Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

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In chapter four of his novel The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien recalls his time right before and after he is drafted. The chapter begins with O’Brien working in a pork processing plant, which he despises because he goes home coated in and smelling of blood. When O’Brien discovers his number has been called for the draft, he feels paralyzed. His first thought is to run, as he does not fill the bill for the typical soldier, so he leaves during the middle of a workday, and he drives aimlessly north until he stumbles upon the Tip Top Lodge on the Rainy River, which is on the border of Canada and Minnesota. At the lodge, he befriends the owner, an old, skinny man named Elroy Berdahl. O’Brien helps him tidy the cabins, as Elroy helps him clear

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