Essay

Anthony Leone
Period 6
English 11
Things they carried Essay
In the book The Things They Carried the author, Tim O’Brien, talks about when he was drafted to Vietnam. He runs all the way up to the Canadian border but goes to Vietnam in the end. He says he is a coward and I believe that is true. I think that if you go against your beliefs just because you are scared of standing up for it then it makes you a coward and I believe that is what he is saying also.
In the chapter, On the Rainy River, Tim says “Courage, I seemed to think, comes to us in finite quantities…” and he goes on to say that he thought that you could build up courage for the day you need it. If the reader really looks in to the book then they can see that Tim’s view of courage changes to standing up for your beliefs. Tim gets drafted and says that he hated the war and that he did not see the propose of the blood being spilled. For this reason when he gets drafted he decides to run away to Canada.
Right away Tim has fear of what might happen if he runs away. “A giddy feeling, in a way, except there was the dreamy edge of impossibility to it… it couldn’t come to a happy conclusion and yet I was doing it….” He meets Elroy and near the end of the chapter they go out in to the border river to fish. Tim realizes that he has to choose between leaving and doing what he believes is the right or going to war and turning his back on his beliefs. While on the boat Tim thinks of all the things he has to fear. “ I did try. It just wasn’t possible… I could hear people screaming at me. Traitor! They yelled. Turncoat! Pussy!.... and right then I submitted.” He then says that he would go to war and kill even through he thought that it was meaningless and wrong but was to embarrassed to not go. This is the clear sign that Tim thought he was a coward for turn back on his beliefs.
The dictionary says that courage is the ability to face any difficulty, danger, and pain without fear. I have to say I agree with both Tim and the dictionary. I think that courage is the ability to face any one or thing that stands between you and your beliefs no matter what the consequences. So if a person is drafted in to a war that they think is wrong like Tim O’Brien was and just go then they are cowards. They should at least try to find a way to not kill like in the radio control. Tim says that even through he survived it wasn’t a happy ending because he gave in.
So the way a person can truly show their courage is to stand up for what they believe. Tim says that he thought the war in Vietnam was wrong and meaningless but he goes anyway do to the fear of being embarrassed and being a outcast. Tim shows that he believes that courage is standing up for their beliefs like I think.