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Summary Of On The Rainy River By Tim O Brien

520 Words3 Pages

Tim O’Brian is a novelist and a veteran of the Vietnam War. His stories have touch on his experience in the war and “On the Rainy River” was only slightly different. The short story went into detail of the time he was drafted to go to Vietnam. When Tim was drafted for the war his journey had archetypal aspects of the river, the wise man and the inner journey. The river was the center of the story, in an archetypal perspective the river is a representation of the transitional phase. As Tim began to travel to Canada he followed a river: “I headed straight west along the Rainy River, which separates Minnesota from Canada, and which for me separated one life from another.” (O’Brian). Tim knew he needed to cross the river to start his new life, as he walked along it the river resembled the transition he was either going to take or walk away from. O’Brian spent six days along the river thinking about what he would do next. …show more content…

“One thing for certain, he knew I was in desperate trouble. And he knew I couldn't talk about it.” Elroy gave his wisdom and minimal insight to Tim’s situation only when asked as he knew that Tim only needed time. Berdahl also helped Tim form an idea of what to do: “It struck me then that he must've planned it.… I think he meant to bring me up against the realities, to guide me across the river and to take me to the edge and to stand a kind of vigil as I chose a life for myself.” Elroy cleverly brought Tim out on the boat towards Canada giving him the nudge to make a decision of where to

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Decision Division: On The Rainy River By Tim O Brien

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The main characters, Tim O’Brien and Elroy Berdahl, meet as O’Brien resides at Berdahl’s Tip Top Lodge on the Rainy River. O’Brien is at Berdahl’s lodge for six days as he tries to decide whether to avoid the war and flee to Canada or go back to his hometown of Worthington, Minnesota and fight in the Vietnam War. On the final day of O’Brien’s stay at the Tip Top Lodge, Berdahl takes him fishing and gives him the opportunity to flee to Canada. O’Brien hallucinates and fights with himself whether or not to go to Canada but in the end, he ends up going back to Worthington, Minnesota, and later on to war. On the Rainy River by Tim O’Brien illustrates the pains of the Vietnam War as O’Brien gets drafted and as an

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Tim wanted a life with his brother Sam telling stories in Yale. But Sam wants to go to Puttman’s Camp Ground but ,Sam went AWL and now General Puttman wants to take away Sam’s life. Tim already lost his father , he can't lose his brother . So, Tim went find Sam ,however it was to late because he was shot the second

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On The Rainy River Character Analysis

807 Words | 4 Pages

How 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.

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I did not want to die"(O'Brien,21). The fear of death is a heavy psychological barrier that prevents a person from proceeding with a risky decision. This level of fear potentially leads to a personality change within a person and to their original beliefs. The result of carrying such fear is shown through Tim's decision to flee Canada. He says that "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"(O'Brien, 21).

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Conformity In On The Rainy River 'By Tim O' Brien

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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.

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Heroes In On The Rainy River By Tim O Brien

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After O’Brien tried to jump in he couldn’t he tried, the old man still remained quiet, knowing what was going on. “Elroy Berdahl remained quiet. He kept fishing. He worked his line with the tips of his fingers, patiently, squinting out at his red and white bobber on the Rainy River” (501-502). Elroy, still with his patience, knew what O’Brien wanted to do.

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The Things They Carried, written by Tim O’Brien, illustrates the experiences of a man and his comrades throughout the war in Vietnam. Tim O’Brien actually served in the war, so he had a phenomenal background when it came to telling the true story about the war. In his novel, Tim O’Brien uses imagery to portray every necessary detail about the war and provide the reader with a true depiction of the war in Vietnam. O’Brien starts out the book by describing everything he and his comrades carry around with them during the war. Immediately once the book starts, so does his use of imagery.

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Regret is a powerful emotion that has the ability to scar someone for the rest of their life. Moments of regret can come from relationships, self-made decisions and life changing events. The idea of regret also applies to “A Marker on the Side of the Boat” by Bao Ninh and “On the Rainy River” by Tim O’Brien. Although these two literary pieces are very different in many ways, both authors describe the experience of the Vietnam War as a time of regretful decisions that negatively impacted people of both the American side and the Vietnamese side. Both authors tell a story about a character that recalls of flashbacks of the war, where they grieve over the past decisions that have affected them for the rest of their life.

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On The Rainy River Critical Analysis

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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)

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The Things They Carried Internal Conflict Analysis

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In the book The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, the soldiers have to carry a lot of things physically and mentally. One of the biggest things the soldiers have to carry is conflict, but not just between other people, inside of themselves as well. In the book The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien the author has an internal conflict of whether to go fight in the war in Vietnam or to run away to Canada which he tells through the story “On the Rainy River.” An internal conflict is a conflict inside of a character in a story.

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On The Rainy River Theme

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Tim starts off by telling the readers that the story he is about

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