// War Literature

Tim O’Brien’s “On the Rainy River” takes the reader through an array of emotions. The author shows his fear, embarrassment, confusion, and everything in between. Embarrassment is certainly the most important emotion throughout the story, because for Tim O’Brien, it is the only thing he can pinpoint as a reason to go to war. Sure he is afraid of dying, but he is more afraid of exile, of losing respect, of disobeying the law, and mostly, of the ridicule of his family and himself. He explains that he comes from a very traditional town, and this fuels his fear of shame. O’Brien writes: “All those eyes on me- the town, the whole universe- and I couldn’t risk the embarrassment,” and in doing so, emphasizes the weight he places on his image among his neighbors. His town is his entire universe.

This idea of fearing shame is not one of the ideas we’ve yet to encounter as a reason why men go to war and sacrifice their lives. Freud didn’t consider this reason when explaining his theory of Eros and destruction, and O’Brien has none of the hostile feelings or intentions explained by Clausewitz when considering going to war. He specifically points out that this is not his war to fight because he does not believe in its cause. All he wanted to do was “live the life [he] was born into – a mainstream life…”

Clausewitz also considers courage to be something very different from O’Brien’s idea of courage.  To O’Brien, courage was in running, whereas to Clausewitz, courage is “physical courage, or courage in the presence of danger to the person: and next, moral courage, or courage before responsibility; whether it be before the judgment-seat of external authority, or of the inner power, the conscience.” We see, in Clausewitz’ explanation, that courage can come from overcoming fear of judgment, and to O’Brien, courage is the exact opposite.