Dissecting Tim O'Brien's Main Narrative versus Herzog's Fifth HypothesisIn one of the most influential works of postmodern literature, Tim O'Brien in The Things They Carried introduces us to a writing of fact and fiction about war where two of these themes intertwine to such an extent that nothing remains clear in the end except the emotional communication which attempts to convey the horrors of the Vietnam War. This style of writing distinguished Tim O'Brien from many other authors who wrote in the same genre and conveyed their respective style. In The Things They Carryed, the treatment of the Vietnam War is very precise, in the sense of the very nature of the war. It is a collection of short stories containing quasi-fictional characters recounting their experiences during the Vietnam War. This quasi-fiction becomes disturbing for Tim O'Brien's readers. Readers listen to the author tell them differently about his war experiences, several times through interviews, real life and then the stories of The Things They Carried, which also adds to the ambiguity of the author's main narrative which is close. -fiction or quasi-fact. Tobey C. Herzog analyzes this master narrative in his article "Tim O'Brien 'True Lies'" and presents us with eight hypotheses that may explain the author's behavior and his master narrative of story truths. This article will attempt to analyze one of the eight hypotheses and judge its value in explaining the main narrative of "real lies" that are relevant in the life and work of Tim O'Brien. For this article, the fifth hypothesis is chosen. to show that it actually contains all of Tim O'Brien as a person, soldier, character and author of his works. The hypothesis U...... middle of article ......h is quite central to Tim O'Brien's work and this has evolved into the other binary set of person and soldier in life against the author binary. and the character from Tim O'Brien's stories. His sense of play to which Herzog constantly refers is the product of this theme and, as Herzog argues in his fifth hypothesis, according to which the author rejects the idea of ​​closure in the acute experience of uncertainty, this manifests also in his life when he provides many contradictory statements and plays with the readers want to dislocate them (Herzog). It can be said that Tim O'Brien wants the reader to experience, to some extent, the absurdity, absurdity and lack of any grounding substance that he had experienced during the war through his writings. In this way, the fifth hypothesis comes closest to containing most of Tim O'Brien's life and works..