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Text of on the rainy river by tim o'brien
On the rainy river answers
The effect of religion on war
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In his story “On the Rainy River” Tim O’Brien is explaining to us how he had to chose to either go to war or stay at his home. He had to make a big decision about if he really wanted to go to Vietnam War. Some things that stand out about the main character is that he is a very brave person and will give up his body to do what is right. While reading this I can see that the main character is very powerful and very unafraid of certain things. At the same time he also was afraid of certain things because he does not believe in the war. He doesn’t necessarily believe in the war he really just doesn’t support it at all. Even though he really doesn’t support this he still ends up going because it’s in his religious to do things like that. Another …show more content…
He went to the bow of the boat and cried inside of a boat. It was very loud and very hard. Elroy was still with him so he just remained quiet and just kept fishing. Elroy was very quiet as if there was no one there, as if Tim was just in the boat and nothing around him but water and maybe some trees. I think at this moment Elroy know that going through this process is real. As they return home, Tim drives threw the whole town that he is familiar with and goes through certain forest such as the pine forest and to the prairie. After he passes through everything he wanted he was finally on his way to Vietnam where he would finally be a soldier. During the war he would survive but he says it wasn’t a happy ending because he felt like he was a coward. So my conclusion is that I see why he had second thoughts about going to war. The reason he had second thoughts is because he didn’t want to leave so many love ones and other people that were important to him. If that was me I probably would have second thoughts to because I don’t want to die early or leave everything behind. Tim also has second thoughts because he knows the consequences if he doesn 't go to the war. I feel his pain and what he was going through because this is a big step in life of what he had to go through. Now that he finally went to war I know that his family is most likely proud of what he did even though Tim isn’t proud of himself. During this whole story I know Tim experiences great courage and a whole new part of life. One last thing I think is that Tim might have overcame his fear of certain things and making a decision to overcome
Life can sometime bring unwanted events that individuals might not be willing to face it. This was the conflict of O’Brien in the story, “On The Rainy River”. As the author and the character O’Brien describes his experiences about the draft to the Vietnam War. He face the conflict of whether he must or must not go to the war, in this moment O’Brien thinking that he is so good for war, and that he should not be lost in that way. He also show that he disagree with the consbet of the war, how killing people will benefit the country. In addition O’Brien was terrifying of the idea of leaving his family, friends, and everything that he has done in the past years.
Tim O'Brien is confused about the Vietnam War. He is getting drafted into it, but is also protesting it. He gets to boot camp and finds it very difficult to know that he is going off to a country far away from home and fighting a war that he didn't believe was morally right. Before O'Brien gets to Vietnam he visits a military Chaplin about his problem with the war. "O'Brien I am really surprised to hear this. You're a good kid but you are betraying you country when you say these things"(60). This says a lot about O'Brien's views on the Vietnam War. In the reading of the book, If I Die in a Combat Zone, Tim O'Brien explains his struggles in boot camp and when he is a foot soldier in Vietnam.
In “The Dentist” Curt Lemon had a more than healthy tooth ripped out to prove he was brave. This wasn 't really a form of courage but more of a shield to protect himself from the fear and weakness that drove him to dislike the dentist in the first place. In “On the Rainy River” Tim does not believe in the war. He has no clue why the war even began in the first place, and has no idea who the president of North Vietnam is for that matter. Tim believes that he is “above” the war but the pressure from his community forces him to be shipped off to war. Hesitant to go, Tim knows he must go so that he does not look like a coward in front of his family and friends. He does not believe that men go to war due to there overwhelming urge to fight for their country or to show off their bravery but to show that they are courageous instead of cowardly. Although soldier’s are glorified as brave and strong, they still fear embarrassment and shame. When Tim lost his first crush due to a fighting battle with cancer, he never recovered from the affects death had on him. O’Brien’s shows that his fears ran deeper than being cowardly— he feared death more than
He had difficulty keeping his attention on the war. On occasion he would yell at his men to spread out the column, to keep their eyes open, but then he would slip away into daydreams, just pretending, walking barefoot along the Jersey shore, with Martha, carrying nothing. Linda was what kept Tim going throughout the book, even if only just her memory played a big role in his life. Dying from a brain tumor when they were just nine, she inspired him to keep fighting when life was hard. To him she was always nearby in spirit.
Tim O’Brien begins his journey as a young “politically naive” man and has recently graduated out of Macalester College in the United States of America. O’Brien’s plan for the future is steady, but this quickly changes as a call to an adventure ruins his expected path in life. In June of 1968, he receives a draft notice, sharing details about his eventual service in the Vietnam War. He is not against war, but this certain war seemed immoral and insignificant to Tim O’Brien. The “very facts were shrouded in uncertainty”, which indicates that the basis of the war isn’t well known and perceived
The author, Tim O'Brien, is writing about an experience of a tour in the Vietnam conflict. This short story deals with inner conflicts of some individual soldiers and how they chose to deal with the realities of the Vietnam conflict, each in their own individual way as men, as soldiers.
The Civil War, World War I, the Vietnam War, World War II, and the conflict in the Middle East are all wars that have been fought over the difference of opinions, yet come at the cost of the soldier 's fighting them; Humans killing other humans, and death is just one of the many emotional scars soldiers of war face. Why do we go to war when this is the cost? For many it is because they are unaware of the psychological cost of war, they are only aware of the monetary cost or the personal gains they get from war. Tim O 'Brien addresses the true cost of war in "The Things They Carried". O 'Brien suggests that psychological trauma caused by war warps the perception of life in young Americans drafted into the Vietnam War. He does this through Lieutenant
Everyday individuals face decisions in which they must choose whether to do what is appealing to them or to choose a more suitable and compliable choice. In the fictional work of ‘The Things They Carried’ by Tim O’ Brien, certain characters such as Tim O’ Brien himself must face decisions similar to these. The novel demonstrates that when an individual is faced with a decision in which there is a choice that he may have to conform, the individual tends to conform due to not wanting to embarrass themselves or to not be portrayed as a coward to others. However when the individual is challenged with these types of decisions, the choice does not matter since the outcome will be what the individual was trying to avoid. That is to say that in the excerpt “The Rainy River” Tim O’ Brien was going through a conflicting decision on whether or not he should go to the war. Yet, as we see it turns out that either choice will lead to either shame or cowardice. If he goes to the war he feels that he will be a coward and that he gave up his own morals and values and accepted something he does not believe in, but if he does not go to war he will be shunned by society and will be labelled as a coward because he will not fight for his country.
The United States became frustrated with the death of wounded prisoners in Vietnam War. This is so deleterious John F Kennedy sends a warning to the west. Tim O’Brien Story about Vietnam could have been a biography because he played a role and it is based on a somewhat a true Story. O’Brien didn’t go through with this because of what he wrote is what he did see, what could have happened, and what he kept from being told. In the book simple themes guilt, shame, and innocence play a vital role in the soldier’s life.
Tim O’Brien is drafted one month after graduating from Macalester College to fight a war he hated. Tim O’Brien believed he was above the war, and as a result pursued the alternative of escaping across the border to Canada. This understandable act is what Tim O’Brien considers an embarrassment to himself, and to others. When Tim O’Brien finds accommodation on the border to Canada, he meets Elroy Berdahl who eventually influences Tim O’Brien, to change. Elroy Berdahl acts as a mentor to Tim, a figure that remains detached in the sense that he must provide enough support and understanding without being attached to the results.
Overall, the author showed us the courageous and coward s acts of O’Brien the character. The fact that he was a coward made him do a heroic act. O’Brien made the valiant decision to go to war. It would have been easier and cowardly to jump and swim away from all his fears. However he decided to turn back, and fight for something he did not believe in. Thinking about the consequences of running away makes him a hero. He went to war not because he wanted to fight for his country, but for his own freedom. Either choice he could have made would take some kind of courage to carry out. Going to war required some sort of fearlessness. In other words, running away from the law would have been brave; but going to war was even tougher.
Although the soldiers were united and served for the same goal, each of the men had a different motivation. For O’Brien, his motivation to join the war was the shame of running away. Almost all of the characters were afraid of being ashamed, and that served as a drive for them to do acts of heroism and similarly acts of stupidity. For example, in the story “On the Rainy River”, shame drove O’Brien to do an act of heroism as a fear of being ashamed. O’Brien wrote “For more than twenty years I 've had to live with it, feeling the shame, trying to
Tim O'Brien does not go to war because he believes in its vitality. He never goes to war because he knows it strengthens his country. He goes to war because he is consumed by the pure embarrassment of his cowardice. His bravery is nonexistent; it is a combination of fear and shame masquerading as courage that forces him to be a hero. Without his fear, he would never have submitted his life to the insignificant
Behind every war there is supposed to be a moral—some reason for fighting. Unfortunately, this is often not the case. O’Brien relays to the readers the truth of the Vietnam War through the graphic descriptions of the man that he killed. After killing the man O’Brien was supposed to feel relief, even victory, but instead he feels grief of killing a man that was not what he had expected. O’Brien is supposed to be the winner, but ends up feeling like the loser. Ironically, the moral or lesson in The Things They Carried is that there is no morality in war. War is vague and illogical because it forces humans into extreme situations that have no obvious solutions.
The three character perspectives on war are interpreted entirely differently. Tim O’Brien is illustrated as the most sensitive soldier out of the three. “His jaw was in his throat, his upper lip and teeth were gone, his one eye was shut, his other eye was a star-shaped hole.” (124). Tim’s sensitivity is revealed when he shows how bewildered he is as he stares at the lifeless Viet Cong body.