On The Rainy River Critical Analysis

Through the initial characterization of young Tim, O’Brien suggests that when faced with unexpected life changing dilemmas people will more often than naught end up clouded judgement and panic. Young Tim is ambitious and well educated, he is on his way to Harvard University on a scholarship. His life is heading in the best direction possible. This is until he receives the draft letter. His ideals “hurtling down a huge black funnel” and all he can do is “nothing …wait.” His helpless soon becomes rage, rage towards the government who’s motives for the war “were shrouded in uncertainty”. He is “too good for this war. Too smart, too compassionate, too everything.” “Why don’t they “draft some back-to-the-stone-age hawk?” Why must he, who doesn’t support this “uncertain” war “put [his] own precious fluids on the line.” As “the rage in [his] stomach” “burned down” he soon

The character that’s made an outsider is Tom Robinson. Tom Robinson is an outsider because of his skin colour, and was accused of raping Mayella Ewell. But him being black was the main reason as to why he was the outsider.

In a later discussion, O’Brien said the chapter “On The Rainy River” is not a true story. The chapter is a fictionalized account of what would’ve happened if he ran away to avoid the draft like he wanted to. This same strategy was applied when he wrote “The Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong”. While O’Brien was in Vietnam, Someone likely joked about how easy it would be to bring a girl to their base. He takes the concept and makes uses it as a vehicle to discuss innocence. We are even told in the beginning to the chapter that the story comes from Rat Kiley who has a history of exaggeration and spicing up stories (Citation Needed for Paraphrase)

Tim O’brien in chapter 4 “Rainy River” in The Things They Carried claims that courage comes “to us in finite quantities like an inheritance”. He claims that courage can be stashed away until the day that it's needed like money. Obriens use of complex sentences and serious tone affects the reader in a strong way making his argument look more correct . O’briens argument about courage was shown well however, i didn't feel it was effective because, I simply didn't agree with his argument. O’briens analogy seems like a good comparison to the claim that he tries to make towards courage.

Tim still chooses neutrality because his brother gets executed for something that he didn’t do and he is killed by his own sied the Patriots. Tim chooses neutrality because on both sides both his brother and dad get killed by the side they were on. In reality both Patriots and Loyalists are not loyal. Jerry’s death persuades Tim to join the neutral side because Mr.Heron is the one who kills Jerry who is still a child about Tim’s age. “Is Jerry Stanford all right, sir?...

This makes fills Tim with the sense of unfairness seen throughout the war. Because Tim witnesses the cruel death of his brother Sam, he becomes an anti-war and resolves to not participate in it’s

In choosing the side he is on, Tim didn’t look at which one helps the country and the people, instead, he focused on which has a better uniform and which Sam and father stood with. In addition, scenes that took place in the tavern also developed Tim’s early

In the stories Tim O’ Brien and I shared, there is this one little detail in common, we both made a choice. At first, the decision of moving to Canada felt like a selfish decision I was “forced” to make only for the family’s sake. Actually, I even held them responsible for my misery for a couple of weeks. But as those weeks and months pass by, I came to realize that such choice was actually one of the greatest things that can happen to me, for it was more than just an opportunity for our family to be whole but a breakthrough to endless possibilities towards reaching my dreams. However, for Tim, without any further details after he went to the war, we are

Tim wanted to go to Canada, even though he had the complete opportunity to run away. He saw everyone he knew on the borderline calling him names like a coward and a traitor. This imagery shows how powerful society can be when it comes to making decisions for us. Tim was influenced by his country and family to go to war, which means he is risking his life just so he is not embarrassed and humiliated. When he returned home he told himself, “I was a coward. I went to the war”(Tim O’Brien page 84). Tim does not know how to deal with the conundrum of abiding by his moral principles and the influences of his family, friends and society. It shows how society can make anyone conform to be the same and to do what everyone else is doing. Since it took 20 years to tell his story, it demonstrates how society can make a person feel wrong and make them feel that they don’t deserve to pursue their own ideas. Did Tim make the right choice when he went to war? Society would say yes since he conformed to society and went to war. Even though he called himself a coward for going to war he would of called himself a bigger coward for fleeing to

This was part of the reason for him to think about his own morals and go to war. Although Tim did get himself to go to the dreaded war, he felt like he went against what he believed and saw himself as a coward. He didn’t know what was to come of the war, so the only thing he could think of was what he was going to be forced to do. To illustrate, when Tim left the cabin he had a reflection of is near future. “

What is an outsider? An outsider is a person who is not excepted by or is isolated by society. Have you ever been an “outsider”? Everyone experiences a situation where they weren’t able to fit in. The feeling of not being able to fit it is universal. Not everyone is the same and in certain situations you may not be able to bond with everyone. Everyone is focused on being judged or being the person who is judging someone. If you are not like everyone in your society group, those people don’t except you. Nowadays our society feels that if you aren’t up to people’s expectations, you are known to be an “outsider”. Being an outsider is universal because not everyone is social, not everyone can afford nice things and not everyone is popular.

The short story “On The Rainy River” is written through the perspective of O’Brien in present day and as a young faced with a draft notice for Vietnam War. In “On The Rainy River,” O’brien portrays the importance of bravery in an individual through the use of symbolism, powerful tone, and reflective point of view.

Feared leaving his life behind(family,friends,etc) (page 5). The thought of leaving his life behind forces Tim O'Brien to renounce his actions as he does not want them to face the ridicule that his family may faced by other townspeople and he did not want to disappoint

Archetypes are defined as “a typical character, an action or a situation that seems to represent such universal patterns of human nature.” (“Archetype”) The short story “On the Rainy River” by Tim O’Brien is about the internal struggle and the journey he faces after he is drafted to serve the army. The classical hero’s journey archetype is similar to Tim O’Brien’s journey in his short story, “On the Rainy River,” with the exception of the arc length and depth of transformation.

Since he was unable to make the leap towards Canada, “upstream” against the current, he went to the war. Right after he “submitted,” he cried “loud, hard.” Tim realized he was coward because he was “ashamed to be doing the right thing.” After his realization, he lost a significant part of his identity- his courage, even though it was illusionary. He didn’t look at himself the same way again. He called himself a “coward” at the end of the story, because he “went to the war.” His cowardness stemmed from the fact that he could not gather enough courage to move to Canada. After his illusion shattered, he lost his illusionary courage. Before and upon arrival of the draft notice, Tim believed that he had the courage to behave like a hero however, as the story progressed, he lost his courage. He made the decision to run to Canada, however when it came time to act upon the decision, he failed. Ultimately, Tim ended up feeling like a coward, as it “is not a happy