Things they carried

So I find this new book very interesting. its like autobiography but it doesn't just tell about things chronology or one event after author. You get into the author's head and see how he views things. Like in the beginning, he is talking to his military buddy about the past and his friend tells him how he wants to be viewed in his book. "Make me out to be a good guy, ok? Brave and handsome, and all that stuff, best platoon leader ever (30). I kinda got something out of this quote. That history takes sides and there can't be an absolute truth. The focus in history might be on one thing instead of the whole picture. People have opinions on historic figures and may write about them in a praise worthy manner or in a negative manner. We can twist a story pretty well. Like in class we were talking about the game telephone. The sentence can be twisted pretty bad. So you can't regard this author's book as history because it may be twisted. YOu can't really trust any history book, therefore. (If you want to take it to the extreme). There s no absolute truth and its totally ok. I personally like seeing people's viewpoints. See how maybe a solider on the Confederate viewed the Civil War or how the Germans' felt about the World Wars. Do we always have to take the side of the good guy? Does the good guy always have to get attention and glory in textbooks and bad guys are viewed as slugs? Its something to look at. I'm totally ok with believing that Columbus was a good guy and just got a little confused when he traveled across the sea. Not that he was a jerk and a crazy man sailing three little wooden things in the ocean.