Response to Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried"

  Tim O’Brien’s story “On The Rainy River”, was not at all what I was expecting when I began to read it.  After the first few paragraphs I though it would tell of a young man who didn’t want to go to war for fear of dying, which I think is a good reason not to want to go to war.  Yes, this was part of Tim O’Brien’s reason for not wanting to go to war, but it was more of a personal conflict of staying true to his own personal convictions.  O’Brien did not believe the war he would be sent off to was for worthy causes.  He did not agree with the reasons for the war.  Therefore, his fight was to decide whether he would remain true to his beliefs and run from the war or if he would give in and fight a war he didn’t agree with in order to forego personal humiliation.

    Tim O’Brien drove off to the Rainy River in" a haze of confusion and fear.  When he arrived at the cabins he stayed in for 6 days, he was greeted by an elderly man named Elroy, who O’Brien says saved his life.  Not in the literal sense, but O’Brien was going to leave everything behind and run away.  Elroy was a man who never pressured or pushed at Tim to tell him why he was there and so obviously distraught.  Elroy was just there really, he didn’t actually do anything for Tim.  But maybe that is exactly what he did for Tim, nothing, he just let him be.
    In the end Tim makes the decision to go home and fight that war.  He felt like a coward for doing so because he didn’t believe in the fight.  I think this made him the exact opposite.  Sometimes doing the right thing is what hurts the most and feels the most wrong, but is for the right reason, because it is right.  That is exactly what war is.  Doing the things that hurt you the most, killing people, injuring people, even if it is for self preservation, it still hurts and it feels wrong, and yet it is right.  This man, Tim O’Brien was at war before he even got there.  He went to war the day he received that enlistment letter in the mail.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JNGwiYwRtk

Photo Cited 25 Sep 2010
http://ronaldarichardson.com/2008/01/30/the-things-they-carried/

Video Cited 25 Sept 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JNGwiYwRtk
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