Stories (bring the past to life)

I love the quote that Renee picked out: "What stories can do, I guess, is make things present." (204 (in my book))
This book is all about stories. Each chapter, a different story, many times from different points of view, different perspectives, but they're all doing the same thing: making the past come to life.
The book is set up as fiction. But the narrator is Tim O'Brien? And the names of the soldiers are people that O'Brien actually fought alongside? (I even looked it up to see if those were their real names.) In "How to Tell a True War Story," O'Brien even says "This is true" in the opening. It's hard to decide if these stories are fiction, which the book says they are, or if there is some truth to them.
I believe that there is some truth to them, much truth to them. And maybe not necessarily in the facts (though I do think that O'Brien used some facts of what did actually happen to create these stories). I think the real truth, the important truth is the subjective here, not the objective. Did "On the Rainy River" actually happen (or happen that way)? I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. But those feelings described by the story, the feelings of fear, embarassment, indecision, are all very real. And the same goes for all of the stories. Is this actually what went down? Who knows. But the truth isn't in the objectiveness of the story teling, but the emotions and feeling behind them. That is where the story teller and the audience can relate, connect, understand.
Stories bring the past to life. They are a way of coping, struggling, working through what has already happened by making it a part of the present. Many of the stories are told from O'Briens perspective years after they have happened. The details of the story are probably lost with time, but the emotions from these events are still a part of O'Briens' (or whoever the narrator may be) life. The feelings are still real.
Yes, this is a "fiction" book. Personally, I struggle reading fiction. I almost never do voluntarily because I struggle with seeing value in reading something that's made up, fantasy, not real. What's the point? But I think it is important to see that The Things They Carried isn't exactly "fiction." Yes, these stories could all be made up by O'Brien, and therefore fictional, but the feelings and emotions behind them are very real.