Intensity Prompt – “On the Rainy River” and “How to Tell a True War Story”

Prompt: When have you or someone you know made a really difficult decision, either in a split-
second decision like Rat Kiley with the baby buffalo in “How to Tell a True War Story” or when
you’ve had a lot of time to mull it over, like Tim O’Brien in “On the Rainy River”?
Write about a similarly intense moment from your life. Like O’Brien, if you feel the need to
bend the “reality truth” in some way to get at the deeper “emotional truth”, feel free to do so.
Requirements for Memoir:
1. Must tell an emotional truth – a feeling or an idea you know in your heart is true.
2. Use at least TWO of O’Brien’s strategies we’ve examined in the “TTTC Chapters 1-6” or
“TTTC Chapters 7-13” homework. Highlight where you used them.
a. Possible Strategies:
i. Use tangible and intangible items to describe your characters (think about the
tangible objects as symbolic of your character in some way)
ii. Describe the physical appearances of a character that give insight into important
personality traits
iii. Describe characters’ immediate, completely, and embarrassingly honest
feelings/reactions to big events
iv. Describe the setting to set a mood or to reflect or contrast how a character is
feeling
v. Using repetition to emphasize and important point or show that the character
continues to think/obsess about this idea.
vi. Switching POV, especially by breaking the fourth wall in especially intense
moments
1. Ex: “Even now, as I write this, I can still feel that tightness. And I want
you to feel it—the wind coming off the river, the waves, the silence, the
wooded frontier. You’re at the bow of a boat on the Rainy River. You’re
twenty-one years old, you’re scared, and there’s a hard squeezing
pressure in your chest. What would you do?” (O’Brien 54)
3. Must follow the story arc – exposition, inciting incident, rising action, crisis/climax,
falling action, resolution.
a. Must establish the conflict within the first two sentences of the story (or at least
hint that there is a problem within that time).
4. Must be at least one page in length, single-spaced in Times New Roman font
Explanation:
After you write your memoir, explain:
1. What “emotional truth” are you trying to achieve in your story? Explain.
2. Briefly explain how your story follows the story arc.
See my example on the following pages. Yours certainly does not have to be this long. My story
has just stuck with me for a long time and I think that makes it long.
 It’s the middle of the night, I’ve lost track at this point. It’s one of the nights where I lay
in my bed unable to sleep. During these times, I begin to look at life from a new perspective. The
same reoccurring question once again finds its way into my mind, one always must choose one
or the other in a difficult situation, whether to live in a false sense of happiness or to know the
truth.
In the morning my mother breaks the news. I am going to be taking the High School
Placement Test in order to attend Mater Dei. This was going to be it, I had just made new friends
at my new middle school, after all Mater Dei would be the third new school in the past three
years. I would lose everything, I had worked so hard to make new friendships all year, however,
I would need to make completely new friends at a completely new school. I had a decision to
make, to fight and have a momentary moment of satisfaction, or to submit and accept the truth
that I would have a new start.
“Damian, taking this HSPT would provide you with the chance to have one of the best
educations possible”, my mom had tried to explain.
“Mom I am tired of all of this, having to start a new life every year.” I had retaliated.
After many back and forth arguments we came to the consensus. Mater Dei would be the
best choice for me as I would still be able to hangout with my friends outside of school and can
get a good education and diversify my friend group. However, the days went on with the test
looming ever closer, the pressure I had to carry on my shoulders was beginning to be too much.
My parents would want me to gain an academic scholarship to go to the school, I had one shot to
achieve the scholarship, one shot to make my parents proud.
Eventually the day would come, I would sit down take my test and go home, happy that I
had studied hard for it and would hope for the best. Except, I wasn’t, there was something
bothering me and the back of my head. There it was the false sense of happiness I was feeling. I
wanted to believe that I had tried my hardest, that I was going to make my family proud.
However, I knew deep down I never studied as hard as I could. I was too arrogant to realize that I
didn’t have the raw academic ability to succeed on my own, I needed to study and accept the
help from my family. Pretending to be happy would slowly eat at me until I would finally accept
the truth, the fact that I had messed up bad and needed to work extra hard to make it up to my
parents.
Soon, I will have to face the same dilemma, I must realize that I am not as smart as my
brothers. When I have to take the SAT, I am going to have to study extra hard and put in the
work to make my parents proud this time, instead of living in my false sense of happiness and
arrogance believing that I do not need to study for anything. I’ve learned from my mistakes from
the past and wish to never repeat them. Every time one faces the dilemma, they always tend to
learn more and grow as a person.
Often many people face this very dilemma, do you run from the truth and seek shelter in
false happiness, or do you face the truth head on and accept it. I believe that you would often
choose to seek false happiness because its human nature to feel comfort and happiness rather
than pain that is associated with the truth. But, over time seeking this comfort can be degrading
to the point where it is necessary for you to face the truth. What would you do in this situation?

1. This story is about the emotional truth that many times I shy away from facing the
painful truth in my life and comfort myself in false happiness. There were three
events that I had mentioned, three pivotal points in my life. My decision to go to
Mater Dei, my HSPT, and my SAT. Each of these decisions I would have to face the
hard truth, either that I wasn’t as good as I thought I would be or simply the fact that I
would have to start life over. Regardless of the case I had grown as a person, going to
Mater Dei allowed me to learn the importance of being social and becoming good
friends with people in my class. The HSPT and SAT had taught me to be less
arrogant to understand my academic abilities and work towards building on my
weaknesses.
2. Story Arc:
a. Exposition: Lying in bed in the middle of the night, contemplating on human
dilemmas.
b. Inciting Incident: My mother tells me the news in the morning that I will be
taking the HSPT and going to Mater Dei
c. Rising Action: I begin to study for the HSPT, my parents begin to pressure me
to study hard and earn the scholarship to go to school
d. Crisis/Climax: The HSPT finally is over, I begin to have a false sense of
happiness and hope about my performance, hoping secretly I had succeeded.
Ultimately, hiding from the truth had eaten away at me.
e. Falling Action: I face the truth and realize that I hadn’t studied as hard as I
could, I would have to learn from my mistakes and understand that I need to
work harder for something I want to achieve.
f. Resolution: I learn from my mistakes and study and work hard for my SAT, I
come to self-realization that while I am not as smart as my brothers I have the
capability to work hard for what I wish to achieve.