On The Rainy River Literary Analysis
One Day, One letter, One number. In “On the Rainy River” by Tim O’Brien, Tim is forced to make a huge life changing choice. Tim has a good life as a small town Minnesota boy who has a full ride through Harvard and knows what he wants in life. But when Tim goes to the mailbox on June 17th 1968, there’s a letter waiting for him. A draft letter and his body goes numb.
A draft letter is a document telling boys ages 16 to 28 that they are going to be tested to be a soldier. If they pass all the health tests then they become a soldier for whatever war is going on at that time. If you had graduated college and were healthy then you were a perfect candidate for the war. The draft letter is for the Vietnam war.
The war had already been going on for 13 years
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Tim finally realized he could not leave his family behind and he was going to stay and fight. into the river. By this point he also knew that Elroy understood why Tim was there, by the little hints at supper and by taking him fishing almost to Canada. Tim didn’t jump no matter how much a part of him wanted too.
The biggest effect the letter had on Tim was his beliefs. He believed war was wrong, but most thought it was the right thing to do so they could stop the spread of communism .Tim also was scared of dying in war. It was the thing he feared most, He said, “Beyond all this, or at the very center, was the raw fact of terror. I did not want to die (1005).” Tim also thought war was cruel and it should not be an option, but what about what everyone would think of him? He had to go to war because he could never
Upset his family and country just like that. He thinks of himself as a coward because he went to war, against what he thought was morally right. Both options were very cowardly. It was either go to Canada and give up his life, or going against his beliefs and going to
Death In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried
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On The Rainy River Summary
650 Words | 3 PagesA man you have never met might be the man to save your life. In the story “ On the Rainy River”, a Young man named Tim was drafted into war, and his only escape was Canada. Along his trip he came across a cabin owned by Elroy. Elroy gave Tim food and shelter, and gave him a chance to make a life changing decision.
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On The Rainy River Character Analysis
807 Words | 4 PagesHow it was shaped: Tim allowed the draft of the Vietnam war and societal pressures get to the best of him and he slowly tore himself apart, he started off as a confident incorrigible man. His morals later then became corrupted, he gave into the pressures, his self proclaimed Lone Ranger status had been infected and debunked by his end decision of serving in the Vietnam war. Thesis: In the story, On the Rainy River, the author, Tim O’Brien demonstrates that an individual allows societal pressures and expectations to override their core values, morals, and beliefs; peer pressure forces individuals to put their beliefs aside so they can fit in with everyone else. The narrator, Tim O’Brien faces a similar situation when he get’s drafted for the Vietnam War.
The Song Tra Bong Figurative Language
1756 Words | 8 PagesI went to the war.” (last paragraph 58) This helps us understand that going to war was not an accomplishment for Tim. He regretted not running away and hated that he went.
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839 Words | 4 Pages‘’I was a coward. I went to the war’’ Pg187. In the short story, ‘’On The Rainy River’’ by Tim O’Brien, The protagonist faces a difficult life decision, he did not want to conform to society the way others wanted him to. He wanted to keep his personal beliefs. Tim O’Brien does not want to conform no matter how vital it is that he should.
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730 Words | 3 PagesThe men who served in the Vietnam War were just barely men, some of them were just hitting the age twenty. It was the draft which brought these boys into the fight involuntarily, to fight a war which they saw no meaning in. Many of these boys are the sons of veterans who fought in World War II, that came home to parades and were held up like heroes for fighting. Honorary men of the country and the soldiers fighting for Vietnam did not want to disappoint them. Thus, when O’Brien mentions in the quote, valor was not the point, he is trying to explain to the reader that the men went like it was a job they had to do, not a random act of courage that willed them to proceed.
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Irony In My Brother Sam Is Dead
1204 Words | 5 PagesHe was put into a body bag with rocks and thrown into the ocean, sinking without anyone knowing. This was the second death in the novel, but most strange due to him being so little and innocent. For Tim, this made him wonder why people would do this, especially to a kid like Jerry. This induces Tim’s decision to become neutral in the war even further. "Nobody understands it.
On The Rainy River Analysis
1205 Words | 5 PagesIn the short story, “On the Rainy River” by Tim O’Brien, the author develops the idea that when an individual experiences a feeling of shame and humiliation, they often tend to neglect their desires and convictions to impress society. Tim, the narrator, starts off by describing his feeling of embarrassment, “I’ve had to live with it, feeling the shame”, before even elaborating on the cause of the feeling. Near the end of the story, he admits he does not run off and escape to Canada because it had nothing to do with his, “mortality...Embarrassment, that’s all it was”. The narrator experiences this feeling of intense shame and then he decides that he will be “a coward” and go to war. His personal desire is that he wishes to live a normal life and could never imagine himself charging at an enemy position nor ever taking aim at another human being.
Moral Dilemma In On The Rainy River By Tim O Brien
284 Words | 2 PagesIn the short story “On the Rainy River” by Tim O’Brien, the main character Tim O’Brien gets a letter notifying him that he has been selected for the draft; he is affected by this emotionally, physically, and he faces a moral dilemma because this war goes against what he believes in. Immediately upon receiving the letter O’Brien thinks, “I was too good for this war. Too smart, too compassionate, too everything. It couldn’t happen. I was above it” (1003).
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1184 Words | 5 PagesIn “On the Rainy River” Tim struggles to make a decision on whether he should fight for his country in the war or flee to Canada. Tim did not believe in the war. He was an innocent young man, freshly graduated from college with a naive view of the world. “Both my conscience and my instincts were telling me to make a break for it, just take off and run like hell and never stop.” (Page 3/Paragraph 8)
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