Decision-Making in Life
It is common knowledge that life is filled with difficult decisions; decisions that will be tough to get through. Even characters of books have hard decisions they must make, and even though they may not be real, the characters in the novels and stories have to make choices for what they believe is best for their current situation. In the end, one must make a decision even if it destroys him.
The process of destruction within ones mind begins with one decision. Tim O’Brien’s decision is that to make the break to Canada after seeing he drafted into the military. O’Brien’s draft began to make him think “seriously about Canada . . . Both [his] conscience and instinct were telling [him] to make a [run] for it” (O’Brien 175), but he refused the urge. He fought against everything that was telling him to go and stayed in the U.S., but the choice was tearing him apart. O’Brien wanted to go over the border, but his friends and family were all telling him to go to war, and the only thing that was keeping him in the States was his embarrassment of what others would think of him for being a coward and putting himself before his country. Sometimes, it does not matter what others think of one for his actions, but rather what one does to himself and others that matters. For the boys were stuck on island, they made the decision to steal, and when they decided to “take the fire from the others” (Golding 161) they made the first choice that started the catastrophic chain of events on the island. They choose to do something that was totally unlike them, something that the boys never would have done under any normal circumstance, but to them it seemed like the best decision at the time. Because the boy’s theft ended in victory, it made all the boys on the island see that this was a successful way to achieve their needs. Of all the characters, Paul’s tale tells a more dramatic experience. Paul describes it as “[Laying] under the network of arching shells and [living] in a suspense
The process of destruction within ones mind begins with one decision. Tim O’Brien’s decision is that to make the break to Canada after seeing he drafted into the military. O’Brien’s draft began to make him think “seriously about Canada . . . Both [his] conscience and instinct were telling [him] to make a [run] for it” (O’Brien 175), but he refused the urge. He fought against everything that was telling him to go and stayed in the U.S., but the choice was tearing him apart. O’Brien wanted to go over the border, but his friends and family were all telling him to go to war, and the only thing that was keeping him in the States was his embarrassment of what others would think of him for being a coward and putting himself before his country. Sometimes, it does not matter what others think of one for his actions, but rather what one does to himself and others that matters. For the boys were stuck on island, they made the decision to steal, and when they decided to “take the fire from the others” (Golding 161) they made the first choice that started the catastrophic chain of events on the island. They choose to do something that was totally unlike them, something that the boys never would have done under any normal circumstance, but to them it seemed like the best decision at the time. Because the boy’s theft ended in victory, it made all the boys on the island see that this was a successful way to achieve their needs. Of all the characters, Paul’s tale tells a more dramatic experience. Paul describes it as “[Laying] under the network of arching shells and [living] in a suspense