Summary vs. Analysis

Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried, On the Rainy River pg. 39

In this chapter of The things They Carried Tim O’Brien tells the story of his actions following receiving his draft notice.

It was June of 1968 when O’Brien receives his notice (O’Brien, p. 40). Following a lengthy internal struggle with his sense of shame at the thought of “running for the border”, and his hatred of a war he didn’t believe in O’Brien decides to make a run for it. It is as he drives next to the Rainy River, which serves as a border between the U.S. and Canada in northern Minnesota that he stops at the Tip Top Lodge (O’Brien, p. 48).

Here he meets Elroy Berdahl, the old man who runs the lodge (O’Brien, p. 48). Over the course of 6 days O’Brien stays at the lodge doing small tasks for Berdahl, and contemplating Canada. It is when Berdahl provides an opportunity for O’Brien to safely get to Canada that O’Brien realizes that his own sense of shame at doing so makes him incapable of actually running away to Canada.

Now for my analysis of this story. What strikes me first and for most about the story is it does follow a “coming of age” story structure, minus space battles and saving the galaxy story plot. Our “hero” (O’Brien) is presented with a destiny he doesn’t want, in the form of his draft notice. He rejects this destiny. Vehemently denies it. He runs from it. Canada represents his denial of this unwanted destiny that’s been forced on him. In reaching it he would make his denial concrete. It is in his escape to this refuge he meets his Yoda in the form of Elroy Berdahl, complete with implied omnipotence, and wisdom.

Elroy meets all the characteristics of the classic mentor figure. He guides O’Brien, not towards any one decision, but to a point where O’Brien’s decision must be made by Tim himself. It is many of the characteristic of Berdahl that spur O’Brien to accept that he can’t run away. O’Brien feels his shame at the thought of running more acutely, not because of what the people at the Gobbler Café would think, but because the quite man with the fishing pole was offering him the choice and not making him go back. O’Brien’s coming of age may not be because of bravery, or courage, but he still meets that ultimate destiny that was forced upon him by fate and goes off to war.

The image is a still from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back