Wednesday, September 17, 2014
1: "The Things They Carried"
The story that was my favorite was "On The Rainy River". I am a true believer in the fact that 'a little fresh air can cure anything'. I found it interesting that Tim was able to realize that he needed this time to himself, to figure out what he was going to do. He was tired of his monotone job and was anxious about war; overall he was struggling with his life. So he had the courage to pick up and leave. In this circumstance, he just drove until he found a place that he found comfortable. I believe this was his fate. His fate was to have a boring job, get a draft card, become anxious and stressed with his life, and then run off and find Tip Top Lodge. This lodge healed him in a sense, and I believe it was fate that this would happen so he would get the oppurtunity to heal and have self-reflection and figure out what his next step was. I also believe it was his fate to write this book, as another healing process. He opens this chapter with the sentence, "This is one story I've never told before" (O'Brien 37). The reason he hadn't was because of embarresment. In this book, just like at the Lodge, O'Brien is learning healthy ways to cope with feelings. Before the war, he was upset and conflicted about whether or not to go, so he did self-reflection in the Lodge. After the war, he still had a lot of negative feelings, such as embarresment, and he is doing a self-reflection as he writes this book to learn it is okay to open up. Because of this trip to the lodge, Tim ultimately makes a decision that will shape his life, as he chooses to go to war. He was a little shaky on this trip, but as he is leaving he is able to stand on his own two feet, knowing he made the right decision. I believe that without this trip, Tim's confliction would have torn him apart.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The scene in which O'Brien sees the mirages of the crowd of people standing on the United States' side of the river is the most memorable image of the book for me. Along with his past, he sees the wife he has not her even met and their unborn child and even the ones who he would soon come to kill. Had O'Brien actually jumped the Canadian border, that would have been a future unrealized. That, I thought, would be unsettling, almost akin to knowing a future, maybe even a preferable one, could have not happened due to one single choice.
ReplyDeleteFor sure, killing someone is not something to be proud of but the men whose lives O'Brien would come to end had taken the same conviction as him when they picked up a weapon, intent to kill and not be killed. The extent to which O'Brien is affected by those deaths is betrayed by their presence in his vision by their implicit significance equal to that of his family, both present and future and yet not jumbled within the conglomeration of historical and political figures. Odd how the closest O'Brien came to admission of having killed someone while in Vietnam was before he had finally decided to even go there.
Even Kathleen, who was presumably the unborn child in his vision, was present. If the butterfly effect were to be applied here, it can be interpreted that she was a direct result of O'Brien heading off to war. Had he chosen a different path, the roads would have diverged along very different routes, likely those without the existence of his daughter. Her role expands to provoking thoughts within O'Brien's mind when she reaches physical form and she accompanies him to Vietnam and to the site of Kiowa's death. She was definitely a catalyst for O'Brien's comin to terms with his experiences, even during the time when the rain fell on the river.