A Fool's Drug Analysis
Imagination: A Fool's Drug
By: Joshua V.
The idea that your imagination is a key determining factor in accepting your uncertain future is supported but also refuted in the short story On the Rainy River. The main character, Tim O'brien provides strong evidence for the strength of one's imagination through the visual representation he provides of the slaughterhouse where he works and the way he imagines disappointment and disgust those back in his home would feel. However, at the end of the story it becomes clear that regardless of one's imagination or will, the future is set in stone and the path you walk is already set in stone.
The concept that your imagination is what leads you to reject your uncertain future, during times of overall …show more content…
Tim experiences “A moral freeze: [he] couldn't decide, couldn't act, [he] couldn't comport [himself] with even a pretense of modest human dignity. All [he] could do was cry”. At this point his imagination takes over when he visualizes “[his] parents calling to him from the far shoreline. … All [his] aunts and uncles were there, and Abraham Lincoln, and Saint George…”(). His imagination provides the final push needed to make the leap of faith into the water, and over to Canada. However, as quickly as it helps him, it also drives him to turn back when he imagines “villagers with terrible burns, little kids without arms or legs… a slim young man [he] would one day kill with a hand grenade along a red clay trail outside the village of My Khe”. These powerful images result in tim being unable to jump from the boat, and forced to accept his future. His imagination may have projected the possibility for him to change his path in life, but when all is said and done, he must accept his unyielding and unwavering fate.
In the short Story On the Rainy River, we see tim O'brien shift between accepting or rejecting his uncertain future. He envisions what his life will be like during the war when he makes a parallel to his work at the slaughterhouse. He also imagines the distaste of those back where he lives which sways him
By: Joshua V.
The idea that your imagination is a key determining factor in accepting your uncertain future is supported but also refuted in the short story On the Rainy River. The main character, Tim O'brien provides strong evidence for the strength of one's imagination through the visual representation he provides of the slaughterhouse where he works and the way he imagines disappointment and disgust those back in his home would feel. However, at the end of the story it becomes clear that regardless of one's imagination or will, the future is set in stone and the path you walk is already set in stone.
The concept that your imagination is what leads you to reject your uncertain future, during times of overall …show more content…
Tim experiences “A moral freeze: [he] couldn't decide, couldn't act, [he] couldn't comport [himself] with even a pretense of modest human dignity. All [he] could do was cry”. At this point his imagination takes over when he visualizes “[his] parents calling to him from the far shoreline. … All [his] aunts and uncles were there, and Abraham Lincoln, and Saint George…”(). His imagination provides the final push needed to make the leap of faith into the water, and over to Canada. However, as quickly as it helps him, it also drives him to turn back when he imagines “villagers with terrible burns, little kids without arms or legs… a slim young man [he] would one day kill with a hand grenade along a red clay trail outside the village of My Khe”. These powerful images result in tim being unable to jump from the boat, and forced to accept his future. His imagination may have projected the possibility for him to change his path in life, but when all is said and done, he must accept his unyielding and unwavering fate.
In the short Story On the Rainy River, we see tim O'brien shift between accepting or rejecting his uncertain future. He envisions what his life will be like during the war when he makes a parallel to his work at the slaughterhouse. He also imagines the distaste of those back where he lives which sways him