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Internal Conflict In On The Rainy River By Tim O Brien

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“On the Rainy River”

The book, The Things They Carried, contains many extraordinarily written chapters including the chapter I personally believe to be the best, “On The Rainy River”. In this chapter, Tim O’Brien - who also happens to be the narrator of this book - gets a letter saying that he is being put into the draft and will soon ship off to the Vietnam War. Out of shock and fear, Tim plans to run away to Canada in order to dodge the draft. After hours of driving, he pulled into the Tip Top Lodge - an old fishing resort - to take a short break. Both the vivid imagery and deep internal conflict prevalent in this chapter are the two things that create this exceptionally written section. In order to make the reader feel as though they are a part in the book, Imagery is a very great way to allow the audience to feel and see what the narrator or main character is seeing. While he prepared to run away O’Brien stopped in his house for a minute and took in all he could see and described it in this chapter by saying, “I remember packing …show more content…

First, Tim O’Brien shared some key statements signaling the presence of the major internal conflict going on within him when he stated “My conscience told me to run, but some irrational and powerful force was resisting, like a weight pushing me toward the war” (O’Brien 49). This was a powerfully written sentence because it truly shows the reader the internal conflict that he is battling against with himself, and that going to war was definitely not going to be a super easy decision to make. The use of this conflict makes the reader engaged in the story, wondering what the main character will do about said conflict and whether or not he will make the choice people want him to make or whether or not he will make the choice he wants to

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