Tim O 'Brien recalls when, many years after the war, Lt. Jimmy Cross visits him .They spent the day looking at old photographs and talking, remembering both the good and bad memories from the war. Tim asked Jimmy about Martha. He got pretty surprised when Jimmy shows a photograph of Martha playing volleyball , because he thought Jimmy had burned it after one of his men died. At first Jimmy did
A Simple Decision Making decisions in life is like growing a flower. Each and every day it may seem like nothing has changed, but later in the future, every choice one makes will lead to a blooming future. Some decision results little to no effect, while others, leave collateral damage affecting one’s life forever and those around them. Many ordinary decisions can end in regret; on the other hand, constructing a right decision can also leave great memories. The book I Am A Seal Team Six Warrior by Stephen Templin clearly interprets Howard E. Wasdin’s extraordinary life of becoming a soldier who protects the country he loves.
“On the Rainy River”, an intimate chapter between Tim O'Brien and the reader digs deep within O’Brien’s mind, revealing his extensive fear of going to war and how far he would reach to avoid it. More than 60,000 men avoided the draft for the Vietnam War, O’Brien taking part in that number. Burning draft cards, ignoring “casting” calls and fleeing to Canada grew as young American men were being called to fight a war none had wanted to take part in. Without confronting his parents about the situation from the start, Tim O’Brien fled to the Tip Top Lodge which “jutted northward into the Rainy River”; not quite Canada, but close enough to execute his decision when made(47). Home, a place known to be safe and comforting for O’Brien, where his loved
This quote is from O’Brien the author himself admitting that he couldn’t be brave enough to leave his country and that he was embarrassed of what he was trying to do. So, he told himself that he would go to war, kill and maybe die because of the embarrassment idea he made. The idea of this quote is to explain what he feeling/confusion between what he’d do. Should he go to war? Or should he leave his loved ones and country behind.?
The main character, Tim O'Brien, in the story On The Rainy River, is shown to be a round dynamic overall through his personality and belief change to war. The indications of a dynamic character are when a character goes through significant changes to their personality or other inner beliefs. The first indication of such change is shown through the initial and post-change moments of his stance on participating in the war. Tim's stance was that "when a nation goes to war, it must have reasonable confidence in the justice and imperative of its cause"(O'Brien, 20). Through this statement.
In fact, O’Brien debunks the assumption that men go to fight in wars to become heroes, for he did not go to the war to be recognized as a hero. Instead, Tim O’Brien, like so many others, initially wanted to avoid the draft, but succumbed to the pressures of society, that still continues on to this day. The men, especially the draftees, never quite know what they’re getting into, and wars bring out every emotion in a person through different experiences. In his book, O’Brien states, “Getting shot should be an experience from which you can draw some small pride…” (182). This quote emphasizes the moments of the war in which men muster up what little they would have ever opened up to when they speak of their experiences.
In conclusion, it is reasonable to say that Tim O’Brien needs to be harsh in his self-criticism because he values himself more than he does others. He also believes that society should see him as a high class character who can contribute to the good of humanity. Thought, he displays a good example that supports this argument through his work ethics, both in school and in the pig factory, this only proves that he is incapable of doing the society any good. Since he has a paucity of perseverance which may deplete further if he chose to stay in Canada instead of going to the war. Furthermore, O’Brien displays himself as a vain character who believes that he is above anyone else, and therefore should not have been drafted for the war.
In his book, Autopsy of War, the author, John Parrish, states, “I felt I was being unfairly compared to my saintly older brother, whose virtues became more remarkable with the passage of time.” Parrish considered that he was not good enough to be appreciated by his parents. All of his actions were compared to his brothers’, and no one had seen his personal virtues and talents. Felling neglected, Parrish became reserved and not willing to socialize with his peers. This state of being isolated persisted during the entire life.
In this poem, Baudelaire is having a conversation with his soul. He regards life as a hospital in which the patients long to change their beds. Baudelaire believes he’ll be happier elsewhere, and asks his soul “where?” He then suggests a variety of places that he knows his soul may take a liking to.
O’Brien tells the readers about him reflecting back twenty years ago, he wonders if running away from the war were just events that happened in another dimension, he pictures himself writing a letter to his parents: “I’m finishing up a letter to my Parents that tells what I'm about to do and why I'm doing it and how sorry I am that I’d never found the courage to talk to them about it”(O’Brien 80). Even twenty years after his running from the war, O’Brien still feels sorry for not finding the courage to tell his parents about his decision of escaping to Canada to start a new life. O’Brien presented his outlook that even if someone was not directly involved in the war, this event had impacted them indirectly, for instance, how a person’s reaction to the war can create regret for important friends and
“Vietnam was lost in the living rooms of America, not on the battlefields of Vietnam”- Marshall Mcluhan. In the novel The Things They Carried, written by Tim O’Brien uses his personal experiences to describe his time spent in Vietnam throughout the war. The reason the novel is written in a nonlinear format because he is writing the novel as he recalls his experiences. However, the main purpose of him writing the novel was to help people understand what the soldiers had went through and the truth about the Vietnam War is known to the public. Tim O’Brien uses themes such as storytelling/memory and morality to demonstrate the impact of the experiences the soldiers endured and how that has affected their daily lives.
It was not Tim’s sense of nationalist loyalties that caved him; rather, it was helplessness and his reputation that was at risk. Tim O’Brien longed to be that “secret hero” or “Lone Ranger” in order to impress those around him. However, he ends up learning that courage does not come in finite quantities. He finds himself resenting authority, “If you support a war, if you think it’s worth the price, that’s fine, but you have to put your own precious fluids on the line”. No matter how much he may find the law cruel and inhuman, he has is too prideful and decides to comply with the rules.
In The Things They Carried, a collection of stories written by Tom O’Brien, the narrator is forced to choose between his morals and the future of his life. In the summer of 1968, the narrator received the notice that he was drafted to service in the war. “[He] was too good for this war”(39), he was Phi Beta Kappa, class president and had a scholarship to Harvard, but that didn’t make a difference. None of those things could have saved him from a war in which he did not believe in. The only way which he could save himself would be to create a lie.
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.
This is evident when Mr. O’Brien says, “I would go to the war – I would kill and maybe die – because I was embarrassed not to,” (pg. 57.) In the end the author realized what he must do and went back home, so he could fight in the Vietnam
