In “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, in the chapter “On the Rainy River”, O’Brien tells the story about how he almost ran away to Canada after he was drafted to fight in the Vietnam War. In the six days he spent living with Elroy – the elderly man that agreed to take him in – I feel O’Brien learned something about himself In the time he was in Minnesota and when he finally made the decision to go to Vietnam, I know it must have taken real courage to do so. Yet, something that confuses me is that he still consider’s himself as a coward afterwards. Not to mention he’s so embarrassed about what happened that he didn’t even tell anyone the story until the wrote the book. Which to me is odd, since his actions were in do doubt justified in my opinion since going to fight for your country to kill others and possibly dying, is a big undertaking for anyone. But with the courage he found out on the river and help from Elroy, he’s realizes that he doesn’t want to escape to Canada anymore.
Again in the chapter “On The Rainy River,” O’Brien shares his thoughts on courage as a 21-year-old: “Courage, I seemed to think, comes to us in finite quantities, like an inheritance, and by being frugal and stashing it away and letting it earn interest, we steadily increase our moral capital in preparation for that day when the account must be drawn down. It was a comforting theory.” In light of this, I think there is a question that needs to be addressed which is whether a person can enter a war as an act of cowardice. I believe O’Brien wasn’t a coward because the constitution says that as a citizen if you are drafted into the military, you have an obligation to serve in it. O’Brien’s reasoning for this choice of refusing to serve is explained when he said, “Certain blood was being shed for uncertain reasons. I saw no unity of purpose, no consensus of matters of philosophy or history or law.” This not cowardice at all, but he said that he disagrees with war and thus he rejects his obligation as a citizen to serve in the war. Seeking to emigrate, he then makes the reasonable decision to travel to the Canadian border and when he was on the boat 20 yards off the shore of Canada, he wasn’t a coward, no, he had the courage to make arguably the hardest choice in his life, and that to me doesn’t sound very cowardly at all. In conclusion, no I don’t think its cowardly to decide to not enter a war, it’s a decision that only you can make for yourself. Just like what O’Brien said earlier how his theory of courage at the time was comforting, courage is a quality that is whatever you deem itself to be, and when you’re making a really hard decision your courage will always be there with you so you can make the right decision.
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