On The Rainy River Chapter 1 Summary

At the beginning of the novel, Tim O’Brien portrays a strong image against war and him being drafted. He felt like war had no positives, leaving himself to only see the negatives. As he stated, “It all seemed crazy and impossible. Twenty-one years old, an ordinary kid with all the ordinary dreams and ambitions, and all I wanted was to live the life I was born to...and now I was off on the margins of exile leaving my country forever, and it seemed

The first three words of the chapter “How to Tell a True War Story” are, “This is true” (67). Although Tim O’Brien begins this chapter with such a bold and clear statement, throughout the chapter he has the reader thinking and confused when he contradicts himself by stating things such as, “In many cases a true war story cannot

After being drafted, several thoughts came to his mind. O’ Brien thought about how his life will be if he goes to war. He states, “I imagined myself dead. I imagined myself doing things I could not do- charging and enemy position, taking aim at another human being” (44). It seems that O’Brien thought about his principles and morals as a human being. He believes killing innocent people was not a heroic act; it was an act of shame. On the other hand, he clarifies that not all wars are negative, “There were occasions, when a nation was justified in using military force to achieve it ends” (44). He considered to fight only in the cases were war is necessary to achieve a significant purpose. O’Brien uses examples of Hitler, referring him as an evil and one of the reasons he would have validated a war, and even joined the military if it were necessary. Yet, he does not want to play hero in a war that had not sense. For that reason, he decided to run away from his draft.

With this part of the story, O’Brien is able to inject the theme of shame motivating the characters in the book. This chapter is about how the author, who is also the narrator, is drafted for the war. He runs away to the border between Canada and the United States, he stays in a motel with an old man for about a week and finds that he should go to war for his country. In the beginning it was about shame, he didn’t want to look like a coward because in truth he was scared. He was afraid to face the pressures of war, the humiliation and the fact of losing “everything”. This man was an average person who lived an average life with no problems, until he got the notice about the war, which caused the shame and fear of being seen as a bad person to come out.

In this essay I will talk about rather I agree or disagree with the topics of the author Jennifer Boylan. In the story “the early morning rain”, she recalls a time in her life where she has to run away from home because she wants to get a way from the world. Well she, was a he at the time. Now you can see the dilemma this young man faced when he was in Maine years ago in the late 1900’s.

Furthermore, O’Brien himself admits he went to war not out of courage, but out of embarrassment and cowardice. In the chapter “On The Rainy River,” O’Brien received a draft letter for the Vietnam War. He was in shock, “I was too good for this war. Too smart, too compassionate, to everything. It couldn’t happen. I was above it. A mistake, maybe—a foul up in the paperwork. I was no soldier… I remember the rage in my stomach. Later it burned down to a smoldering self-pity, then to numbness” (41-42). Obviously, O’Brien did not want to go to war. However, he was

The new soldiers’ resistance was usually followed by an attempt to flee which brought shame and embarrassment to both the new soldiers and their families. Subsequent to the attempt to flee came a final adoption to the war in which O’Brien and many others tried so hard to get out of. O’Brien uses elements such as conflict, imagery, and tone to help convey his

1. “In any war story, especially a true one, it’s difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen. What seems to happen becomes its own happening and has to be told the way. “ (71)

This quote in the first chapter of the book sets the overall tone. The author Tim O’Brien uses his language through out the book in an extremely straightforward manner. He does not sugar coat the way going to war and being in a war is. He does not use stories of heroes,

Though each story was written to convey the miseries associated with war, they convey the effects of such psychological wounds differently. In, “The Red Convertible, we understand Henry’s struggles through the eyes of his brother, Lyman. As a result, the reader doesn’t have a clear understanding about the tribulations Henry actually faced during the war. Instead, we see how his relationship with his younger brother has been altered. Contrastingly, in, “The Things They Carried”, we are able to gauge the struggles faced by soldiers firsthand. What I thought was interesting about O’Brien’s work is that the events were not laid out chronologically, unlike the other story. I feel that this style choice is meant to coincide with what it is actually like to be placed in a high risk situation, such as war. During a stressful event, people tend to act impulsively and, or, irrationally. They’re not thinking about

20) O’Brien tells how these young men were drafted which were constantly in fear, they wished to be there obliviously but war takes up all of one’s attention; it played a big role in their life, changing their tactics, personality and becoming a new person. O’Brien uses this to show the stressful moments in war where one has pressure to be alive and in this case to fit in with everyone else and feel part of something, in a lonely place such as the war.

When I first started reading the book I was very excited because the first few pages were very detailed and made me want to read the rest of the book as soon as possible. The only thing I really didn't like was when he flashed back to his time back in his hometown in Minnesota. "Late at night, the town deserted, two or three of us would drive a car around and around the town's lake, talking about the war" (16). I can see why he puts this in the book because it has a lot of relevance to his life in that time. He was a protestor of the war and didn't think that it was right. What O'Brien signifies by flashing back to this time before he was drafted it shows the major conflict in the book, being drafted into a war that he wanted no part in. Other than that I really never lost focus in the book, partly because as his time in Vietnam progressed the action grew and his experiences were growing more and more exciting. "Then the RPG fire resumed. Our own return fire stopped as everyone ducked and sweated. Men were shouting. Running" (152). The whole second half of the book was mostly action packed like that quote. It is pretty hard not to get into a book when there is that kind of action going on.

Tim O'Brien provides his audience with a very descriptive image of both the physical and mental "things" the characters in the story carried. He gives the reader insight as to how the characters are physically and mentally dealing with the turmoil of the war. However, in the end of the story - Jimmy Cross - a round character, reacts to the death of Ted

Liam and his parents are on a television show when LIam says they didn’t know if Liam was even their child. Chapter 2: Liam is laying on his father’s desk when his father walks in and caught him half naked and with a girl on the floor bawling her eyes out begging Liam’s father not to call her parents. Chapter 3: Liam and his mother are talking about him going to live with his grandparents when Liam suggests to go live with his uncle (Pete) His mother says okay and gives Liam his number. While Liam was packing his father came up to talk to him, Liam accidently says he’s going to live with Pete, which makes him angry.