The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien Book Review

Did you know that during the Vietnam war close to 210,000 Americans were accused of draft offenses and 30,000 left the country? In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, the chapter “On The Rainy River '' introduces readers to the character O’Brien and his conflict of whether he will go to war or not and the emotional struggles he faced. He decides to flee from the war and leave behind all responsibility. However, he later feels shame and guilt for his involvement in the war. The reader could use the psychological lens to recognize some of the emotional struggles O’Brien faced such as fear, moral dilemma, and shame.
One example of the emotional struggles O’Brien faced would be his raw terror of death in war. O’Brien mentions how “In the evenings I’d sometimes borrow my father’s car and drive aimlessly around town, feeling sorry for myself, thinking about the war and the pig factory and how my life seemed to be collapsing toward slaughter. I felt paralyzed … Beyond all this, or at the very center, was the raw fact of terror. I did not want to die. Not ever. But certainly not then, not there, not in a wrong war. Driving up Main Street, past the courthouse and the Ben Franklin store, I sometimes felt the fear spreading inside me like weeds. I imagined myself dead. I imagined myself doing things I could not do—charging an enemy position, taking aim at another human being” (O’Brien, 47). As a young man, O’Brien feels he is not ready to go to war and possibly die. Through his thoughts on the war, readers can see O’Brien may not be able to handle the realities of war. He is clearly afraid of the war; he fears dying at a young age and fears killing another human being. Another example of this fear would be O’Brien feels his life getting out of control. The summer after graduation, O’Brien began working at a meatpacking plant in his hometown. He says. “The plant specialized in pork products, and for eight hours a day, I stood on a quarter-mile assembly line—more properly, a disassembly line—Removing blood clots from the necks of dead pigs … It was not pleasant work … At night I’d go home smelling of pig. It wouldn’t go away. Even after a hot bath, scrubbing hard, the stink was always there— like old bacon or sausage, a greasy pig-stink that soaked deep into my skin and hair. Among other things, I remember, it was tough getting dates that summer. I felt isolated; I spent a lot of time alone. And there was also that draft notice tucked away in my wallet” (47). The meatpacking plant represents the brutality he is confronted with and the chaos of his life getting out of control. The plant also symbolizes the violence he will be witnessing in Vietnam later on. Since the smells so bad doing this job, he is unable to get dates which makes him feel lonely. When he goes to war, he will leave behind everyone he knows, including his family and his friends. The reader would believe that in leaving those you love and moving to another country one would be left feeling lonely. Both the recurring sight of violence at his job and the feeling of loneliness led him to feel overwhelmed. This shows to the reader that he may be unable to handle these situations in the war and is a reason he fears going to Vietnam.

O’Brien was struggling to make a decision on going to Vietnam. Both his consciousness and instincts were advising him to escape the war and go somewhere else. However, he couldn't imagine hearing himself tell his family he fled. He says, “It was a moral split. I couldn’t make up my mind. I feared the war, yes, but I also feared exile. I was afraid of walking away from my own life, my friends and my family, my whole history, everything that mattered to me. I feared losing the respect of my parents. I feared the law. I feared ridicule and censure” (48). Either decision O’Brien makes will combat his morals. It is clear to the readers that O’Brien is conflicted about going to war and has been faced with a moral dilemma. He clearly has examined his options closely, demonstrating how it's uneasy for him to make a choice and he fears making the wrong decision. Another example of him facing a moral dilemma is when he evaluates himself in Canada. O’Brien mentions “I was ashamed to be there at Tip Top Lodge. I was ashamed of my conscience, ashamed to be doing the right thing” (58). The most notable thing preventing him from believing being in Canada was a sensible decision is thinking about how others will perceive this choice. He does not want those he loves to think less of him because now his morals lack courage. 

After six days of being in Canada, he is taken on the river to see his realities and the life he has chosen for himself. He states “I could’ve done it. I could’ve jumped and started swimming for my life. Inside me, in my chest, I felt a terrible squeezing pressure. Even now, as I write this, I can still feel that tightness … Now, perhaps, you can understand why I’ve never told this story before. It’s not just the embarrassment of tears. That’s part of it, no doubt, but what embarrasses me much more, and always will, is the paralysis that took my heart. A moral freeze: I couldn’t decide, I couldn’t act, I couldn’t comfort myself with even a pretense of modest human dignity” (65). This forces the reader to recognize the difficulty of his position. He could have continued to escape war as he had originally wanted, but at this moment he couldn't. Readers could understand that he hasn't told anyone this story because he feels it will bring embarrassment to everyone. Another example of him feeling embarrassment would be when he is having hallucinations of everyone he finds important on the shore. He shares this by saying “All those eyes on me—the town, the whole universe—and I couldn’t risk the embarrassment. It was as if there were an audience to my life, that swirl of faces along the river, and in my head I could hear people screaming at me. Traitor! they yelled. Turncoat! Pussy! I felt myself blush. I couldn’t tolerate it. I couldn’t endure the mockery, or the disgrace, or the patriotic ridicule. Even in my imagination, the shore just twenty yards away, I couldn’t make myself be brave. It had nothing to do with morality. Embarrassment, that’s all it was. And right then I submitted. I would go to the war—I would kill and maybe die—because I was embarrassed not to” (68). He was trying to run away from the war, but he was too embarrassed by what other people would think if he didn't, so he went. He went to war to please everyone else, not because he wanted to.