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Tim O Brien On The Rainy River Symbolism

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"On the Rainy River" is a short story written by Tim O'Brien, through imagery and symbolism, explores the power of imagination and how it can shape an individual's willingness to embrace or reject an uncertain future. The story follows the narrator, a young man named Tim, as he grapples with the decision of whether to flee to Canada to avoid the draft during the Vietnam War. Through the use of imagery and symbolism, O'Brien illustrates the ways in which Tim's imagination both helps and hinders his ability to come to terms with his uncertain future. In the beginning of the story, the narrator can be described as a pacifist: someone who does not believe in war, someone who rather talk through each other’s differences without resorting nor believing that violence is the answer. This idea was supported through the description of the narrator as he question the exact reason why war should be wage, what started it?, “I saw no unity of purpose, no consensus on matters of philosophy or history or law…Who started it, and when, and why?...It was my view then, and still is, that you don’t make war without knowing why.” Which was …show more content…

Through his journey he came upon “cabins clustered on a peninsula that jutted northward into the Rainy River,” There he met the owner of the Tip Top Lodge: Elroy Berdahl. When he meets the old man on the rainy river, he is able to use his imagination to visualize a life in which he does not go to war. He sees himself living in Canada, working as a journalist and building a happy life with his own family. This visualization helps to give Tim hope and a sense of purpose, and it allows him to see that there may be other paths available to him besides the one he has always assumed he would follow. However, He experienced “moral freeze: [he] couldn’t decide, [he] couldn’t act, [he] couldn’t comport [himself] with even a pretense of modest human

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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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617 Words | 3 Pages

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.

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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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1292 Words | 6 Pages

O’Brien presents a variety of stories to present the complexity of war. “On The Rainy River” is a pre-war

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423 Words | 2 Pages

(page 68). This is why Tim O’Brien writes the way he does. He wants the reader to believe his story and get a sense of what war is truly

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483 Words | 2 Pages

There are many objects or scenes that have immense symbolism in The Things They Carried. The Things They Carried is a novel written by Tim O’Brien. The book is essentially stories through the different perspectives of people he went to the Vietnam War with, including himself. The title of the book in itself represents the basis of the story.

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758 Words | 4 Pages

In one scene Tim is describing the time when he decided to go to war instead of escape to Canada, “And right then I submitted. I would go to the war - I would kill and maybe die - because I was embarrassed not to,”(57). Tim is often shown to fear war. He never truly thought the war would come to him: When it did it affected his mental health. This quote shows how he is scared of war and that he is willing to give up his life to escape it.

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721 Words | 3 Pages

When Tim first got the draft letter in the mail he was unsure of what to think and thought “[he] was too good for this war”(P.39), so fleeing to the Rainy River would give him a break to truly listen and connect with his body and make a decision. Although there was a moment in the story when he wanted to go to Canada and be able to see freedom for the first time in a long time it also “separated one life from another. ”(P.45) The separation between his two lives was the breaking points the made him realize what his choice had to be; however, he didn't fully understand what his choice was until he was on the boat with Elroy Berdahl, the owner. Without Elroy having to say anything he realized that going to fight in the war would be the best thing for himself and everyone around him, as a result, that was how he was influenced to go to the war instead of

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648 Words | 3 Pages

The Things They Carried “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien is a short story set during the Vietnam War. In the story, O’Brien lists many different items soldiers in the Alpha Company carried with them as they humped across the rugged terrain. Many carried necessities such as rations, matches, ammunition and things of that nature; however, many soldiers also carried quite peculiar objects such as condoms, pantyhose, and M&Ms. Readers can grasp a closer insight of the characters’ lives after further examination of the symbolism and meaning of the things they carried.

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612 Words | 3 Pages

When the short story begins, it reveals that the author was overruled by the impact of the war and how it damaged him as an individual, and how he betrays his religion, family and self Right from the beginning of the book the man states that "This is one story I 've

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813 Words | 4 Pages

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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1102 Words | 5 Pages

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

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1184 Words | 5 Pages

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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645 Words | 3 Pages

“The only certainty that summer was moral confusion. It was my view then, and still is, that you don 't make war without knowing why. Knowledge, of course, is always imperfect,

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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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