ipl-logo

On The Rainy River Courage Quotes

1302 Words6 Pages

Fighting in a war has become an image of courage and honour. Those who fall in war are given status and respect. While those who survive are made to relive events of the war, retelling the experience of war allows soldiers to add details to make them seem more courageous than they might truly be. The story of On the Rainy River by Tim O’Brian tells a story of his lack of courage. O'Brien used his intelligence to find reasons that he should not go to war, such as not being able to survive or being better and thinks that there is no purpose for the Vietnam war and that there should be a reason for war. Though O'Brien fought against going to war, he decided to go, for his pride.

Courage and bravery are words to describe those who fight in wars. They are courageous for the acts that they have had to commit. People are praised for their survival …show more content…

Both boy scouts and girl scouts are given badges to commemorate their successes in survival. Some companies that give out medals for running certain distances. Backpackers are applauded for their survival abilities. Tim wasn’t one with survival skills; his reasons for thinking that he wouldn’t survive in a war are that “I hated Boy Scouts. I hated camping out. I hated dirt and tents and mosquitoes. The sight of blood made me queasy, and I couldn't tolerate authority, and I didn't know a rifle from a slingshot. I was a liberal, for Christ sake”. Through these doubts, acts of bravery and courage from those who have served their country would not matter to O'Brien. O'Brien's view on the Vietnam war was having those who “support a war” should be the ones who put their “own precious fluids on the line.” O'Brien wanted to stay out of the war by justifying his fear of going to war, through wanting those who support the war “to head for the front and hook up with an infantry unit and help spill the blood. And you have to bring along your wife, or your kids, or your lover. A law, I thought.”. O'Brien had occasions

Show More
Related

Summary Of Imagine Dying By Rick Loomis

451 Words | 2 Pages

No civilian has the right to describe the experience of a bloody war if they have never stepped foot onto the battlefield. In addition, nobody can fully comprehend war until they experience it firsthand. While deciding whether or not he should go to war, O’Brien felt disappointed in how his family and friends “were sending [him] off to fight a war they did not understand and did not want to understand” (O’Brien 43). People back at home and in society sometimes put an immense amount of pressure on particular people to go to war. It is unfair for society to pressure an individual into fighting a war because they are completely unaware of the role war will play in that person’s life forever until they die.

Read More

Summary Of The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

1352 Words | 6 Pages

In fact, O’Brien debunks the assumption that men go to fight in wars to become heroes, for he did not go to the war to be recognized as a hero. Instead, Tim O’Brien, like so many others, initially wanted to avoid the draft, but succumbed to the pressures of society, that still continues on to this day. The men, especially the draftees, never quite know what they’re getting into, and wars bring out every emotion in a person through different experiences. In his book, O’Brien states, “Getting shot should be an experience from which you can draw some small pride…” (182). This quote emphasizes the moments of the war in which men muster up what little they would have ever opened up to when they speak of their experiences.

Read More

Summary Of On The Rainy River By Tim O Brien

443 Words | 2 Pages

As a result, O’Brien struggles with his decision to do what he believes is right, as he wants to do what he thinks it right, but he cannot deal with the criticism of others. He says, “My conscience told me to run, but some irrational and powerful force was resisting, like a weight pushing me toward the war. What it came down to, stupidly was a sense of shame. I did not want people to think badly of me,” (51 and 52). Due to the societal standpoint at the time, he simply could not resist embarrassment others would bestow upon him.

Read More

Compare And Contrast Ambush And The Ghost Soldier

928 Words | 4 Pages

The disconnect between O’Brien’s sense of self and his actions could be attributed to this emotional toll. O’Brien’s values and sense of self are clear in “On the Rainy River”, when he describes how he ended up in the war. In his late teens, O’Brien had no plans of going to the war– he felt almost immune to it, in a way. He planned to graduate college summa cum laude and complete his grad studies at Harvard. He says “I was no soldier.

Read More

Annotated Bibliography For The Things They Carried

784 Words | 4 Pages

O’Gorman begins the article by discussing O’Brien’s earlier war novels and describing how from the beginning he was placed in the ranks of contemporary war writers who were trying to record what was happening in the bloody battles of Vietnam. O’Gornan discusses and uses quotes from O’Brien’s novels If I Die in a Combat Zone, Northern Lights, and more to show how O’Brien had a wide scope of literature. O’Gorman then goes into discussing how O’Brien links to traditional war writers such as Cooper, Crane, and Hemmingway, and how he was influenced by Hemmingway, Fitzgerald, and more writers. However, O’Gorman’s main analysis of The Things They Carried was in the form of the book, the novel is a composite novel comprised of short stories that flow together to create a whole text. O’Gorman believes that O’Brien composed this form because he felt compelled to move from traditional linear novels to something more complex and richer, in choosing this form he is not just writing about war stories but rather stories of humanity.

Read More

The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

2437 Words | 10 Pages

We believe that true, patriotic heroes go to war without cowardice or complaint. Yet, as O’Brien demonstrates in his novel, war is incomprehensible and lacks the morality we expect it to have. The Vietnam War was fought for reasons unknown to the soldiers involved as seen in the lines “The very facts were shrouded in uncertainty: Was it a civil war? A war of national liberation or simple aggression?

Read More

Things They Carried By Tim O Brien: A Literary Analysis

1292 Words | 6 Pages

O’Brien presents a variety of stories to present the complexity of war. “On The Rainy River” is a pre-war

Read More

Shame In The Things They Carried

928 Words | 4 Pages

(CE) Before O'Brien heard about the war, he realized the war was something he did not want to participate in. (DE) He says to himself that [he] would not swim away from [his] hometown and [his] country and [his] life. [He] would not be brave” (O’Brien 55).

Read More

PTSD In The Things They Carried

1425 Words | 6 Pages

In the chapter titled “On the Rainy River,” O'Brien explores the idea of fleeing the country to avoid the war, or staying to go to a war he doesn't believe in. He speaks of who he would disappoint if he were to take the easy way out and flee to Canada, and what he could lose by going to fight for his country. He becomes conflicted with the guilt that he feels for running away and the fear that he has for going to war. An example of the fear he has is when O'Brien writes, “Beyond all this, or at the very center, was the rar fact of terror. I did not want to die.

Read More

The Things They Carried: An Analysis

688 Words | 3 Pages

He fought a war in Vietnam that he knew nothing about, all he knew was that, “Certain blood was being shed for uncertain reasons” (38). He realized that he put his life on the line for a war that is surrounded in controversy and questions. Through reading The Things They Carried, it was easy to feel connected to the characters; to feel their sorrow, confusion, and pain. O’Briens ability to make his readers feel as though they are actually there in the war zones with him is a unique ability that not every author possess.

Read More

Courage In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

730 Words | 3 Pages

In the novel The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien expresses to the reader why the men went to the war and continued to fight it. In the first chapter, “The Things They Carried,” O’Brien states “It was not courage, exactly; the object was not valor. Rather they were too frightened to be cowards.” The soldiers went to war not because they were courageous and ready to fight, but because they felt the need to go. They were afraid and coped with their lack of courage by telling stories (to themselves or aloud) and applied humor to the situations they encountered.

Read More

Things They Carried Innocence Quotes

886 Words | 4 Pages

O’Brien goes into great depth in this small quote on how loss of innocence and war can affect people in the war. The quote “Often the crazy stuff is true and the normal stuff isn’t” shows how war is so different from what any human experiences at home. After that small quote he follows it up by bringing up how you have to use normal stuff to show how crazy these things are and how much of a pole it can have on somebody during a war. The way that war is treated for many is mostly the mental part that is struggling. But for many "War is hell, but that's not half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love.

Read More

The Things They Carried Internal Conflict Analysis

845 Words | 4 Pages

This is evident when Mr. O’Brien says, “I would go to the war – I would kill and maybe die – because I was embarrassed not to,” (pg. 57.) In the end the author realized what he must do and went back home, so he could fight in the Vietnam

Read More

PTSD In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

1504 Words | 7 Pages

This quote epitomizes the trauma caused by war. O’Brien is trying to cope, mostly through writing these war stories but has yet to put it behind him. He feels guilt, grief, and responsibility, even making up possible scenarios about the life of the man he killed and the type of person he was. This

Read More

Moral Confusion In The Things They Carried

645 Words | 3 Pages

The Vietnam War leaves a legacy of moral confusion with each and every soldier who serves. Soldiers are fighting for a cause they do not necessarily believe in, killing people who do not necessarily deserve it, and watching their brothers die beside them. Tim O’Briens’ book, The Things They Carried, illustrates the soldiers struggle to define morality throughout the confusion of the war. On the Rainy River, Tim O’Brien faces what he feels is his moral obligation to answer his country’s call and fight in Vietnam, and a personal moral issue with the reason for the war.

Read More

More about On The Rainy River Courage Quotes

Related Topics

Open Document