Comparing The Company Man And The Unknown Citizen

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.

Both narratives compare as timeless tales of reputable heroes. They both include similar plots of long journeys back home. The main characters’ flaws are arrogance which is the source of many of their troubles.

Life can bring unexpected events that individuals might not be prepared to confront. This was the case in the short story “On The Rainy River” written by Tim O’Brien. Young Tim is drafted to the military to fight the American War in Vietnam. He faces the conflict of whether he should or should not go to war after being drafted. The thought of giving up the future he has worked so hard for and instead fight a war “for uncertain reasons” terrifies him. He must make the agonizing decision of whether to pursue his personal desire and in turn be shamed by society or conform, sacrificing his ideals in the process.

Overall, these are two great stories that give the reader a better idea of what war can and most likely will do to a person. Although there are differences, the similarities are

The first character in the story is Jimmy Cross. Jimmy Cross and Tim O’Brien had a somewhat decent relationship after the war. “Many years after the war Jimmy Cross came to visit me at my home in Massachusetts, and for a full day we drank coffee and smoked cigarettes and talked about everything we had seen and done so long ago, all the things we still carried through our lives.” This quote is very powerful in its message. Then messages is that these stories weren't just war stories, those war stories strengthened their bond. Although they had some bad times, they also had funny and good

In comparison with the two stories and being under the government and the “World Society,” having to understand of them two and how they relate of how the society not having the freedom, being controlled by their own future. The people or the society, are afraid to prevail fear to take action and willing to do it without exception.

When the Vietnam war took place, many people protested against it as they believed that the war’s purpose was illogical and unreasonable. Many people tried to protest against it in different ways; for example, men who were drafted to the war fled the country - as a form of protest - in order to dodge the draft. Stories like “On the Rainy River” and “John Strickland: Draft Dodger” show how men reacted when they were drafted to the Vietnam War, a war which they were opposed to. In the story “On the Rainy River” - the story was written by an author was also named Tim O’Brien just like the main character in the story - O’Brien was opposed to the war as he believed that the war was unjust and unreasonable and saw it as unnecessary. He tried to flee the country to dodge the draft but he couldn’t bring himself to do it as he felt too guilty and ashamed of his decision to avoid fighting in the war. However, in the story “John Strickland: Draft Dodger” - the story was written by John Strickland himself - Strickland, a man who also disagreed with the reason for the war, fled the country as he didn’t believe in fighting in a war which had no solid purpose. From his perspective, fleeing the country to dodge the draft was his way of protesting against the war. Both Strickland and O’Brien didn’t agree or support the war for similar reasons. Yet, only Strickland stuck to his convictions and dodged the draft to show that he was against the war whereas O’Brien wasn’t

Both stories, CTC and TRBOC, are about the hardships of war and the context makes it very clear that that is what it is about. Though “CTC”’s context made it very obvious that war was the stories context. It took TRBOC about a paragraph for the context of war to hit most readers if they didn’t know what the writing was about. +It proves that both context are the same showing that both situations are almost exactly similar.

decides to lie about his war stories and his experiences to make his family and his hometown

Both characters act completely different when confronted by another character in the story. The man is more concerned about the safety of the boy and himself. However, the boy wants to do anything and everything to help anyone that they come across. For example, during one situation in the story, a thief attempted to steal all their belongings. When the man caught him, the boy started crying, “Papa?...Papa please don’t kill the man” (McCarthy 256). In contrast, after the man caught the thief the man held him at gun point and said, “If you dont put down the knife and get away from the cart...I’m going to blow your brains out” (McCarthy 256).The man is more concerned with their safety, whereas the boy is concerned about the wellbeing and safety of the thief. The man acts in a similar manner to Ely when the boy wants to give him food, “In the morning they stood in the road and he and the boy argued about what to give the old man” (McCarthy 173). These two characters can collide sometimes when deciding on whether or not they should give food to people like Ely or “The Lightning Man”. Not only are they different when confronted by another character, they are also different on the way they look at arising situations.

At 12 years old, his father began leaving him in charge of his automobile repair shop.“I got to do things that were probably ahead of most kids today.” With a smile on his face, he described how he gained confidence from working in his Dad’s shop, and how his community had a similar attitude concerning responsibility. “Those kids were growing up on the farm. My uncles at 8 years old, were driving the cows 3 miles!” “My mother at 8, was babysitting her 2 year old brother!”. This work in the shop made Dennis feel as though he was growing up, and that he could handle himself like an adult. The fact that his father was incredibly loose, and allowed him to work at such a young age, taught Dennis about work ethic and responsibility. These experiences would make him the confident and nimble leader he would need to be, later on in the Vietnam

One of the main conflicts in the story are man vs. society and man vs. himself..

Outsider’s are usually an outlier of a group, and are viewing the group from an outside point of view, rather than actually in the action. Not being part of the group can oftentimes cause them to feel left out, because they don’t have a lot in common with the main group of people. In the short story, “On the Rainy River” by Tim O’Brien, the main character, who 's also happens to be named Tim O’Brien, is a young adult who happens to get drafted in the war two months after he graduates college. However he doesn’t believe in the war, and in college he even made a couple of editorials about how the war was wrong. Tim not

Tim O’Brien tells the story of him and his platoon in Vietnam as well as a little about what each had experienced before and after the war. He tells each story in different way to elaborate on different things that happened around the same time. This complicated method emphasizes how he and each of his platoon member felt together while in Nam.It may jump from tale to tale in the stroy, but it has a clear message. In the story The Things They Carried O’Brien explains in different ways about being away from home can cause dramatic changes to someone in an alienating or a beneficial way.

Not everything was as pretty as it seemed, their family had issues that they had to overcome and the fear of loosing the battle away and at home was something that he struggled with on a daily basis when he was young. His mother was left with the entire burden when his father left and it eventually became too much to handle. His mother became an alcoholic and he and his family suffered tremendously from his mother’s sickness. He felt like if he had let his father down when he came home to find this out. Living with all females and putting up with them was too much for him that he decided to convince his father to send him to military school. This was the best thing that happened to him, because from here on he lived an Army world.