essay Topic: Everything Is Illuminated The Things They Carried The Purest Form of Truth: Truths Role in The Things They Carried â€Å"War is hell, but that’s not the half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love. War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery. War makes you a man; war makes you dead† (76). According to Tim O’Brien, all of these generalizations about war are the truth. However, as O’Brien continuously reshapes readers’ concept of truth throughout The Things They Carried, one quickly comes to realize that none of these facts represent truth about war. Readers experience the essence of Vietnam through each of O’Brien and his squadron’s vivid memories: Rat Kiley’s loss of a friend as Curt Lemon stepped into his last ray of sunlight and was blown up into the trees, Norman Bowker resigning to letting Kiowa slip under the mud and out of this life, and the â€Å"dainty young man† with his jaw in his throat and his eye as a star-shaped hole that was O’Brien’s only kill. Though portrayed as true life experiences, these events and even most of these characters are eventually revealed as fabrications of O’Brien’s mind. Does this mean that the stories are not true? As explained in another passage, â€Å"You can tell a true war story by the questions you ask. Somebody tells a story, let’s say, and afterward you ask, ‘Is it true? ’ and if the answer matters, you’ve got your answer† (79). So, does it matter that O’Brien never really killed a man, that Bowker never sacrificed the Silver Star medal, and that Curt Lemon never trick-or-treated through a Vietnamese village during Halloween? After the undeniable impact on readers associated with the human experience, war experience, and essence of individuals captured within these stories, the answer to that question proves to be a resounding â€Å"no. One of the main reasons for differentiating between â€Å"story-truth† – which may not be true in real life but gives a genuine glimpse of the Vietnam experience – and â€Å"happening truth† – what really occurred – is that â€Å"happening truth† lends itself easily to glorification of war. For example, the story of a man winning a medal for outstanding bravery in saving his friend, or O’Brien’s example of a man sacrificing himself to save his group from a landmine, both convey a sense of pride, honor, and valor associated with having gone to war and even having died in Vietnam. Having been told these stories, learning that they were false would come as a shock because stories like these seem to reassure society that although hundreds of young men lost their valuable lives or came back as changed men, it was all worth some sort of grand distinction in the end. On the other hand, O’Brien’s stories, possessing â€Å"story-truth,† retain their significance whether they have â€Å"happening-truth† or not. As O’Brien puts it, â€Å"A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie†¦You can tell a true war story by its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil† (65). This quote presents a case of inherent irony in which the fabricated stories – complete with the gore of torturing a baby water buffalo after a friend’s death, the guilt of having a man die under your watch, the terror of looking a man you just killed in the face, and the disappointment of returning home only to find you’ll never fit back in – convey much more truth than most conventionally â€Å"true† war stories, which sweep the utter brutality of war under the rug. Thus, only through O’Brien’s â€Å"story-truth† do we see that these young men did not arrive in Vietnam for honorable reasons. These men went to war for fear of shaming their friends and families, these men gave their lives for a battle that did not enhance their life experiences, and even failed to result in progress for our nation, and those men that escaped with their lives were faced with the burden of death each and every day in that they could never escape the memories, could never truly communicate the horror they went through, and could never completely transition back into normal life. Though O’Brien did not truly kill a man or witness some of these events, the stories leave no doubt in readers’ minds that similar occurrences did happen in war and that the emotions conveyed by the stories truthfully capture how they made the men feel – which was anything but gratified and honored. Therefore, the lessons one can take away from these stories makes â€Å"story-truth† much more valuable than most cases of â€Å"happening-truth† about the Vietnam War. While O’Brien’s stories leave readers with the knowledge of how human emotions are impacted in a setting none of us are able to imagine, they also serve another purpose that also ceases to rely on truth: capturing the essence of a specific individual. We see this first in the case of Curt Lemon, whose personality is perpetuated throughout the novel by the stories of his best friend in Vietnam. O’Brian states that â€Å"To listen to the story, especially as Rat Kiley told it, you’d never know that Curt Lemon was dead. He was still out there in the dark, naked and painted up, trick-or-treating, sliding from hootch to hootch in that crazy white ghost mask. But he was dead† (227). Although this story about Lemon is highly exaggerated, and the question remains whether it is even true at all, readers can trust that what it reveals about Lemon’s character – his spontaneity and daring behavior – are in fact accurate, so it comes as no offence when it is revealed that Kiley regularly embellished the tale. â€Å"Story-truth† gains its final point of relevance when O’Brien describes how he uses stories to preserve his childhood love, Linda. Linda’s character compares being dead to being like a library book, safe on the very top shelf where no one has checked it out for a long, long time. Like Curt Lemon, Kiowa, Ted Lavender, and even the man Tim killed, Linda and all the memories surrounding her would tend to disappear with time if she were not illuminated by O’Brien’s novel. O’Brien remarks that now when he incorporates Linda’s essence into his stories, â€Å"She’s not the embodied Linda; she’s mostly made up, with a new identity and a new name, like the man who never was. Her real name doesn’t matter† (232). Whether â€Å"happening-true† or just â€Å"story-true,† Linda’s presence solidifies the idea that even if the characters in The Things They Carried have fake names, false actions, or entirely fictitious identities, they each bring forth a unique set of characteristics that alight on â€Å"truth. † For instance, even if Linda were not real, the way she made Tim (and readers) realize the purest form of love cannot be denied, and even if the man Tim killed had no story besides the one Tim developed, the way he represents men who never wished to fight, whose opportunities are cut off in early life, will live on forever. In this, the feigned truth of â€Å"story-truth† creates legends; it sheds light on interpersonal relationships and validates the lives of those who no longer have the ability to do so for themselves. As one progresses through The Things They Carried, it becomes more and more evident just how masterfully O’Brien has blurred the lines between truth and reality. Readers begin the book assuming it contains stories of fiction. It is not until the third chapter that one finds the narrator is a writer plagued by memories of war, and assume the stories to take on an element of truth. Soon after, one sees that O’Brien the narrator and O’Brien the author are two very different personas, and finally, towards the end of the novel, O’Brien reveals that, â€Å"†¦a long time ago I walked through Quang Ngai province as a foot soldier. Almost everything else is invented† (171). Seemingly, traveling through such ups and downs of truth and falsity would be recognized as a sort of betrayal to readers. Yet, O’Brien’s framework of war stories, within the story of the Vietnam War, within the larger story of O’Brien’s actual life serves to undermine any disappointment concerning the authenticity of events. Readers quickly learn that the statement â€Å"This is true† has double meanings, and truth itself is redefined as any incidence lending sincere insight into war and how it affects people, whether it occurred, did not occur, or very well might have occurred. Overall, when it comes to opening society’s eyes to a situation capable of bringing out the most evil, the most desperation, and the most appreciation for life simultaneously, one realizes O’Brien’s novel to be absolutely and undeniably â€Å"true. † OBrien, Tim. The Things They Carried. Boston, MA: Houghton Miflin, 1990. Print.

Texas Holdem Rules Everything You Need to Win

Texas Holdem Rules Everything You Need to Win SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Imagine this scenario: your friends invited you to a poker night. There's going to be food, booze, and poker. You want to join in on the fun, but you have no idea how to play poker. Well don't worry about missing out on beer and bonding: I'm going to teach you how to play Texas Holdem, so you too can partake in the poker festivities. Texas Holdem (aka Texas Hold 'Em) is the poker game played most often at casinos and home poker games. Becoming a great Holdem player generally takes years of practice and studying, but learning how to play doesn’t take long at all. In this article, I’ll walk you through the Texas Holdem rules. After studying this article, you’ll be able to play online, at a casino, or with your friends. Hooray! Remember, just knowing the rules won’t make you an outstanding player, but you’ll be able to play, and you can get better through practice. How to Win Texas Holdem The goal in poker is to win as many poker chips as you can, one hand at a time. Typically, different chips will represent different denominations of money. You can win chips by having the best 5-card hand or remaining in a hand and having all the other players fold, meaning they give up instead of risking additional chips. The 10 Possible Poker Hands In Holdem, each player is dealt 2 cards (â€Å"hole cards†). Then, up to 5 community cards will be flipped in the center of the table. I’ll thoroughly explain the concept of community cards later, but Texas Holdem rules dictate that your best 5-card hand out of the 7 total cards is your final hand. These are how all the different poker hands rank. The Royal Flush is the best hand and the worst is â€Å"high card.† #1: Royal Flush: A, K, Q, J, 10 all the same suit (all clubs, all diamonds, all spades, or all hearts) #2: Straight Flush: Five cards in a sequence (example: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9), all the same suit #3: Four of a Kind: Four cards of the same rank (example: four kings or four 8’s) #4: Full House: Three of a kind and a pair (example: three jacks and two 7’s) #5: Flush: Five cards of the same suit (example: five clubs or five hearts) #6: Straight: Five cards in a sequence but not of the same suit (example: 7, 8, 9, 10, J) #7: Three of a Kind/A Set: Three cards of the same rank (example: three 5’s or three kings) #8: Two Pair: Two different pairs (example: two 6’s and two 9’s) #9: Pair: Two cards of the same rank (example: two queens or two 10’s) #10: High Card: If you haven’t made any of the above hands, then your highest card determines the strength of your hand. (Example: if your highest card is an Ace, you have Ace high, and you would beat another hand in which the highest card was a King and none of the other hands were made.) If multiple players have hands that are ranked the same, the best hand is determined by the highest card within the hand. For example, if each player has a pair, then the highest pair wins. If somebody has a pair of 7’s and somebody has a pair of 5’s, the player with the pair of 7’s has a better hand. If two players have a pair of 7’s, then the player with the highest other card wins. If you're comparing two straights or flushes, then the player with the highest card within the straight or flush has the better hand. If you're comparing two full houses, the player with the highest card in the three of a kind has the better hand. In most hands of Holdem, the winning player will only have a pair, but if you play long enough, you'll see every type of hand. A straight! Texas Holdem Setup Holdem can be played with 2-10 players at a single table. Players sit around the table. Before beginning playing, each player purchases his chips. In a home game or tournament, everyone typically starts with the same number of chips. Usually, each player will put in the same amount of money and get the same number of chips. For example, everyone may put in $40 and get $2,000 in chips. At a home game, you can decide if the winner (person who ends up with all the chips or the most chips) takes all, or if you’ll end up dividing the money among the top 2-3 finishers. Each tournament has its own guidelines. At a regular casino game, the number of chips you get is based on your buy-in (the amount of money you give the dealer to receive your chips). If you spend more than the minimum buy-in, you’ll get more chips. If you buy in with $100, you’ll get $100 worth of chips. If you buy in with $200, you’ll get $200 worth of chips. At most casinos, there will be a minimum and maximum buy-in. Generally, the minimum buy-in will be 50 or 100 times the minimum bet. The Dealer Button At a home game, the dealer button is placed in front of the person who will play the role of the dealer for that hand and bet last after the initial round of betting. After each hand, the dealer button moves to the left. At a casino, there will be a casino employee who will deal each hand, and the dealer button is solely used to determine who will bet last. Again, after each hand, the dealer button moves to the left. Here’s what the dealer button looks like: John Wardell/Flickr If you’re playing a home game and don’t have an official dealer button, you can use any object to function as the dealer button. Just make sure not to use one of the same color chips that you’re using to place bets, so you don’t confuse the dealer button with a bet. The Blinds Blinds are the initial bets at the table. At the beginning of each hand, two players will post bets before any cards are dealt. These bets are referred to as the small blind and the big blind. The player to the left of the dealer button posts the small blind and the player to the left of the small blind posts the big blind. To post your blind, just place your blind in front of you on the table. The big blind is the minimum bet after cards are dealt, and the small blind is half of that. In casinos, at the tables with the lowest minimums, small blinds are usually $1 and big blinds are $2. These games are referred to as â€Å"$1-$2 holdem.† Most casinos will also offer â€Å"2-4 holdem† and â€Å"3-6 holdem.† The first number is the small blind and the second is the big blind. The purpose of the blinds is to stimulate betting. The blinds guarantee that there will be chips to win in each hand. Also, extremely conservative players are forced to make bets and can't just play for hours without risking any chips. Betting Rounds Texas Holdem involves four different rounds of betting. In each round, you normally have 3 options: you can fold, raise, or call. If you raise, you increase the bet by at least the big blind. In no limit poker, the most common type for casinos and home games, you can bet up to all of your chips. If you bet all of your chips, that’s called going all-in. In limit poker, you can only raise by a predetermined maximum amount (normally twice the big blind), and there’s only a certain number of raises allowed per betting round (usually 4-5 bets per round). If you fold, you’re giving up your hand instead of betting additional chips. When you fold, you put your cards face down in the center of the table. Never show your cards to anybody else, even when you fold. If you call, you’re matching the last bet. If somebody bets $2 and the next person raises to $8, you have to bet $8 to call. Additionally, if nobody has bet in a round, you can â€Å"check.† If you check (just say â€Å"check† or knock on the table), you’re keeping your hand and going to the next person without placing a bet. Typically, people check if they have a weak hand or they want the other players to think they have a weak hand (they’re trying to get other players to bet). You can also check if you’re the big blind and nobody has raised the big blind by the time betting action reaches you. Betting Round 1: The Pre-Flop The pre-flop betting round happens after each player receives his 2 cards and before any community cards are turned. Cards are dealt to the left (clockwise), one at a time, starting with the small blind. Betting action starts to the left of the big blind. That player has the option of calling the big blind, raising, or folding. After each person has had a turn and all remaining players have bet the same amount, the betting round is over. If somebody raises, the next person has to call the raise, raise again, or fold. If nobody raises the big blind, the big blind, who is the last person to act, can check and the betting round will be completed. But the big blind still has the option to raise. If he raises, then the remaining players will have to call, raise again, or fold. Players bet by placing their chips in front of them. At the end of the round, all the chips that have been bet go into the center of table and are referred to as â€Å"the pot.† At any point during any of the betting rounds, if all players fold, then the last remaining player wins the pot and the hand is completed. You start a new hand instead of continuing with one player. Betting Round 2: The Flop Three community cards are flipped. Every time community cards are flipped, the dealer should use a â€Å"burn card.† The burn card is the very top card on the deck. The burn card will be placed face down, and then the next three cards will be placed face up in the center of the table and will be the flop. The flop is the first three community cards. After the flop is dealt, there’s another betting round. Action will start with the first remaining player to the left of the dealer button. The same betting rules apply: players can bet, fold, or call. If nobody has placed a bet, a player can check. Again, once each player has had a turn and everyone has bet the same amount, the betting round is completed. If you have the final 7, this is a very lucky flop! (auddess/Flickr) Betting Round 3: The Turn The dealer burns a card and then flips the top card next to the flop. The turn is the fourth community card. Then, there’s another round of betting. All the same betting rules apply. Again, action starts with the first remaining player to the left of the dealer button. Betting Round 4: The River After burning a card, the dealer flips the top card next to the turn. The river is the last of the five community cards. Then, there’s one final betting round. All the same rules from the previous betting rounds are used. If there’s more than one hand remaining at the end of the round, there’s a showdown. The Showdown In a showdown, the remaining players show their hole cards, and the best hand wins the pot. The best hand is determined by comparing each player’s best 5-card hand from their 2 hole cards and the 5 community cards. If their hands are ranked the same, the player with the highest card within the hand wins. If the players have identical 5-card hands, then the players will split the pot. Also, if you don’t want to show your cards, you can â€Å"muck† your cards (place them face down in the center of the table) and automatically lose. You can do this if another player shows a better hand and you don’t want the other players to know how bad or good your hand was. In the showdown, you put all your cards on the table. Literally. (Big Daddy Brent/Flickr) How to Play Texas Holdem: Summary In Holdem, every player gets two cards, called â€Å"hole cards,† and the rest of the cards are â€Å"community cards,† which means they’re used by each player to produce the best possible five card hand. After the blinds are posted, each player is dealt two cards face down. Cards are dealt one at a time, clockwise, starting with the small blind. After everyone looks at their hole cards (never show your cards to anyone else), there’s a round of betting followed by â€Å"the flop.† For the flop, three cards are flipped from the top of the deck in the center of the table. After the flop, there’s another round of betting. Then, there’s â€Å"the turn.† For â€Å"the turn,† one additional card is flipped and placed next to the last card of the flop. Then, there’s another round of betting. Finally, there’s â€Å"the river.† For the river, one last community card is flipped and placed next to the turn. The flop, turn, and river are the five community cards. Players use their hole cards and the community cards to determine their best 5-card hand. After the river, there’s one final round of betting. If there’s more than one player remaining after the final round of betting, players show their hole cards, and the best 5-card hand wins the the pot. If all players fold before the end of the last betting round, the last remaining player wins the pot. Texas Holdem Rules Video Tutorials Here are a few video tutorials so you can see the Texas Holdem rules we just discussed in action. This first video quickly goes through the Holdem rules in under four minutes: This video is slightly longer and provides more explanation of how to play Texas Holdem: Finally, this video takes you through a complete hand of Holdem, discusses some basic strategy, and shows how you can lose with a seemingly great hand: 4 Very Basic Texas Holdem Strategies Now that you've got the basic Texas Holdem rules down, it's time to start thinking about strategy. As you become a better player, you can vary your play and develop an individual style, depending on what works best for you. However, following these strategies as a beginning player will normally give you your best odds of winning or minimizing your losses. Remember that these are just general guidelines for beginners to simplify the game. Play Tight (Especially Pre-Flop) You should only place a bet pre-flop if you have a good starting hand. Generally, good starting hands are pairs, at least one Ace, or two face cards. If you’re in the small blind, if there isn’t a raise, it’s typically in your best interest to call the big blind and see the flop. After the flop, don’t bet or call unless you have at least a pair. One notable exception is if you have at least 4 of the same suit or 4 in a sequence. Then, you have a decent possibility to make a flush or a straight. But if there’s a big bet or raise ahead of you, you may not want to call just to chase a flush or a straight. If it’s a small bet, it’s probably worth it to call. Play Aggressively When You Have a Good Hand This means that if you have a good hand, you should raise or bet. If you have a good hand pre-flop, raise 2-3 times the big blind. If you have a good hand post-flop, raise at least half of the pot. A good hand post-flop is at least top pair, meaning that one of your hole cards pairs with the highest ranked community card. If you have a good hand post-flop, don’t just check or call. You should bet or raise. You can try to get fancy and check raise, meaning that you check, and then after a player bets, you raise his bet. But normally only more advanced players use this move. If You’re the Dealer, Use Your Position to Your Advantage If you’re on the button (the dealer) or close to it, you can decide what to do based on the other players’ decisions. If everyone in front of you checks, it’s possible that nobody has a good hand and you can try to take the pot by betting. The assumption being that if you bet, everyone else will fold. If multiple people in front of you bet or raise, you can assume that somebody has a strong hand, and you should only call or raise if you have a very strong hand. Don’t Let the Outcome of Previous Hands Determine How You Play Your Current Hand In poker, even if you make the right play, it’s possible for bad things to happen. For example, if you fold a 5-7 pre-flop and three 7’s come out on the flop, that doesn’t mean that you made the wrong decision, especially if there was a raise before you folded. The odds of three 7’s coming out on the flop were incredibly low. Similarly, if you bet a good hand on the turn, then a weaker hand calls and ends up beating you by getting a lucky card on the river, you didn't make the wrong decision when you bet after the turn. It's important not to let unlucky or lucky outcomes in previous hands influence your decisions. Focus on making the right play in that situation, and you'll give yourself the best chance to win.