1) "War stories are about the human heart and the choices we make or fail to make".
Everyday in life we are faced with choices and decisions that have to be made. Whether that be that be the choice of going to school or going to work. With every choice that is made we are faced with the outcome, whether that be the right decision or the wrong decision it is up to us to determine that. War itself can be a wrong or right decisions and in the event of war decisions we make can save lives and the decisions we fail to make can be disastrous, but our decisions come from our instincts and instincts can lead to survival.
Tim O"Brien wrote several different stories that he remembered from his experience he dealt with first hand in Vietnam, although all these stories are fiction they played a big part in his life, and let him express his true feelings about the war and its horrible effects it has on you as a young man, "Stories save us" (Calloway) In the event of war what you felt was happening was only being led on by your imagination and not noticing your life is headed on a downward spiral. Words and phrases that have never been said before were being used and fear was being set in. Phrases like "Thou shall not kill" were being replaced by "Kill them fuckers, before they kill you" because war was scary and Tim O"Brien felt that scare. .
"Courage is nothing to laugh at"(133) "If we are not thinking we are not human." But of course O"Brien could not discuss his inner frustration with those locked into conventional beliefs about heroic men, and war. His feelings were in stone, set by his hometown arguments that took place. He wasn't able to sleep because of there "simple minded patriotism". Courage is about truth and those who abide by them are those who have the better chance to survive. Tim expresses his courage by going to war even though he had those "simple minded thoughts" about escaping to the north to avoid it.