On The Rainy River Tim O Brien Character Analysis

When faced with a life changing decision is it better to follow our passions or to go along with the safety of conformity. Many People would say passions but when actually faced with the decision, it is surprising how many will go with the safety of others. In the Case of Tim O’Brien, in the short story On the Rainy River by Tim O’Brien, the character is faced with a decision on whether he should follow his own desire or to follow his duty and aid the calls of his society by going to war against his will.

Before receiving his draft notice Tim O’Brien goes through a basic period of following his own desires in the safety of the society that he lives in. He goes to college and follows his passions. At this point in his life the war is far away and isn’t going to affect him, but he does recognize it. O’Brien “took a modest stance against the war, nothing to radical, no hothead stuff”. He made a decision that his personal desires were more important than the
When O’Brien is traveling along the rainy river, he is literally on the edge of Canada, He has hit a wall on whether or not he should follow his own desires or turn back and face his fears. O’Brien spoke of courage that builds up over time; this courage was finally taped into when he becomes fully alone, away from society and his family, much like his hero the Lone Ranger. “Like a weight pushing me toward the war” At this point in the story, O’Brien realises that his loves and passions were at the very center of American Society “I loved baseball and hamburgers” and he would have to join this conformity to become the individual that he was meant to be. He was content living in the conformity that he was in before the draft notice. So Tim O’Brien decided to ignore the wrongs of the conformity he was a part of and recognized the good parts. He went to war so that the people of Vietnam could have baseball and hamburgers as