On The Rainy River By Tim O Brien Quotes

A significant event in one's life forces a person to reevaluate their current situation and decide how they will adapt to a new situation, or cause them to look back on the steps they took to get into that situation. In life as well as in the literature Crosswalk In The Rain, and THE TENT DELIVERY WOMAN’S RIDE, people have to adapt to what is happening in their lives, despite conditions they may have been through in the past. In life at some point there will be crossroads that a person must cross, they can either look back at what they have done to end up in that position or they can look forward and see what they must do to continue moving forward.

Life can bring unexpected events that individuals might not be prepared to confront. This was the case of O’Brien in the story, “On the Rainy River” from the book The Things They Carried. As an author and character O’Brien describes his experiences about the Vietnam War. In the story, he faces the conflict of whether he should or should not go to war after being drafted. He could not imagine how tough fighting must be, without knowing how to fight, and the reason for such a war. In addition, O’Brien is terrified of the idea of leaving his family, friends and everything he loves behind. He decides to run away from his responsibility with the society. However, a feeling of shame and embarrassment makes him go to war. O’Brien considers

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.

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,

“And it hits me, not then, but today, thirty years later. Thirty years too late”(91). Those are the words of Jessamyn Hope when speaking about her experience with regret regarding her life’s decisions, the major theme for her essay. Her essay tells the story about how she failed to overcome two life challenges, one having a direct physical impact and the other having a delayed impact. The essay “The Reverse Dive” by Jessamyn Hope is a narrative essay looking to persuade its reader through the use of analogy, empirical evidence, and appeal to emotion that one should face their challenges while they can to avoid regrets.

This is one story I've never told before. Not to anyone. . .To go into it, I've always thought, would only cause embarrassment for all of us, a sudden need to be elsewhere, which is the natural response to a confession. Even now I'll admit, the story makes me squirm. (O’Brien)

The speaker’s tendency to overthink his choices and his inability to move on after a dissatisfactory outcome in “Prelude to Jumping in the River” by Katia Grubisic can be likened to the anxieties we often feel before and after making important decisions in our own lives. The missed opportunities that come as a by-product of the choices we make often cause us to overthink them, just as the speaker stood “at the edge of the bank [for] centuries” (9-10) unable to come to a coherent conclusion about whether or not to make the jump. It is crucial to weigh the costs and benefits while making an important decision. Nevertheless, spending too much time doing so will result in the opportunity passing you by. This is reflected in the regretful tone of

“How many years can some people exist before they're allowed to be free...How many times can a man turn his head pretending he just doesn't see?” The lyrics of Blowin’ in the Wind strike the painful feeling when our dignity is smothered by unbearable fear. In the short story “On the Rainy River”, Tim O’Brien explores the idea that we cannot follow our heart in the face of terror. Through his experiences, O’Brien suggests that when our insecurity clashes with our self-respect, our moral conscience is often torn into pieces until we are left with no choice but to accept the ruthless reality with a desperate heart.

The Things They Carried Analysis In the The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, he uses shame and guilt as somewhat of a theme. He carries this theme throughout the book giving prime examples such as:”For more than twenty years I’ve had to live with it,feeling the shame”(pg.37 O’brien). A lot of the time it is interpreted that he feels guilt or shame for something he's done or a choice he has made, other times he comes right out and says it.

Tim O’Brien uses real, and sometimes personal stories to depopulate common misconceptions between soldiers and civilians all through The Things They Carried. A chapter titled “Speaking of Courage” is centered around a friend of O’Brien’s: Norman Bowker. The chapter is a story about Bowker’s need to talk and nobody to listen and understand what was felt during the war. The story begins with Bowker driving around a hometown lake and continues to reference it.

“Shame” penned by entrepreneur “Dick” Gregory tells of a story that scarred him. A event that scarred him bad enough to haunt him until he was “twenty-one years old and married and making money.” He depicts the story of “Shame” using feelings such as love, isolation, and anger.

Tim O’Brien’s writing gives him in outlet to be able to cope with the war. Tim is able to write about traumatic events he goes through during the war. One of these traumatic events Tim O’Brien goes through is when he kills a man, “the man I killed would have been determined to continue his education in mathematics” (122). Tim is able to write and make a narrative around the man he killed. By doing this, it allows him to cope with the killing. Tim’s narrative gives him the ability to

He realizes that “both [his] conscience and [his] instincts [tells him] to make a break for it, just take off and run like hell and never stop.” Because going to a war means facing unpleasant events that could occur, such as possible death, he wants to break free from it. Similar to Tim O’Brien, Korean veteran will empathize with Tim O’Brien because he also experienced similar hesitation and desire to desert from the army. On the other hand, modern female high school student will not experience the same empathy Korean veteran felt towards Tim O’Brien because she believes there are different roles for each gender. Specifically, men’s role in her society is to serve military services and participate in the war if necessary without any hesitation. In given circumstances, it is highly likely that she will regard Tim O’Brien as a young coward who lacks responsibility, courage, and patriotism to protect the

O’Brien, forty-three years old, dates back to when he “was drafted to fight a war he hated.” He planned on attending Harvard for a graduate study on a full-ride scholarship. He was way “Too smart, too compassionate, too everything ”: he knew what he wanted to do and who he was; although, the Vietnam war had no interest for the lives of its soldiers. For Tim O’Brien, he was pulled from Minnesota; for other soldiers, they were pulled from their respective hometowns-- all were taken out of comfortability to devastation. This memory moment, along with others, develops the setting by displaying

Fortunately, O’Brien lived long enough to make it back home, but he brought his guilt, anxiety, and stress home with him. While at war, O’Brien killed a man with a hand grenade in order to make it out alive. “All I could do was gape at the fact at the young man’s body.” Tim still feels extreme remorse to executing this man. “Sometimes I forgive myself, and sometimes I don’t.” Tim O’Brien showed tremendous emotion and honesty and told his listeners that sometimes he still is not forgiving of himself for killing a man.