Tim O’Brien, the author of The Things They Carried, is still undecided of whether to doge the draft and lose the respect of his family and friends, or go to the Vietnam War and lose his life, in the chapter “On The Rainy River”. Elroy’s actions reveal his good qualities that help Tim make this important decision, without any words of judgment or criticism. Elroy’s actions reveal heroic qualities. He is a silent Observer who helps Tim overcome his fears. When Tim decided to leave his hometown of Worthington
The relationship you have with others often has a direct effect on the basis of your very own personal identity. In the essay "On The Rainy River," the author Tim O'Brien tells about his experiences and how his relationship with a single person had effected his life so dramatically. It is hard for anyone to rely fully on their own personal experiences when there are so many other people out there with different experiences of their own. Sometimes it take the experiences and knowledge of others to
Gustave Caillebotte's Paris Street; Rainy Day The first thing that strikes me is the size of the work. About seven feet tall and nine feet wide, this painting dominates its gallery and overwhelms the viewer. The couple in the foreground of the painting is nearly life size, and with the man poised to take another step it seems he might climb right over the frame and walk right into the gallery. The bold perspective thrusts the scene outward, and with details such as the sharply receding
Tim O'brien's "On the Rainy River" Tim O'brien's "On the Rainy River" is a true story told by a 41 year old of his life at the age of 21. The fact that O'brien is writing this 20 years later adds a new aspect to the story. He describes himself as a young man with the world in his back pocket. O'brien has just graduated from Macalester College and has a free ride to Harvard. Unfortunately, his storybook world collapses when he receives a draft notice for the Vietnam war, a war that he has
Comparing Those Rainy Mornings, In The Cutting of A Drink, and The Return The two short stories "In the Cutting of a Drink" and "The Return" bring different responses from me. "In the Cutting of a Drink" makes me think about what it would be like to go into a new culture. It also makes me think about the current decline in moral values. "The Return" reminds me to be more thankful for the many things I take for granted. It also makes me think about how hard it can be to cope
Skecthing Gustave Calliebotte’s Paris Street; Rainy Day I can smell the rain on my jacket as my fingers numbly make their way across the pad, trying their best to capture an instant in time on a piece of yellow, college-ruled, notebook paper, despite my now apparent lack of artistic ability. As I am watching the scene unfold, I hardly notice the people walking around me, gazing at the same thing I am, before they move on. Cuddling under an umbrella, a man and his wife are casually strolling
chapter “The Lives of the Dead” Tim O’Brien uses symbolism and conflict to express the central idea that people can fail to be brave many times throughout the novel. One example in the story of conflict about being brave enough is in the chapter “On The Rainy River”. In this chapter, the setting is right before the war started and Tim O’Brien was drafted. His internal conflict was whether he should join the war or if he should run to Canada to escape
Momaday's The Way to Rainy Mountain: Summary N. Scott Momaday divides his book The Way to Rainy Mountain in an interesting manner. The book is divided into three chapters, each of which contains a dozen or so numbered sections, each of which is divided into three parts. The first part of each numbered section tends to be a legend or a story of the Kiowa culture. However, this characteristic changes a bit as the book evolves, as does the style and feel of the stories. The first passage in the first
Use of Angels in Smith’s Annunciation and Plath’s Black Rook in Rainy Weather Since biblical times, people have looked to angels as sources of comfort, inspiration, protection, and solace. Yet very little is said in the Bible about what angels actually are; the Bible focuses mainly on their deeds, and leaves their nature to the imagination. Consequently, few people really understand them, and the very notion of angels is a rather open-ended idea subject to personal interpretation and design
In the chapter the “Rainy River” of the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, O’Brien conveys a deep moral conflict between fleeing the war to go to Canada versus staying and fighting in a war that he does not support. O’Brien is an educated man, a full time law student at Harvard and a liberal person who sees war as a pointless activity for dimwitted, war hungry men. His status makes him naive to the fact that he will be drafted into the war and thus when he receives his draft notice, he
Analysis of N. Scott Momaday's The Way to Rainy Mountain The Way to Rainy Mountain has a distinct pattern in its form. In each section, it has three parts, each of whose separateness is clearly marked by its own place in each page and its own typeface: the legend, the history, and the personal memory. The pattern, however, never makes it simple for the readers to understand the novel. Rather, it confuses and bothers the readers by placing them where the double edges of reality meet.
Moral Strength in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and On The Rainy River In both The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, and “On The Rainy River” by Tim O’Brien, the main characters are faced with situations where they must do either what they think is right or what the rest of the world they know thinks they should do. Huck must choose either to save Jim and help him escape to freedom, and maintain loyalty to his friend, or do as society would dictate and let the runaway slave remain
is also interesting in the way the town people and Pastor Mander uses it. There are many symbols present throughout Ibsen’s work. Rain is used as a symbol of the cleansing of evil and impurities. Outside of Mrs. Alving’s home it remains rainy and stormy until she faces the truth about her husband. The rain washes away the disguises so that the truth may be seen. Generally when this takes place the sun, another symbol, rises, revealing the reality of the situation. Mrs. Alving said, “And
customs. When people don’t understand native’s points of view, they don’t understand how important their values are either. Every one of the chapters in Momaday’s, The Way to Rainy Mountain, mentions how important it is to listen to the traditional stories to understand the land. One key story of how the people of Rainy Mountain inherited the land states, "Her [Aho] forebears came down from the high country in western Montana nearly three centuries ago. They were a mountain people, a mysterious
Life can bring unexpected events that individuals might not be prepared to confront. This was the case of O’Brien in the story, “On the Rainy River” from the book The Things They Carried. As an author and character O’Brien describes his experiences about the Vietnam War. In the story, he faces the conflict of whether he should or should not go to war after being drafted. He could not imagine how tough fighting must be, without knowing how to fight, and the reason for such a war. In addition, O’Brien
is very evident in his work “The Way to Rainy Mountain,” and made even more apparent by reading a review of the book House Made of Dawn found on a web site run by HarperCollins Publishers. Throughout the essay “The Way to Rainy Mountain”, Momaday uses very descriptive words, which brings the places he is describing to life in the minds eye. The essay begins with his description of the homelands of his Kiowa people, which has been given the name of Rainy Mountain. The picture painted in the readers
To Go or Not To Go The Vietnam War was a very confrontational issue amongst numerous Americans during the 1960’s and 70’s. Many young Americans did not agree with fighting in the Vietnam War. In the essay “On the Rainy River,” by Tim O’Brien explains the struggle of a 21 year old American man who has been drafted to fight in the Vietnam War. The essay proposes the narrators predicament of not wanting to go to war and displays his reasons why. The narrator states that “American war in Vietnam seemed
I was walking down a run-down road accompanied only by the rattling tracks of a train zooming right above me, I felt the ground slightly rumble and so did the pigeons as they dispersed into the thick smog covering downtown San Francisco. I continued down the road with my hands firmly glued into my pockets as I passed two husky bikers leaning against the graffiti-ed wall of a run-down convenience store, staring at me as I pass their immaculate Harley’s With my mind drifting off, I stumbled on a rock
Personal respond of the text “on the rainy river” The role of relationship you have with other people often has direct influence on the individual choices and belief in the life. In the short story “on the rainy river”, the author Tim O’Brien inform us about his experiences and how his interacted with a single person had effected his life so could understand himself. It is hard for anyone to be dependent on just his believes and own personal experience, when there are so many people with different
would draw attention to themselves, but by being true to their own beliefs and by making a difference to the people around them. One of the most striking examples of a hero in O'Brien's novel is the character Elroy Berdahl in the story "On the Rainy River." Berdahl runs the Tip Top Lodge near the Canadian border and takes O'Brien in at a point in his life where he feels he has nowhere and no one to turn to. Berdahl does not question O'Brien or try to persuad... ... middle of paper ... ...SAP