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What idea does Tim O'Brien develop in "On the Rainy River"?

The primary idea that O'Brien presents is the notion and the nature of shame, guilt, and responsibility. In 1968, the main character in this story, Tim O'Brien, (intentionally the same as the author, although it's not autobiographical), has been drafted into the Army, and he struggles to decide whether he should serve in Vietnam or flee to Canada. 


In the chapter, O'Brien describes himself as "politically naive," yet he knows a great deal more about the history and background of Vietnam than the ignorant and jingoistic "polyestered Kiwanis boys... and the fine upstanding gentry out at the country club" do.  O'Brien feels the guilt that would accompany his desertion, envisioning "[his] father's eyes" if he told him he was running, yet he justifiably sees himself as being "too good for this war."


O'Brien does run for a while. Holed up at Elroy Berdahl's fishing camp on the Rainy River that divides the U.S. and Canada, O'Brien spends a tortuous week on the horns of his dilemma. Berdahl refrains from commenting or advising him, even though he obviously knows why O'Brien is there. They coexist in a "ferocious silence," as O'Brien agonizes over what to do.  Ultimately, Berdahl takes him out in his boat, positioning it "twenty yards" from Canada, where O'Brien can clearly see the shore. It's a powerful and symbolic setting, and it is there that O'Brien ultimately decides to submit, to be a "coward" and not "swim away from [his] hometown and [his] country and [his] life," and instead to go to war, simply because "[he] was embarrassed not to."


Here lies the central question of the story: Which is more courageous—to go fight in a war you don't believe in and possibly die, or to follow your own convictions in the face of humiliation and exile? 

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