Tim O Brien On The Rainy River Summary
Confessions of an Embarrassed Soldier
Tim O’Brien’s personal short story, “On the Rainy River,” evokes an inner struggle to serve, or to “run” to Canada. O’Brien shamefully expresses his own horrific tale of compromise of the draft in the summer of ‘68. At 21 years old, “young, yes, and politically naive,” he feels “moral confusion” for the decision he has to make. O’Brien’s use of first person narration in his old age, evokes a sense of embarrassment which he feels for choosing to fight in a meaningless war.
O'Brien conjures up one such paradox of courage and fear. He explains that he was "ashamed to be doing the right thing" in following his conscience and going to Canada. Because this paradox is a complete reverse of commonly held …show more content…
The day he opens the envelope which contained the draft notice, his inner turmoil is parallel to the weather, which was very “cloudy.” He was “feeling the blood go thick behind” his eyes, and a “silent howl” in his head, his tone reflects his scarred memory of the past. The language O’Brien uses, one can clearly tell that he hasn’t forgotten that day, in fact it is etched into his memory forever. Fresh out of Macalester College, O’Brien is drafted to fight in a war he hated. He is young and had close to little knowledge about politics but he knew that the American war in Vietnam felt wrong. He “saw no unity of purpose,” in this war, and many times he thought of running away to Canada. He kept searching for the reasons because he believes that “you can’t fix mistakes. Once people are dead, you can’t make them undead.” He was no “jingo” who would choose aggression. His principles made it harder for him to make his decision, and made it easier to just run away from reality. But how far can one run and for how long? As soon as it came time to decide whether he should go to Canada or not. He felt a “paralysis” that took his heart, “a moral freeze,” he couldn’t decide or act. All he did was cry, he once was “a man of conscience and courage, all that was just a threadbare pipe dream.” Now he is completely helpless, and had no idea what
Tim O’Brien’s personal short story, “On the Rainy River,” evokes an inner struggle to serve, or to “run” to Canada. O’Brien shamefully expresses his own horrific tale of compromise of the draft in the summer of ‘68. At 21 years old, “young, yes, and politically naive,” he feels “moral confusion” for the decision he has to make. O’Brien’s use of first person narration in his old age, evokes a sense of embarrassment which he feels for choosing to fight in a meaningless war.
O'Brien conjures up one such paradox of courage and fear. He explains that he was "ashamed to be doing the right thing" in following his conscience and going to Canada. Because this paradox is a complete reverse of commonly held …show more content…
The day he opens the envelope which contained the draft notice, his inner turmoil is parallel to the weather, which was very “cloudy.” He was “feeling the blood go thick behind” his eyes, and a “silent howl” in his head, his tone reflects his scarred memory of the past. The language O’Brien uses, one can clearly tell that he hasn’t forgotten that day, in fact it is etched into his memory forever. Fresh out of Macalester College, O’Brien is drafted to fight in a war he hated. He is young and had close to little knowledge about politics but he knew that the American war in Vietnam felt wrong. He “saw no unity of purpose,” in this war, and many times he thought of running away to Canada. He kept searching for the reasons because he believes that “you can’t fix mistakes. Once people are dead, you can’t make them undead.” He was no “jingo” who would choose aggression. His principles made it harder for him to make his decision, and made it easier to just run away from reality. But how far can one run and for how long? As soon as it came time to decide whether he should go to Canada or not. He felt a “paralysis” that took his heart, “a moral freeze,” he couldn’t decide or act. All he did was cry, he once was “a man of conscience and courage, all that was just a threadbare pipe dream.” Now he is completely helpless, and had no idea what