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The Rainy River In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

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On the Rainy River Analysis

One of the most compelling books I’ve read is The Things They Carried. This book is filled with many short stories of the Vietnam war. The Author tells the story from the perspective of the soldiers. This books shows us the sacrifice these men had to give for are freedom. The Things They Carried has many great stories by Tim O’brien, but On The Rainy River was my favorite and seemed to follow the psychological literary lens. This chapter not only showed his embarrassment but the strength behind his choice and what it meant to him, this chapter explains why he went to war. In June of 1968, Tim was drafted for the war. He was one month out of Macalester College. He couldn't believe it! You can apply the psychological lens at the beginning, when his thoughts of joining are just taking shape. He thought that he “was too good for this war, too smart, too compassionate, to everything”. Tim absolutely hates the idea and actually …show more content…

Tim “did not want people to think badly of him”, he “was ashamed”. He stared at his hands, then at canada. He then began crying and bawling. He “He would not do what he should do”, “he would not swim away from his town and life”. He was getting a better understanding of himself and his morals. He couldn't just leave his friends and family behind. He “would not be brave”. Tim could not leave his old life behind and swim to the Canadian shores because he would be to ashamed of what people would think of him and how he would think of himself. Tim said “ I would kill and maybe die- because I was too embarrassed not to”. He was not proud of his decision even though he thought that he made the right one then, years later after the war he viewed himself as a coward because he went to war. Although it was that shame that brought him into the war and why he was a

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At this time the man crosses to the Canadian shoreline, only twenty yards away from the boat. He turns around, bows his head away from Tim, and starts humming. At this time Tim starts to have a hallucination and is crying. He tries to jump over the boat but is unable to. “I couldn’t make myself be brave.

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The praises that you receive shouldn’t be based on the mere fact that you join but maybe for those who actually wants to serve and protect. In contrast, he says “Make that choice without looking back to see the cheering faces of those who tell you your duty is to do what they are not doing for purposes you may not know nor share” (Gillman 680). None the less, the author let the reader know that these young men and women risk their own lives for purposes which may not be of any value to themselves or the country. As a result, those purposes doesn’t deserve the praises that are

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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

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

839 Words | 4 Pages

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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Things They Carried By Tim O Brien: A Literary Analysis

1292 Words | 6 Pages

Readers, especially those reading historical fiction, always crave to find believable stories and realistic characters. Tim O’Brien gives them this in “The Things They Carried.” Like war, people and their stories are often complex. This novel is a collection stories that include these complex characters and their in depth stories, both of which are essential when telling stories of the Vietnam War. Using techniques common to postmodern writers, literary techniques, and a collection of emotional truths, O’Brien helps readers understand a wide perspective from the war, which ultimately makes the fictional stories he tells more believable.

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On The Rainy River Reader Response

612 Words | 3 Pages

As the author is told he is being drafted to war, he becomes very upset. He clearly does not want to be part of it. His initial says, “I was too good for this war. Too smart, too compassionate, too everything. It couldn’t happen.

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A Man's Courage In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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In Tim O’Brien’s book The Things They Carried he brings you into his life leading up to and through fighting in the Vietnam War. In the book he walks you through his journey of physical and personal struggles along with his fellow soldiers’. Throughout the book O’Brien gives you a sense of his own courage and how it evolves over time. Starting out when O’Brien is back in high school and the draft is rapidly approaching, he seems to be feeling very anxious and somewhat scared to be forced to fight. After his senior year in high school, getting ready to go off to Harvard to continue

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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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On The Rainy River Analysis

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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.

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Psychological Warfare In Tim O 'Brien's The Things They Carried'

772 Words | 4 Pages

Psychological Warfare in ​The Things They Carried Unless you have been in war or have read ​The Things They Carried​, you can't fully understand the psychological toll on a person's mind and body, you can't understand the psychological hardship soldiers go through in war. However, ​The Things They Carried​, by Tim O'Brien, is written to where it shows the overall psychological effects of war on soldiers in and out of Vietnam; as shown throughout the story, the recurring themes of trauma, love, and guilt give the clear psychological implications of war.

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A Long Way Gone Literary Analysis Essay

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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.

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Courage The dictionary definition of courage is “strength in the face of pain of grief.” Throughout the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, the common idea of courage is expressed with different meanings as each character interprets courage differently.

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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.

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Tim O Brien On The Rainy River Summary

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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.

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