The Illusions About War in Tim O’Brien’s On the Rainy River

Illusion and reality is a common aspect of many books and movies. Tim O’Brien illustrates in his short story, “On the Rainy River”, the reality of the Vietnam war and the illusions about the war that people had during this time period.

The Vietnam war was arguably one of the most controversial events in American history. This caused many people to be opposed to getting drafted and going to fight. This is a reality that many people do not think of when contemplating the Vietnam war. Getting drafted to a war, regardless is a difficult thing to deal with and not to mention a war that you disagree with. The narrator, Therefore, shaming people for going to Canada instead of fighting in the war is wrong to do.

For many people in Canada, the Vietnam war was almost like an illusion as it did not affect Canada as much. Canadians did not realize the struggles that Americans had with being drafted in the war. The war and the drafting was often made out to be not as bad as it really was in America. This story also illustrates that war shaming is a reality in our world. People that got drafted and “ran away” were often looked down upon for this. The short story, “On the Rainy River”, made the struggles that many people had to go through in America much more real than people knew.

Picture Explanation: This picture presents American Soldiers. This represents the moral decision that Tim O’Brien had to make between fighting in a war he did not believe in or going to Canada and leaving his friends and family for good. He also had to think about the probability of people shaming him for not fighting for his country. He had many things to consider in making this important decision, this is the same thing that many Americans had to go through at this time.