Comparison of Vonnegut and O'Brien

The way Vonnegut tells his story Slaughterhouse Five is pretty similar to the way O’Brien tells his story in How to Tell a True War Story. Both authors use repetition as a tool, I believe to emphasize the way they remember their wars, in that they both have memories that are unforgettable, and yet keep getting all mixed up in their mind. Also just like how the words in the book keep coming back in the story, so do their memories of the war, they just keep repeating, over and over again. Both authors also use a lot of contradiction. I think the contradiction in the story have a few uses to the authors. First, they both state that the their stories were true for the most part. This, in both stories, left me wondering about what really happened in each of their depictions of their war. Though in Vonnegut’s story he is not directly in the war part of the story himself I believe he is partially his character Billy, and he also brings in the time traveling race of aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. So, so far I am not sure if Vonnegut actually wants the reader to believe in the aliens or maybe this is his way of depicting the insanity that had set in because of the war (or maybe it was just the effects of a concussion in a plane crash). While O’Brien is more of his personal views from the war, he says what he had seen, but then immediately tells us that what he said was not true at all and never happened. I do believe that both authors also use contradiction because they are probably still not sure of how they feel about the war, and are not sure if it even matters at the end of the day, the validity that is.