In addition to the philosophy we’ve studied, we’ve read four types of literature which focus on the idea of truth through different lenses—a Vietnam veteran, a poet, a variety of forest animals, and a quirky child. The differences between these views may appear staggering at first glance, but how is each view similar?

O’Brien’s story balances the brutality of war with the beauty of nature; Anderson and Gaiman’s children’s books encourage an individualistic and imaginative approach to understanding the world, and Dickinson’s poems discuss the power and divine nature of truth through imagery, diction, and figurative language. Each of these brief pieces of writing helps us better understand what truth is and how it applies to our lives.

Your job is to figure out what each one says about truth and how we can better understand what truth is by looking carefully at the ideas of these authors.

In "The wolves in the walls" we see that truth can be widely ignored, while on can see the truth, some people may not believe this individual. The parents in this book were ignorant and chose to pretend like they knew what was happening by fill in in the girl's questions with open ended answers that make the imagination wander. In "I know the moon" we see that many prespectives exist to many different people, meaning there doesn't have to be a singular truth, if you believe in something than it is true to you. In "The things they carried" we understand that truth in war stories isn't the sadness, joy,or any of that, it's about what really is truth and whether truth can be accepted by others if they know a different truth than your own.