Chapter/Story #4: On the Rainy River

This story emphasizes Tim O' Brien's attitude towards the Vietnam war. He felt as if the war didn't have a clear purpose and it was not worth fighting for. He also wanted to live a normal life, which was a mainstream life to him. He was drafted a month after graduating from Macalester College. He had many questions regarding the war like what really happened to the USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin and was Ho Chi Minh a Communist stooge or a nationalist savior. America was divided at the time: one side for the war and the other against it. Many protests were taken to the streets. It's ironic that O' Brien felt like a coward for deciding to join the war instead of not joining. He didn't want to go to the war but he felt the pressure he could potentially face from his friends, family, and his town. He felt embarrassed for looking like a coward by not wanting to fight the war so he decided to feel like a coward, in his mind, for deciding to fight it. I think it's amazing how Elroy Berdahl encouraged O' Brien so much with his silence. It's like Berdahl almost knew Tim O' Brien's situation and wanted to help him dearly. I could understand why O' Brien didn't want to go to war, he was just reaching his 20's and he felt like he has so much life left to live. I also thought it was amazing how the Rainy River combined both O' Brien's past and future, how he imagined all those important figures in his life at the river, some cheering him on and some discouraging him. The syntax was so extending with all the and's included in the sentences that just made them go on forever. It made it more interesting and made me want to keep reading. It's crazy how the Vietnam War put so much pressure on O' Brien that it caused him to escape to Canada so he wouldn't have to bear the decision. There were times when he couldn't sleep and just lost it. I think that is why it led him to make the decision of fighting the war. He felt like he was going to let many people down if he didn't. Personally, I would have tryed to focus more on my opinion of the decision.