On the Rainy River

"On the Rainy River"

Open Ended

What is a "coward"? How do you define an act as "cowardly"?

Tim O'Brien

"This is one story I've never told before. Not to anyone. Not to my parents, not to my brother or sister, not even to my wife. To go into it, I've always thought, would only cause embarrassment for all of us, a sudden need to be elsewhere, which is the natural response to a confession. Even now, I'll admit, the story makes me squirm. For more than twenty years I've had to live with it, feeling the shame, trying to push it away, and so by this act of remembrance, by putting the facts down on paper, I'm hoping to relieve at least some of the pressure on my dreams. Still, it's a hard story to tell."

Open Ended

Based on the opening of “On the Rainy River,” what did you anticipate the story would be about?

Hotspot

Select on the map where the Rainy River is

Multiple Select

What reasons does O'Brien give for why he shouldn't be drafted in the war?

• He was a liberal, opposed to the war

• He felt he was too good for the war

• He wanted to volunteer for a specific branch of the military with minimal fighting

• He was wealthy and his father was a state senator

Catholic activists who opposed the Vietnam War.

Cantonsville Nine

The Cantonsville Nine "entered the Catonsville, Md., Selective Service offices...removed 378 draft files and burned them... The group, which included six religious or former religious, was arrested, tried and imprisoned."

May 17, 1968

Breaking the 4th Wall

"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?

Would you jump? Would you feel pity for yourself? Would you think about your family and your childhood and your dreams and all you're leaving behind? Would it hurt? Would it feel like dying? Would you cry, as I did?" (54)

Breaking the 4th Wall

A metafictional technique where characters or the narrator directly address the audience

Multiple Choice

What literary device does O'Brien use when he says, "I had the feeling that I'd slipped out of my own skin, hovering a few feet away"? (52)

• Metonymy

• Synecdoche

• Disembodiment

• Metaphor

Multiple Choice

Why does O'Brien call himself a coward at the end of the story?

• He refuses to fight in the war

• He never tells Elroy why he is at the Tip Top Lodge

• He cries when forced to make a decision

• He goes to war despite being against it