The desire for autonomy is prevalent among individuals when challenged, however, some may reassess their initial motivations, and reconsider pursuing complete independence. The short story “On the Rainy River” written by Tim O’Brien, explores his attempts at balancing the desire for independence, without sacrificing previous, deep connections. Tim aspires for society's norms to align with his ideas, in an effort to combat his fear of losing meaningful relationships from crushing his ambitions. And as Tim becomes more initiative toward his goal, his need to maintain a meaningful relationship overwhelms him with anxiety. Anxiety over perceptions of his family and loved ones, leading him to blame his inability to flee to Canada on his fear of …show more content…
Aiming to strike a balance between personal autonomy and the need for meaningful connections. Tim, when nearing the end of his boat ride with Elroy, is forced to be confronted by his choice of independence or relationship. As his choice becomes clearer, he says “it had nothing to do with morality.Embarrassment, that's all it was' ' referring to being embarrassed amongst the hallucinations that were cheering and booing him to cross the river. This narrative shift from Tim talking about the strength of his desire, to being embarrassed shows Tim attempting to balance his yearn for independence with the need for maintaining relationships. Because he pins blame on embarrassment, he saves himself the torture of admitting his “desire” wasn't strong enough to compete with his need to conform to societal expectations. As Tim and Elroy swim away from the Canadian side of the river, Tim has lost a war of his own, against societal pressure and as he “[cries ] loud, hard crying” the author shows how he doesn't believe himself to be like one of his heroes from his youth. Referenced earlier when said “Behave like the heroes of our youth, bravely and forthrightly, without thought of personal loss” Tim couldn't put aside the personal loss associated with the following of his desires, leading to accepting a life of a
Throughout the story, Tim faced internal conflict as he struggled with the decision of whether to join his father in supporting the Tories or fighting them with Sam. For example, Tim says to Sam in a moment of desperation, ”Don’t come any closer, Sam, or I’ll
The River Runs Salt, Runs Sweet is a great book that I highly recommend anybody to read. The River Runs Salt, Runs Sweets should be read for the understanding of a Bosnian victim that had to endure, during a war, loss, perseverance, and the need to survive. The love and heartbreak that is expressed in the book is an eye opener, and is something that many people take advantage of. The River Runs Salt, Runs Sweet gives many individuals, especially to those who are closed minded when it comes to war, another perspective to the behind scenes. War has a physical and emotional toll on many individuals who don’t have anything to do with the war.
He when he runs into the egg can’t me and can’t man to save his brother Sam Tim only knew there was a chance he could get killed, but he would would’ve done anything to save Sam and get his brother back. Looking back from the beginning of the novel sam has become more courageous. Overalls are in the entirety of the book. Tim shows magnificent alter of bravery. Tim goes from whining to sam because he doesn’t want to lie to father to going to the encampment to try to save his brother
Life was very loyal and he gets in return was death by the people he was so loyal to. Tims for sure doesn’t expect his dad to die by the Loyalists maybe the Patriots or some robbers but definitely not the people Life showed so much loyalty to. Tim is upset because his dad gets killed by his side on the war. And this shows Tim that loyalty is not rewarded. Life’s loyalty not being rewarded directs Tim to
’He went on jerking with flames on his chest until another soldier shot him again. Then She stopped jerking”(Collier pg208). The irony in this is that Tim expects the patriots to release Sam because he had been fighting for them for 3 years and the fact that it was his cattle but the patriots still kill the same. The impact on Tim was again showing that loyalty is not rewarded in war. This impact pushes Tim to neutral because it showed what people would do in
[...] ‘so I guess you must’ve killed somebody.’ [...] I did what seemed right, which was to say, ‘Of course not,’ [...] Someday, I hope, she’ll ask again” (O’Brien 125). Since Tim loved his daughter, he did not want to scare her with the realities of the events he had to fight through, so he did his best to make it less scary for her. His love influenced him to shelter his daughter, which was in his mind, the right course of action.
The river gave and took from the Macleans, highlighting how the river connects the characters emotionally and spiritually, providing inspiration and comfort. As Norman’s father reflects on his relationship with his son Paul, he notes, “We can love completely without complete understanding” (Maclean 117). This quote shows how the river is a powerful metaphor for the depth and complexity of human relationships. This shows how the river constantly connects to people Norman and Paul never met but somehow felt connected to all that has something to do with the river. This helps uncover the mask of the river and how the weird spiritual connections flow from a higher power and keep the world flowing.
Tim would have expected Life to be the most safe one of their family due to his loyalty to Britain, but he was captured anyway. The death of Life Meeker makes Tim develop a strong hatred toward the Loyalists due to the fact that they do not value loyalty or care about the innocent, such as this instance. Tis develops Tim’s final decision of neutrality is influenced by Jerry’s death because both the British and Patriots caused the death of the ones he cared most
There was no sense of morality or politics or duty. Tim completed what he was trained to do, and that was to defend the camp against the enemy. The lone soldier was the enemy. Later Tim views his actions as impulsive and regrets throwing the grenade, despite his peers’ support. Tim declares, “Sometimes I forgive myself, sometimes I don’t.
I 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.
Pg 178. At this lodge he met an older gentlemen named Elroy Berdahl, Tim had spent a total of 6 days at this lodge, where he learnt a lot about himself, Throughout the stay, Elroy never asked much about Tim; where he had come from, what he was running from, anything about his family. On the last day, Elroy had taken him out to go ‘’fishing’’ where they crossed the Canadian border, here is where Tim lost himself briefly, He thought about jumping and swimming across, He looked for reassurance, thinking ‘’ What would you do, would you jump?’’ He did this in his head but acted like he was talking to a different person. He then visioned his family and how they opposed what he was doing, his friends and future family as well.
My Kiowa Grandmother was taken from the book, The Way to Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Momaday. Momaday writes about his native tribe the Kiowa’s and grandmother because he wants to live it! He wants to feel, understand his roots, travel back in time. At his grandmother’s death, he decides to learn more about the Kiowa tribe by going to the funeral. The primary aim is Literary aim and secondary aim is Expressive aim.
In 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.
In “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)
The societal and social pressures weighing on Tim’s mind were explained well in paragraph 28, “My conscience told me to run, but some irrational and powerful force was resisting, like a weight pushing me toward the war.” With Tim’s extreme isolation, it was no surprise that these pressures could manifest in unusual ways. Towards the end of the short, Tim imagines a situation in which his family, friends, strangers, and prominent social figures were yelling at him from the Canadian shore. The societal isolation influenced who was there and what they were yelling. No card burning protesters were there to cheer him on, possibly because a week without the media pushed those memories aside.