When a person is drafted into war, they don’t really have a choice. It can be seen as a life or death situation, however the reality is the situation between what is socially acceptable. It’s in human nature to protect oneself from harm. Rational people would not willingly put oneself in danger. Who wants to die for an unknown cause? Being drafted into war is shocking. No one thinks it’s going to happen to them. The best solution out seems to be to run away. Running away from any impending danger. Running is considered cowardly. What keeps most away from this simple solution is the fear of shame. Embarrassment and ridicule are the strongest motivators. Humans are social animals. They look upon each other to do what is acceptable. They are raised to …show more content…
fear shame or a bad reputation.
Tim wasn’t an exception he started to run away, however he ultimately went to war because he, “was embarrassed not to”. His choice was common. Honor was everything.
Tim didn’t feel his past to be real. Looking back to the time of when he was drafted, Tim believes the events happened in some other dimension. He was going to Harvard on a scholarship. It must be a mistake. Being sent to war only happens to others. Never did Tim think he was going to be one of them. Tim was in denial and his life became a blur. During that summer he planned various times just to cross the border into Canada when he would be away from the draft notice. Tim was wiling to give up his life as he knew it for safety. Eventually he took off with his father’s car going north. What made him reach a decision was his stay at the Tip Top Lodge with the owner, Elroy. Tim didn’t really want to decide what to do. Elroy was just what he needed. Questions
would cause irrational thoughts. Tim drove North on an impulse, the draft notice suddenly becoming unbearable. A notice comes to an unsuspecting young Tim. When someone thinks of war, they think of death. It is a logical thing to think that a draft notice can be also be called a death notice. The human body is trained to get away from, dander as fast as possible. Tim is feeling the weight of the notice and finds the need to leave everything behind in order to save himself from any impending danger. He’s done a great job to take care of himself. Tim doesn’t drink or smoke and has a promising future. It looks like Tim has decided to escape from the draft notice. No one could pressure him from so far away. The Tip Top Lodge gave him time to think. Keeping busy was a way not to but Tim would eventually have to actually think things through. Finishing a letter to his parents, talking about the old times. He is letting go of his past for his own safety. Is it really such a hard thing to relate to? Contradicting feelings and motivations. Most decisions are made because fear is the biggest motivator. Tim simply chose which fear was greater. He chose which fear stirred up the most emotions. Denial comes to the point where Tim wants to stop thinking. Elroy would have no one of that. He wants Tim to really things through before making a final decision. Elroy takes Tim to the Rainy River. When the boat stops Tim realizes that Canada and his safety is only a few yards away. It’s the perfect chance to escape the draft notice. All of his problems would be over in a short swim. Tim couldn’t do it. The perfect chance was blocked by the reality crashing onto him. “It was no longer a possibility”. Escaping the draft notice has become nothing more than a fleeting dream. Tim understands that he would go to war. Why? He was afraid of the shame that would befall him and the town gossip. He saw people from is hometown on the shore. They pressured him. Social rejection and ridicule became his motivation. Men are placed on a standard of being brave and are pressured to be masculine. Although men are human, it is not actually socially acceptable for a man to cry in public. When they are fighting for their country it is the biggest honor they can have. Everyone seems to be rooting him on. With the world on his shoulders Tim couldn’t leave the boat. The embarrassment stopped him dead in his tracks. The boat ride finalized his decision. Tim cried because he was a coward. “I would to war- I would kill and maybe die- because I was embarrassed not to”. Tim’s safety was compromised because of embarrassment. No morals were considered. He tries to get off the boat, to escape the draft notice. He imagines people from, his hometown and others on the shore. The people he sees on the shore shout at him. They call him a traitor in which Tim decides to go to war. He wants everything to stop. His fears are reflected upon the people. He is afraid of the social rejection and embarrassment. The plain humiliation that running away was going to cause, outweighed any other arguments. It wasn’t a choice anymore, it was human nature. The one where social acceptance was king. Tim received the draft notice in the summer of 1968. He thought over his “choices” and tried to decide his next course of action. He felt the unbearable need to escape the draft notice. Safety was his primary concern. No one wants to risk their life for something they don’t really care about or don’t give much thought to. Being forced to fight someone else’s war creates a righteousness that makes a person deny what they have to do. By law, when a person is drafted into war, they have to go to war. People who are drafted into war are usually sent to the frontlines where many die or suffer grave casualties. Tim wanted to escape. He wanted to run away. Embarrassment stopped him. He went to war because he was afraid of shame. The society where Tim was raised him taught him what was acceptable and to take care of one’s reputation. In a small town, people are always looking for something to gossip about. They are looking for something to excite their simple dull lives.
Tim Meeker is forced to choose either the Tory side or the Rebel side of the Revolutionary War, and from there, he has to defend his beliefs and opi...
This idea and the drafted make decide to run away from his responsibility and from his society. However, the feeling of shame embarrassed and bring crowed in the eyes of his family and friends make him go to war.
Tim O’Brien finds himself staring at his draft notice on June 17, 1968. He was confused and flustered. O’Brien does not know how or why he got selected for the draft. All he knew was that he was above the war itself, “A million things all at once—I was too good for this war. Too smart, too compassionate, to everything. It couldn’t happen” (41). He was also demented on the fact that he, a war hater, was being drafted. He felt if anyone were to be drafted it should be the people who supported the war. “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” (42). His draft notice was when he first carried his thought of embarrassment. He instantly thought if he does not support the war he should not have to go to war. The only way not to go to war was to flee the country so the draft council could not find him. He had a moral split. “I feared the war, yes, but I also feared exile” (44). This quote is so true in young adults, not only then, but also now. Peer pressure, the thought of being embarrassed if we do not do something, pushes many young adults to do things they do not want to such as pushing Tim O’Brien to enter the draft. The thought of being judged ...
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
Tim is a well educated graduating student from Macalester College and a man who sometimes gets sidetracked with his own fantasy world presented in the first paragraph “Tim O’Brien: a secret hero. The Lone Ranger. If the stakes ever become high enough-if the evil were evil enough, if the good were good enough-I would simply tap a secret reservoir of courage that had been accumulating inside me over the years” which shows how individualistic Tim is and his wishes to be able to control his courage which he later explains “offered hope and grace”. Tim is a self-confident character, but imagining himself going to war is not in his best interest as he holds himself to the highest standard stating “I was too good for this war. Too smart, too compassionate, too everything. It couldn’t happen. I was above it.”. Tim had experienced the outdoors and despised of it; he loved his studies and the thought of him receiving scholarships to further educate himself motivated him even more. One of the most compelling evidence that causes Tim to change his mind is when Tim is on a fishing boat with Elroy and Tim begins to see an illusion of his family, friends, his past teachers and others that have been involved in his life. Such an event caused a dramatic change in Tim as gives up his hope of going to Canada and states “And right then I submitted. I would go to war-I would kill and maybe die-because I was embarrassed not to.”. Ultimately, Tim’s decision of heading to war was meat because of his family and friends little did he know of the regret this decision would cause
Tim O’Brien is doing the best he can to stay true to the story for his fellow soldiers. Tim O’Brien believed that by writing the story of soldiers in war as he saw it brings some type of justice to soldiers in a war situation.
The cruel and unnecessary death of Tim’s best friend, Jerry, had a major impact on his choice of neutrality. Losing anybody in your life can make a drastic impact on a person’s life but it was the way Jerry had died that really made Tim think about his choice. Jerry had been taken by the
Although the United States has replaced a partially drafted army with an all-volunteer army, the Selective Service System stills allows men to be drafted if the military is too small (Olson-Raymer, par. 48-50). When the United States invaded Iraq, hundreds of thousands of Americans voluntarily enlisted (par. 55). Despite this, military personnel claimed that there was a shortage of soldiers, and a draft would be beneficial in the war effort (Thompson, par. 7). Fortunately, the draft remained and still remains unnecessary. Whenever a draft has been implemented in the United States, controversy has ensued. Some people think a draft
To each and every person, war means something different. For some, it is against the things they believe in, but for others it is everything that they believe in. In America, the men and women have the privilege to determine whether or not they are a part of serving this country by going into: the marines, navy, national guard, air force, etc. Previous to this choice being available, they had what was called the military draft. The military draft is where men from the ages 18 to 25 years old legally have to register with Selective Services where you could potentially be chosen to go to war. The inadequacy to register into the draft could result in the forfeiture of the rights and privileges that are given to the average American. With
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.
Most people are willing to die for the ones they love. People often will die for their loved ones because they would rather have themselves die than the other person. I would die for my country if I had too. I probably wouldn’t go fight for my country unless they needed me because it’s not what I want to do in life. I think it would only be an illogical idea to serve your country if you knew that it was basically just suicide mission. It would also be illogical if you didn’t want to do it and they didn’t need you
...im to write about his platoon members. Because Tim O’Brien goes to Vietnam and faces the stress and deals with the trauma his character is forever altered. This is the Tim O’Brien who discovers that one can never die.
Being a young adult between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five can be very difficult. I know this because I am twenty-two years old. At this age, there are many concerns about the future and a career. Making many important decisions which will affect the rest of your life is common during these ages. This is the age when the majority of people are getting married, having families, and buying houses of their own. Many young men and women of this age group are graduating from college and ready to start their careers. Being a young adult can be very challenging; however, it can be the best time of life. These aspects of a young adult's life were not that much different during the Vietnam time period. Unfortunately, many of these men were not able to make these decisions. Millions of men were forced, drafted, into a battle that many "considered to be illegal and immoral (Maxwell 37). It's hard to imagine basically being forced to put life on hold, leave family, and risk life fighting a war. Some men were opposed to the draft, and were determined to find ways to avoid it; on the other hand, many men accepted the terms of the draft. I believe a person has a right to make his own decision about fighting in a war. In the Vietnam time era, the concerns of a man who was getting drafted went from bettering his and his families’ life to deciding to go to war or find an alternative. Going to war meant personal hardships, loss of income, leaving family, and potential of losing one's life. I can understand a person’s determination to avoid the draft. Whatever choice the men made, the consequences were dangerous and sometimes deadly. Until 1973, the choices of draft age men were to serve in the military, receive a deferment if qualified and ava...
Despite this story being extremely specific in details and sounding extremely real O’Brien admits that the story of the Tip Top Lodge is a fictional story. The author indeed had an internal struggle when he received his draft notice however, he never actually fled to the Canadian border. According to Tim O’Brien the point of the story was not to give the reader true facts but to use details and facts to give an actual account of how he felt about the current situation. Despite the story not being the actual truth, the stories convey the emotional truth the author was
The United States is an extremely affluent country, however, the U.S. government does not allocate its funds correctly. The government spends entirely too much of the budget on military spending. A segment of the military budget should go towards education. Education is completely undervalued in America and is often pushed to the side in political debates. Conversely, several of the top-ranked countries in education are also flourishing economically. Even though the U.S. is struggling to compete in education, the government has all but given up at this point. There are no signs of increased education spending or a decrease in military spending. How is this country supposed to continue to grow and move forward if the citizens