Summary

The short story “On the Rainy River” by Tim O’Brien is about a recent college graduate who is unexpectedly drafted in the army. He has to fight for a war he doesn’t believe in. He spent his last summer before being shipped off to basic training working at the slaughter house with the job of declotter. It made him reek even after he bathed this made it hard for him to get dates.

He had many thoughts of running away to Canada. A little while before he had to leave he went to a lodge for a few days to relax. Where he helped an old man there named Elroy with simple tasks. He told the old man about his job in the slaughter house and worked out a deal with him so he could pay for his stay. After he had paid his debt the old man took him out on his boat almost all the way to the Canadian coast to fish. The old man was giving the young man a chance to swim to Canada and escape the war. Unfortunately he couldn’t bare the embarrassment so he didn’t and jump in. Instead he went home and then went to war. After that the man deemed himself a coward because he went to the war.

Analysis

My analysis of the short story “On the Rainy River” by Tim O’Brien is that if you don’t do something because you are worried of what people will think of you then you are a coward. The young man in the story said “All those eyes on me-the town, the whole universe- and I couldn’t risk the embarrassment” (O’Brien 59). Which does make him a coward because he couldn’t do something he believed in. Which was running away so that he did not have to fight in a war that he didn’t believe in because he couldn’t handle what people would think of him.

Works Citied

O'Brien, Tim. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1990. 246. Print.

Facts about the Veitnam war
http://www.vietnam-war.info/facts/