Tim O Brien On The Rainy River Summary

Life can bring unexpected events that individuals might not be prepared to confront. This was the case in the short story “On The Rainy River” written by Tim O’Brien. Young Tim is drafted to the military to fight the American War in Vietnam. He faces the conflict of whether he should or should not go to war after being drafted. The thought of giving up the future he has worked so hard for and instead fight a war “for uncertain reasons” terrifies him. He must make the agonizing decision of whether to pursue his personal desire and in turn be shamed by society or conform, sacrificing his ideals in the process.

In a later discussion, O’Brien said the chapter “On The Rainy River” is not a true story. The chapter is a fictionalized account of what would’ve happened if he ran away to avoid the draft like he wanted to. This same strategy was applied when he wrote “The Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong”. While O’Brien was in Vietnam, Someone likely joked about how easy it would be to bring a girl to their base. He takes the concept and makes uses it as a vehicle to discuss innocence. We are even told in the beginning to the chapter that the story comes from Rat Kiley who has a history of exaggeration and spicing up stories (Citation Needed for Paraphrase)

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

It surprised me that the main character, Tim O'Brien, tried to flee the country when he was drafted to be in the war. I think what really stopped him from going to Canada was the shame and guilt that awaited him if he chose the "easy" way out. Peer pressure was the main factor because even the thought of being ridiculed by the locals of his hometown ultimately made him not leave the country. Although they were not physically there with him at the Tip Top Lodge, they majorly impacted Tim O'Brien; he could not sleep.

The author, Tim O'Brien, is writing about an experience of a tour in the Vietnam conflict. This short story deals with inner conflicts of some individual soldiers and how they chose to deal with the realities of the Vietnam conflict, each in their own individual way as men, as soldiers.

“On the Rainy River” is a story recalled by O’Brien that he states has never told to anyone. “To go into it, I’ve always thought, would only cause embarrassment for all of us …” (p. 39) By coming out and telling his readers this confession only shows his courage from it in the long run. The story develops the theme of embarrassment as a motivating factor, just as Jimmy Cross feels guilty about Ted Lavender’s death, O’Brien feels guilty about going to

     In “On the Rainy River”, O’Brien writes of intrapersonal struggle in its most profound form. The gripping torture of indecision seemed to paralyze Lt. Jimmy Cross in every move he made. Fear is what kept him away from the war, and fear is what made him join his countrymen in battle. A pacifist

The short story “On The Rainy River” is written through the perspective of O’Brien in present day and as a young faced with a draft notice for Vietnam War. In “On The Rainy River,” O’brien portrays the importance of bravery in an individual through the use of symbolism, powerful tone, and reflective point of view.

The short story that will be discussed, evaluated, and analyzed in this paper is a very emotionally and morally challenging short story to read. Michael Meyer, author of the college text The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature, states that the author of How to Tell a True War Story, Tim O’Brien, “was drafted into the Vietnam War and received a Purple Heart” (472). His experiences from the Vietnam War have stayed with him, and he writes about them in this short story. The purpose of this literary analysis is to critically analyze this short story by explaining O’Brien’s writing techniques, by discussing his intended message and how it is displayed, by providing my own reaction,

In the memoir The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, the chapter titled: On the Rainy River has a central idea of resentment, embarrassment and eventual acceptance to change. The author creates this central idea with the use of a regretful tone, man vs society conflict, and dreary imagery. The theme of this chapter contributes to O’Brien’s intentions for the book because it demonstrates the struggle, shame, and or confusion each man drafted into the war experienced.

At the beginning of the story the narrator, Tim, gets affected by committing an act of violence when he was in the Vietnam War, killing an enemy Vietnamese soldier. Many thoughts began flowing in his head, all the time thinking about the man he killed. “He had been born, maybe, in 1946 in the village of My Khe near the central coastline of

Going through an era when the Vietnam War was a smash hit in your town, many high school senior boys would be drafted out if their number was on the list of people. The men drafted had to leave behind their families and aspirations. Tim O’Brien uses different perspectives in The Things They Carried to show if something tragic happens in life, consequently dealing with it may be hard. Moving on will help in the future.

In 1968 there was a war going on in Vietnam. The war was called the Vietnam War. In the U.S, there was a shortage of people who volunteer to fight in the war so to cover the shortage the U.S used the draft process. The government sent out a draft notice to Tim O’Brien telling him that he was drafted to fight in the war. O’Brien had a choice to flee the U.S to go north to Canada or fight it the war. In the O’Brien considering leaving running away to Canada section of “On the Rainy River” by Tim O’Brien, the author makes the structural choice of first person POV and uses figurative language, such as hyperbole to emphasize the story's message that people run away from problems due to difficult decisions.

In the section “On the Rainy River” from the novel The Things They Carried, author Tim O’Brien describes his difficulty in choosing between going to war or going to Canada. O’Brien implements many different rhetorical and stylistic strategies to express his dilemma. His use of juxtaposition, rhetorical questions, and somber diction enhance his frustration of his two choices. O’Brien uses juxtaposition to compare his option of running away to Canada with what he would rather do: live his life. O’Brien describes a scene he has imagined of himself running away.

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.