In most Things They Carried, stories are told over and over again. One reason is the idea of ​​keeping the truth of a story alive. In “Good Form,” O'Brien distinguishes what he calls the truth of history from the truth that happens. The truth of the story seems to give us a better understanding of O'Brien's feeling in a particular story even though the story itself may not be true at all. On the other hand, the truth that happened is what actually happened in the story, but it may not contain as much emotional authenticity as the truth of the story. According to O'Brien, the truth of the story is therefore truer than the truth that happens. As for storytelling, O'Brien continually retells stories to maintain their feeling and emotional value. Without this continuous repetition this feeling vanishes and the emotional value of the story is lost. Another reason why stories are told in The Things They Carried is to address the past and make the narrator experience the feeling of the story again. For example, O'Brien tells Linda's story to deal with her tragic death and make her seem alive again. In "The Lives of the Dead," O'Brien explains that when he tells a story in which someone has passed away, "the dead sometimes smile, sit down, and return to the world" (225). Essentially, by telling stories, the storyteller can conjure up people who died in their past and make them seem not quite like that.