“On the Rainy River” The short story “On the Rainy River” is an integral chapter in the memoir The Things They Carried written by William Timothy O’Brien. The short story is written through the perspective of O’Brien in present day and as a young man faced with a draft notice for the Vietnam War. In “On the Rainy River‚” O’Brien portrays the importance of bravery of individuals in the society through the use of symbolism‚ powerful tone‚ reflective point of view‚ narrative devices‚ and through the
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Through his piece‚ “On the Rainy River‚” author Tim O’Brien uses varied sentence structure to portray an dissatisfied and stressed tone‚ by interrupting long-winded thoughts and tangents with sharp and poignant realizations to express his apprehension surrounding his escape to Canada after being drafted to the Vietnam War. O’Brien exemplifies this when he states‚ “Getting chased by the Border Patrol- helicopters and searchlights and barking dogs – I’d be crashing through the woods‚ I’d be down on
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narrator and protagonist is Tim O’Brien. This is due to the fact that the entire story is written in first person except for the first chapter. This can be misleading to the reader about who the story is truly about. It is also confusing because the beginning of the book gives the impression that the narrator’s job was to merely tell stories of different soldiers. Only when one reads further into the book does Tim’s integral role become apparent. In order to understand how Tim is the protagonist‚ one
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The Things They Carried is a novel written by Tim O’ Brien that portrays several ideas of the Vietnam War. The novel presents how many dealt with tragic and alarming conditions during harsh times. Men had choices wether or not they wanted to join the war‚ fled the country‚ or stay in Vietnam once arriving. Guilt played a mind game with all of these choices. The fear of being killed and watching someone be killed was horrendous. Through different stories‚ events‚ and mental images of what Vietnam
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Cover Letter Mrs. Dawalt‚ The majority of the feedback I received addressed my formatting. I knew when I completed my first draft that that would be the case considering formatting definitely isn’t my forte. I feel like I have learned a lot more as to how to format well by writing this. I’ve gotten much better at inserting headers‚ footers‚ and page numbers. I knew how to do it before but I almost had to re-learn it every time. I only received one peer review. The main thing that was brought
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Metafiction is a literary device that makes a reader question what is reality and what is fiction. Tim O’Brien uses metafiction‚ in his chapter “How to Tell a True War Story”‚ to tell the reader how one can pick out a true war story as he is telling a war story. He uses this technique to emphasize how real the stories were to keep himself sane and get his bottled-up emotions off his chest. In the chapter “Notes”‚ O’Brien tells the reader a story about a man named Norman Bowker. Bowker committed
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The ordeal that a soldier experiences during a war is often unshakable‚ haunting both memories and the current happenings in one’s life. In the beginning of The Things They Carried‚ by Tim O’Brien‚ O’Brien describes the lasting turmoil both he and Lieutenant Jimmy Cross feel as a result of the war: “... Jimmy rubbed his eyes and said he’d never forgiven himself for Lavender’s death. It was something that would never go away‚ he said quietly‚ and I nodded and told him I feel the same about certain
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soldiers who did return home came back to an America far different than the one they left behind and were subject to the hatred of anti-war protestors and many came back changed and haunted by the things they had seen and done in Vietnam. Some‚ like Tim O’Brien‚ found solace several years later by writing of their own accounts of what they witnessed while overseas. O’Brien did so in his collection
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Tim O’Brien writes this novel differently than most novels because the characters are telling the story and writing this novel are being honest. It is written about actual events many people experienced who share their personal experiences about living in Vietnam during the war. Throughout the book‚ Tim O’Brien sneeks in the differences between what is real and what is made up with all the stories told and how people view the war and how it affects everyone. Everyone is affected by the war differently
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author to tell the story in their own words and in another way ot strategie thereby changing the main idea of the real story. Dealing with characters‚ non-fiction involves real people who were present but fiction only creates characters. In ‘On a Rainy River’‚ the author seems to be physically calm especially while talking to the old man. But he has a lot of negative thoughts about going to the war as well. He is more of a coward because he was scared to go fight and did not have the courage to stand
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