On the Rainy River

  

On the Rainy River is a short story inside the book by Tim O’Brien called The Things They carried. I believed this short story to be brutally honest and compelling. It is the personal story of the author who, at the time was a 21 year old college student with his whole life ahead of him, receives the dreaded call to the Vietnam war in the summer of 1968. With the fear of war and death plaguing him, Tim is driven to drive to the border of Minnesota and Canada, where he meets a mild mannered and non prying man, who, unbeknownst to him at the time, offers him just the thing he needs to ultimately decide between a life of running away, or a life of facing the call to war.
　
   I cannot even begin to imagine being forced to fight a war, let alone one you do not understand or stand behind. At the tender age of twenty one, there are so many life experiences you have not had, and it must have been difficult for Tim to have to rationalize being forced to fight for your country. After all, that is a huge responsibility to burden a young man with. Who wants to shed blood over something they do not support? I felt this was Tim O’Brien’s greatest fear, and yet he was also so consumed with the thought of how he would be letting down his family and friends if he ran. I don’t think this is a question anyone should be forced to answer. I think the old man that Tim meets up at Tip Top Lodge made Tim realize that sometimes in life we must do things we really don’t want to do and although he was young and scared, it was a call to duty he had to answer. I’m sure all the young men at that time were facing those same emotions and fears, and I can’t even imagine having to stare death in the face when it was forced upon me. I can only sympathize for the brave young men that fought in the Vietnam War.

To learn more about the Vietnam War
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