On the Rain River by Tim O´brien

1298 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: On the rainy river by tim o'brien full text

The best thing anyone can do for themselves as well as others is to take a stand for what they believe in. Human beings have the amazing gift of being able to make actions and change out of mere word and thought. Time and time again this gift is either suppressed or ignored in favor of silence and the promise of normalcy. To not utilize this ability is the greatest of personal injustices.

In the short story, “On the Rainy River”, the main character and later to be author of the story, Tim O’Brien, is drafted to fight in the Vietnam War. However, it’s more than just being drafted to fight in a war, he’s also being drafted to fight for a cause he does not understand nor does he believe in. Understandably, his reaction is angry, anxious, and afraid, all emotions he was raised to believe were weak and shameful in his situation. He kept his feelings locked behind clenched teeth, until they inevitably cracked under the pressure, unleashing a flood of emotions he kept locked away for fear of the disdain such emotions would warrant amongst his friends and family. O'Brien, in an attempt to keep his head above water fled the situation literally but not metaphorically. His worries and guilt followed him wherever he ran. Guilt and shame get heavier the longer you hold them, like a glass of water, if one was to stretch out their arm straight and hold a full glass of water they would hardly think it heavy. However as time progresses and the holders body tires the water will remain the same and will feel heavier. The guilt O'Brien adorned at the beginning of the story is the same he took with him to war, it was he who weakened and submitted, not the ever constant draft growing stronger. Having been degraded into consenting by his own fear of shame O'Brien fled again, this time however, he fled to war, despite him very well knowing that he believed the war to be wrong, thus he found himself years down the road once agin regretting his decisions, regretting not taking the harder path and leaving himself intact but instead being bullied into a fight that left a bruise on his bones for the rest of his life.

There once was a student, a classmate, teammate, a friend, who when her name is mentioned the entirety of her fellow High School Student body's hands tremble and their stomachs tie themselves upside down.

Show More
Related

  • What Combat Requires in Philip Caputo's Rumor of War

    1230 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Vietnam War was a psychological and physical battle for all the young men who were drafted or volunteered. Caputo's own reasons for volunteering illustrate the mentality for some of the men entering into this journey. Those who are inducted into Vietnam face disturbing moral dilemmas that can be expected in an "ethical wilderness." The draft introduced a myriad of young men to the once forgotten moral ambiguity of war. Average American citizens must balance right from wrong in a world without morals or meaning. Caputo himself struggles with the idea that killing in combat is morally justified.

    Read More

  • The Things They Carried Regret Analysis

    746 Words  | 2 Pages

    Regret is something that is apparent in everyone’s life whether they want it to be or not. The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, is a collection of short stories about his time in the Vietnam War. A common theme throughout all the stories is regret. Although I have never been drafted to war I can very closely relate to the feeling of regret. Regret is not a good feeling. It is something that follows you around for a long time. It hangs over your head like a gray cloud. In one of Tim’s stories On The Rainy River he says “Still, it’s a hard story to tell” (37). This draws you to believe that Tim found it very difficult to tell others about his time in the war, he did some things he was not proud of and he found it best he keep quiet. The decision my parents made eleven years ago to get divorced, was something that will have an affect on me for the rest of my life. I found it very difficult to talk about the divorce,

    Read More

  • The Rainy River Analysis Essay

    750 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the chapter the “Rainy River” of the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, O’Brien conveys a deep moral conflict between fleeing the war to go to Canada versus staying and fighting in a war that he does not support. O’Brien is an educated man, a full time law student at Harvard and a liberal person who sees war as a pointless activity for dimwitted, war hungry men. His status makes him naive to the fact that he will be drafted into the war and thus when he receives his draft notice, he is shocked. Furthermore, his anti-war sentiments are thoroughly projected, and he unravels into a moral dilemma between finding freedom in Canada or standing his ground and fighting. An image of a rainy river marking the border between Minnesota and Canada is representative of this chapter because it reflects O’Brien’s moral division between finding freedom in Canada or standing his ground and fighting in the Vietnam war.

    Read More

  • Similarities And Differences Between The Things They Carried And The Yellow Wallpaper

    1006 Words  | 3 Pages

    After an event of large magnitude, it still began to take its toll on the protagonist as they often “carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die” during the war (O’Brien 1187). The travesties that occurred with the brutality of war did not subside and began to affect those involved in a deeply emotional way. The multitude of disastrous happenings influenced the narrator to develop a psychological handicap to death by being “afraid of dying” although being “even more afraid to show it” (O’Brien 1187). The burden caused by the war creates fear inside the protagonist’s mind, yet if he were to display his sense of distress it would cause a deeper fear for those around him, thus making the thought of exposing the fear even more frightening. The emotional battle taking place in the psyche of the narrator is directly repressed by the war.

    Read More

  • Essay On The Relationship Between Shame And Courage In The Things They Carried

    1455 Words  | 3 Pages

    What is the role of shame in the lives of these soldiers? Does it drive them to acts of heroism or stupidity? Or both? What is the relationship between shame and courage, according to O’Brien?

    Read More

  • The Role of Storytelling in The Things They Carried

    2570 Words  | 6 Pages

    The impact of the Vietnam War upon the soldiers who fought there was huge. The experience forever changed how they would think and act for the rest of their lives. One of the main reasons for this was there was little to no understanding by the soldiers as to why they were fighting this war. They felt they were killing innocent people, farmers, poor hard working people, women, and children were among their victims. Many of the returning soldiers could not fall back in to their old life styles. First they felt guilt for surviving many of their brothers in arms. Second they were haunted by the atrocities of war. Some soldiers could not go back to the mental state of peacetime. Then there were soldiers Tim O’Brien meant while in the war that he wrote the book “The Things They Carried,” that showed how important the role of story telling was to soldiers. The role of stories was important because it gave them an outlet and that outlet was needed both inside and outside the war in order to keep their metal state in check.

    Read More

  • Essay On Character Changes In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carry

    623 Words  | 2 Pages

    This shows that there was something wrong with O’Brien before he went to war. It also helps to show that the problem was made worse by the war. O’Brien says that “something has gone wrong”. I’d come to this war a quiet, thoughtful sort of person, a college grad.but after the seven months in the bush I realized that those high, civilized trappings had somehow been crushed under the weight of the simple daily realities (200).” O’Brien had directly stated his realization that the war had changed him.

    Read More

  • Coping Mechanisms Amidst War: Insights from Tim O’Brien

    1414 Words  | 3 Pages

    Being forced into a war he has no interest in, Tim O’brien recounts his time fighting in the vietnam war. Many of the soldiers there carried things deep to their hearts. Others carried fear, guilt, and despair of what they had done and what was to come. These physical things were a way these soldiers could cope with their feelings and try and stay sane during these times. “Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha, a junior at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey.”(1) These letters were coping mechanisms for Jimmy and he read them when he needed comforting or just to read them to help him forget.

    Read More

  • Betrayal Exposed in Vietnam Perkasie, By Ehrhart

    1591 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...f his stay in Vietnam, he had wished he had never heard that word. He became horrified by this war. The once proud American was no longer so proud of his country. The Vietnam War was not like the movies he saw as a child; “the screams were real, and when men fell down they didn’t get up, and the sticky wet substance splattering against your leg was somebody’s intestines” (Ehrhart, 246). Although he had his family and friends around him upon his return home, it seemed that Ehrhart was alone in “The World.” Unless someone was there, they could not possibly understand the thoughts and memories he had to live with. The gruesome memories from Vietnam had permeated him completely; they engraved into his mind and would undoubtedly scar him forever.

    Read More

  • On The Rainy River Literary Analysis

    552 Words  | 2 Pages

    Life can sometime bring unwanted events that individuals might not be willing to face it. This was the conflict of O’Brien in the story, “On The Rainy River”. As the author and the character O’Brien describes his experiences about the draft to the Vietnam War. He face the conflict of whether he must or must not go to the war, in this moment O’Brien thinking that he is so good for war, and that he should not be lost in that way. He also show that he disagree with the consbet of the war, how killing people will benefit the country. In addition O’Brien was terrifying of the idea of leaving his family, friends, and everything that he has done in the past years.

    Read More

  • On The Rainy River by Tim O'Brien

    1068 Words  | 3 Pages

    The relationship you have with others often has a direct effect on the basis of your very own personal identity. In the essay "On The Rainy River," the author Tim O'Brien tells about his experiences and how his relationship with a single person had effected his life so dramatically. It is hard for anyone to rely fully on their own personal experiences when there are so many other people out there with different experiences of their own. Sometimes it take the experiences and knowledge of others to help you learn and build from them to help form your own personal identity. In the essay, O'Brien speaks about his experiences with a man by the name of Elroy Berdahl, the owner of the fishing lodge that O'Brien stays at while on how journey to find himself. The experiences O'Brien has while there helps him to open his mind and realize what his true personal identity was. It gives you a sense than our own personal identities are built on the relationships we have with others. There are many influence out there such as our family and friends. Sometimes even groups of people such as others of our nationality and religion have a space in building our personal identities.

    Read More

  • The Water Diviner by Andrew Night

    1725 Words  | 4 Pages

    People normally tend to assume that plants in the past vary in differences and traits compared to species that are present. People have the impression that the past species had diverse weather conditions and nature related incidents forcing them adapt and become different from others. In the book, Andrew Knight had the idea that the food that was available could have tampered with their genes. Reproduction could have something to do with species changing. With plants, minor situations could determine whether they disperse a seed. It happens quickly and changes the genes of the plant causing a new formation that is disseminated through plant. Reproduction inheritance of genes is an important aspect when trying to determine ancestor’s life. By studying these pigeons, Darwin decides that all pigeons have originated from the rock-pigeon. Many people believe that pigeons have descended from a numerous amount of species and birds. Pigeons mate for life and by doing so the breeds are kept together and have markings in same areas of body. They mold into different species as years have passed because of the natural selection or an idea that Charles called unknown selection.

    Read More

  • The Flow of the River, by Loren Eiseley

    771 Words  | 2 Pages

    When reflecting and writing on Eiseley’s essay and the “magical element”, I balk. I think to myself, “What magic?”, and then put pen to page. I dubiously choose a kiddie pool to draw inspiration from, and unexpectedly, inspiration flows into me. As I sit here in this little 10x30 foot backyard, the sky is filled with the flowing gaseous form of water, dark patches of moist earth speckle the yard, the plants soak up their scattered watering, and the leaves of bushes and trees imbue the space with a sense of dampness from their foliage. As my senses tune into the moisture that surrounds me, I fill Braedon’s artificial pond with water. I stare at the shimmering surface, contemplating Eiseley’s narrative, and the little bit of life’s wellspring caught in Brae’s pool. I see why Eiseley thought the most abundant compound on the earth’s surface is mystical.

    Read More

  • Psychoanalytic Perspective In The Things They Carried

    1396 Words  | 3 Pages

    O’Brien’s unique verisimilitude writing style fills the novel with deep meaning and emotion. Analyzing the novel through a psychological lens only adds to its allure. Understanding why characters act the way they do helps bring this novel to life. The reader begins to empathize with the characters. Every day, the soldiers’ lives hang in the balance. How these soldiers react to life-threatening situations will inspire the reader. Life has an expiration date. Reading about people who are held captive by their minds and who die in the name of war, will inspire the reader to live everyday as if they are currently in the

    Read More

  • Real Heroes in our Society

    1806 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...nd embarrassed with their true desires not to fight. There is no freewill at this point because they feel obligated to be the patriotic men. They are confused not knowing the reason for this war but that it is “to stop the Communists, plain and simple” (O’Brien 45). Unfortunately is it not plain and simple, even a million words would not be able to express the experiences that these young men endure. Unlike the Lone Ranger, the soldiers would rather flee due to the natural human instincts toward a dangerous situation. Yet, they suppress their true feelings and fight with all they have. As we can see, the ones that fight to help people that they hardly know are indeed the regular, normal, and everyday human beings. With this in mind, we cannot count on the Lone Ranger to come to the rescue; rather, the heroes are right before our eyes. They are an “everyman.”

    Read More

More about On the Rain River by Tim O´brien

Open Document