At face value, Nguyen thi Minh Ngoc's narrator from "Madagascar Plum" is unreliable and not trustworthy. Having said that, if one is able to look past the actual story, and look for the deeper meaning behind it, some merit may be taken from them. As Tim O'Brien stresses in "The Things They Carried", the true importance of a story does not necessarily come from the fact. It is clear that we can not trust the narrator's story to be factual for a few reasons. First of all, just being a part of the South Vietnamese army provides a bias. More importantly, he is a drunk, "Pour me another drink, and when I've finished it, I'll tell you the story". In addition, because the soldier is a sufferer of PTSD his stories may become muddled, from his traumatic point of view.

Because of this, the it is important to look at the story, not through its facts, because it may all be fabricated, but to try and understand why the narrator would say such things. An example of this is the plum which reminds him of the girls cheek. Although one may not believe his story, their is a reason he will not eat the fruit. The scarring details that have lead to his PTSD still plague him. Rather than a battle, or something ordinary, the most scarring things are the odd occurring details such as this. Although the story is false, it helps to convey these scarring details. Furthermore, the narrator depicts a most gruesome story in order to convey his feelings. For example the gruesome death of the girl shows just how he truly felt of the war. In addition, his depiction of the American demonstrates his feelings of the Americans who came here to help, and how he fealt they should not be there. Although his facts cannot be trusted, the deeper meaning in the stories ring true.