Writer's+Purpose

**What is the writer's purpose? In other words, what does the writer want you to know about the relationship?**
The writer's purpose is to explain to the reader the correct way to tell a "true" war story. Throughout the passage, the author is constantly repeating "a true story is", "true war stories are", "you can tell a true war story by". By repeating these phrases over and over he is trying to make the reader pay greater attention, and listen closer to fully understand what a "true" war story is. "Often in a true war story there is not even a point, or else the point doesn't hit you until twenty years later, in your sleep, and wake you up and you shake your wife and start telling the story to her, except when you get to the end you've forgotten the point again." This quote states that there is more to a "true" war story then hearing it once and fully grasping the contents of it. The reader needs to be so enticed by the story that they give their full attention to it, and even when they believe they have found the entire meaning of the story, they really are just where they left off, not knowing anything. The author also feels that there should be an emotional tie to the story. "It comes down to gut instinct. A true war story, if turly told, makes the stomach believe."