( ok, so the thing for the discussion questions says the title for this chapter is "On A Rainy River" but it's definitely "On THE Rainy River.")
The chapter starts off with the lines "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." I suppose that's supposed to make the reader more engaged and feel more "intimate" with the narrator of this story, as if he's telling you some deep secret and you get to pride yourself on being on the receiving end of this story. (Why yes, I am rolling my eyes.)
Anyways, this guy Tim O'Brien tells us this deep dark secret about how he got drafted or some nonsense to go to the army, and wanted to chicken out and jump ship to Canada (which I would've totally done) but decides to go to the war because he's too scared to look like a coward, which is essentially this giant oxymoron, or paradoxical statement.
NO, I do not know the significance of why he insists of telling about his dead-end, thankless job working cleaning out the viscera of dead pigs. It was hard for me to see any significance within this description, because I found it revolting, but I couldn't really find any deeper meaning within the laborious process of his job.
Anyways, he meets this old guy, and they chill for awhile while he's contemplating whether or not to go to Canada. In the end, O'Brien cries about it, but ends up going to war, because he couldn't bring himself to go through with the plan to tramp it to Canada.
POOR TIM.
Yes, I think you are right on about the opening of this story. So did it make you feel more intimate with the storyteller?
ReplyDeleteDrafted "or some nonsense." What does this mean? Your casual tone is fine for your blogs, but you should still weigh words with some care.
The situation is a paradox, rather than an oxymoron. Remember, an oxymoron is just two words in opposition, whereas a paradox are ideas in opposition.
Perhaps the description of the pig plant job was to make a connection between the revulsion, brutality, and banality of this and war. Aren't they similar in some ways?