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Manahil Qaiser

November 11th 2020

Critical Analysis: “On the Rainy River”

We are often held against decisions that test not only our patience but what we value most in

ourselves and the world. There is an opportunity cost which considers and leverages our personal

interests against the interests of society, subtly shifting us back and forth between indecision. In

the short story, “On the Rainy River”, Tim O’Brien illustrates through symbolism and imagery,

the idea that people feel the need to commit to a course of action to feel a sense of acceptance in

their community and to salvage their personal identity, even if that means jeopardizing their

sense of security as a result. 

Through initial characterization and metaphorical symbolism, O'Brien emphasizes the

nature and effects of the conflicting interests that individuals face when considering a course of

action. Upon the delivery of his conscription letter, Tim begins a journey of self-introspection

that leads him to teeter endlessly back and forth between his need to go to Canada, and feel a

sense of security, or go to the Vietnam war as he is expected to. Tim’s hatred of the war, and the

fear of taking “aim at another human being” without any necessary cause, set him afoot to find

alternatives rather than succumb to this conscription. These thoughts ultimately lead him to the

“rainy river”, “which separates Minnesota from Canada”, with the hopes of going to the North to

salvage his sense of security. When he arrives however, all his confidence in his decision

diminishes, and he is left “rocking” back and forth on the “choppy” river. Instead of Canada

becoming for him a source of relief and certainty, he is overwhelmed by the anguish the idea of

leaving his home and family can have. The sudden awareness of the consequences of pursuing
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the Canada as a salvation state, force him to look at the country with apprehension. He sees a

loss of life and identity that comes with this potential freedom. Tim’s frequent trips to the river

thereafter, illustrate the progression of his character into becoming more and more consumed by

this “moral” quandary of which he is a part. The “river” serves as both a center of decision

making and the symbolic illustration of his perplexing psychological division. Tim is hung

taught by two shifting ends pulling him from Minnesota to Canada, and from Canada to

Minnesota-between staying at home and jeopardizing his sense of identity and belonging, or

leaving for Canada and salvaging his sense of security. These consistent shifts and indecisiveness

are reflected in the “choppy” nature of the river and the “sharp rocking motions” of the boat in

which he is sitting. The tightness in Tim’s chest prove the toll the quandary his having on him-it

is no longer only mental but has somehow manifested itself to show signs of physical sickness.

The throbbing pain of uncertainty has metastasized from his mind to now plague his body. 

“Schizophrenia” has logged its way into his mind and cracked his ability to choose and has left

him in a “moral duality”. Additionally, the gloomy and “brittle scent “ of the air and “silver

grey” of the river explores the pathetic fallacy surrounding the sickness and frustration at the

hands of this indecisiveness and how it has manifested itself into to the natural world, in a

“brittle”, “cold”, and weak form. The excessively “fast current”, illustrate the urgency and

dominance of the problem.  It alludes to the idea that Tim is almost left drowning by the

overwhelming amount of confusion in him that the inclement state of the “water” mirrors. The

culminating result of the all this fear and consist back and forth push Tim to come to a resolute

decision.

Through the ultimate characterization of Tim, O'Brien illustrates the individual need to

follow through with the course of action that will salvage their sense belonging in society, and
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personal identity. After a period of immense confusion, Tim is left ultimately mentally

constrained. As he makes his way up to the Canadian half of the rainy river, the closeness to the

plant and animal life on the shoreline, kindle a sense of awareness and realization-his plan is no

longer a mere prospect in his head, but something very “real” and “tangible”. It is here when Tim

begins to realize all the repercussions of setting his plan in motion, as though he sees for the first

time that show the real of a threat going to Canada is, and how he can with one decision leave

everything he has ever known and loved behind. Tim begins to see a mirage of his “distant

future”, and “past”, where he sees his “ brother and sister, all the townsfolk...[his] old teachers

and girlfriends ", and a future with “ [his] wife”, and “unborn daughter” -all things that he fears

he will lose if he leaves Minnesota. This fear nudges him to consider letting go of his own

personal freedom to secure his sense of self and identity. The ultimate push, however, that forces

him to abandon Canada as a possibility, is due to the sheer “embarrassment” that he will face as

a consequence of not going to the war. He fears becoming an outcast, a laughingstock in his

community, a weakling that could not pull out the “secret reservoir of courage that had been

accumulating inside [him] over the years”. Both the fear of losing his identity coupled with the

fear of not fitting in, override is need to attain any sense of security. For Tim, fitting in, and

salvaging his personal identity, is of greater imperative than the fear of death. As Tim “[sobs]”,

it's as though a part of his indecisiveness has been extracted from his body in a tangible form, he

undergoes a sort of baptism to cleanse him of the confusion as he is now coming to terms with

the decision he needs to make.  In place of the lack of indecisiveness, there left in its place is a

gaping hole of regret, that grows and grows even after he comes back from the war. There lives

in him the constant regret of having been a “coward” and yielding to societal expectation.

Interestingly enough, Tim chronicles the various fears he has about going to the war, and yet
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never acknowledges the fear of losing his identity, and being a misfit in his community, which

ultimately become the reasons for which he abandons his move to Canada. Tim explores more

the “[morality]”, and ethics of the war and the fear of maybe killing someone as his main

arguments for fleeing, yet it has never been about the morality or fear, it has been about the

preservation of identity and compliance to society all along.  The excessive employment of

natural imagery by the “shore line”, indicate an almost natural progression into this decision,

and  alludes to the idea that the  decision Tim ends up  making is the more raw and real one, a

decision that most people will make because it is what they are breed to do. O'Brien implies that

societal expectations have such an impact on us that we are willing to delude ourselves with the

facade of morality and fear to shield us from realizing our own obligation to yield to these

expectations. He comments through the negatively connotated “rough trees” and imagery of

“[crows]”, that despite it being what we are trained to do, doesn't mean that it is the correct thing

to do. He illustrates its necessitous nature-so ingrained in our thought process that we cannot

help but fall into the system, even if that means, in Tim's case, escaping death. It becomes our

security. The cloudy day” further accentuates O’Brien’s use of pathetic fallacy, as the shame and

murky feeling of despair and cowardice transcends itself into the natural world. 

Tim’s need to not jeopardize his sense of self and social acceptance, push him to abandon

the personal need to attain freedom through security. This act purposefully demonstrates

O’Brien’s message of the contending interests’ individuals conflict with, but where the battle is

most often won by those that concern our sense of belonging and self, so overwhelmingly to the

point where security is negligible.

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Works Cited

O'Brien, T. (1998). The things they carried: a work of fiction. 1st Broadway Books trade

pbk. ed. New York: Broadway Books