The things they carried reflexion

An exploration of The Role of Shame in War in the chapter “On the Rainy River” from the novel “The Things They Carried”

In the chapter “On The Rainy River”, the role of shame, guilt and embarrassment that comes with the subject of war is explored. Embarrassment, guilt, and shame play an imperative role in this story, which echoes the theme introduced by Jimmy Cross in the chapters "The Things They Carried" and "Love". Tim O’Brien feels shame in “the summer of 1968” (37), Jimmy Cross feels guilt and anger towards himself when he thinks of Ted Lavender and O’Brien feels regret and frustration towards himself when he believes that he went to war against his principals. “It was my view then, and still is that you don’t make war without knowing why” (38). In this quote, we can sense his betraying his values and crossing his moral boundaries, he was sent to war without knowing why it was taking place, yet he still fought in the war, knowing this made him feel angrier and disappointed.

Later in the chapter, we discover that the reason Tim O'Brien went to war was that he is embarrassed. When O'Brien is drafted, he contemplates the possibility of running away to Canada to avoid the draft “I pulled into an old fishing resort...clustered in a peninsula that jutted north-ward into the Rainy River” (45). In the end, after staying with Elroy Berdahl, whom he met at the Tip Top Lodge, he decides not to. “I would go to the war-I would kill and maybe die-because I was embarrassed not to” (57). He specifically tells us that his actions are motivated by the emotions of shame, guilt, and embarrassment. These affected his decision making which led him to see and do horrible things later on in the war, which he could have prevented by listening to his morals and crossing the border to Canada.

This chapter really demonstrates the power of emotions and how they affect our lives. We also see how people's prejudices about war and how he must go because he got drafted, influence his decision-making and emotions. Soldiers would rather kill than stand up to the people around them because they are afraid of what they might say. "the town, the whole universe-and... I couldn’t risk the embarrassment...I couldn't endure the mockery, or the disgrace, or the patriotic ridicule... It had nothing to do with morality. Embarrassment, that’s all it was.” (57). They would rather serve in war than run away so that they do not bring shame to their families. Soldiers feel like the whole weight of their country, is on their shoulders, which we see in the previous chapter “The Things They Carried”. We feel all those emotions, but soldiers feel them ten times stronger. These emotions may not be understood by civilians, or if they are understood, they will not have the same impact as they would in the military. In the military those sentiments push them to keep going and, in some cases, might keep them alive in war zones or it might kill them. For us, they are simply feelings we feel in our daily lives or small obstacles, but they do not keep us alive in a dangerous situation.

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