How Does Tim O Brien Use Juxtaposition In On The Rainy River

What would you do if you were drafted in the war? Would you go to fight for your country? Or maybe you dont believe in it and decide to leave? Would you do it for your family and friends? Would you only think about yourself and your choice? These were the decisions many soldiers fought against before going to war, including the narrator of the book. In the chapter, "On The Rainy River" from his novel The Things They Carried, author Tim O'Brien uses the motif of pig stench, the symbolism of Elroy Berdahl, and juxtaposition to communicate how people who were drafted dealt with internal conflict between their beliefs and their country before and after the war.

Throughout the chapter, O'Brien uses sensory imagery to describe the main character

"At night I'd go home smelling of the pig. It wouldn't go away. Even after a hot bath, scrubbing hard, the stink was always there- like old bacon, or sausage, a dense greasy pig-stink that soaked deep into my skin and hair. Among the other things. I remember, it was tough getting dates that summer." (O'Brien, 43). This is one of the various times O'Brien has shown the smell of pig that continues to stay with the main character, as it shows how he succumbs to becoming lonelier, being left with his own thoughts about his life, and what to do with his future. Furthermore, as the idea of the war continues to haunt him, it causes him to slowly move away from the people in his

As we come to the end of the chapter, we find one more quote that juxtaposes how his conflict continues to stay with him despite the war being over. "I survived, but it's not a happy ending. I was a coward. I went to war."(O'Brien, 55). These last few words are used with juxtaposition to show how the conflict caused him to go to the war because of his community's thoughts of the draft. Unfortunately, even after the war had finished, he still thought his choice was wrong, and had to deal with the aftermath as well as his internal conflict. Although people would say that going to the war was the bravest thing to do, the main character still believed in it being wrong to go as well as deciding not to run away. For the fact is that he had only stayed because of the his community, how he was still pulled down by their standards and the people around him that he was too afraid to do what he thought was the right choice. By going into the war, he had survived watching his comrades die in the war, forced to fight in Vietnam with no clear goal. From the use of juxtaposition in this last passage, the reader is shown how even though Tim chose the decision that was said to be the right one, he still said that he was a coward for not going with what he truly believed