The Vietnam War was a war that was catastrophic. By catastrophic it means 58,000 Americans were killed and 304,000 were wounded out of the 2.7 million that served in the war. When draft letters were sent out some people responded were fresh out of high school, which means that they really didn’t want to go to war, but were forced to unless they were willing to flee to another country or serve prison time. In the texts “On the Rainy River” and “The Greatest: My Own Story” by Tim O’Brien and Muhammad Ali, it shows their perspectives on the Vietnam war which were responses to the draft letters they received in the mail. In “On the Rainy River” Tim O’Brien talks about the thoughts that were going through his mind when he received the draft letter.
…show more content…
A scene that demonstrates the similarity in O’Brien’s perspective is the scene where he admits this story will cause embarrassment for everyone so he kept it personal until the story was written. O’Brien when writing this text still has flashbacks of what went on in Vietnam, and had been hiding the story for twenty years. When drafted for the war he was a young graduate from college and he didn’t know what the war was about. The quote from “On the Rainy River” that shows similarities to Muhammad Ali’s perspective is “In June of 1968, a month after graduating from Macalester College, I was drafted to fight a war I hated. I was twenty one years old. Young, yes, and politically naive.” (O’Brien 50) The phrase “I was drafted to a war I hated” from the quote shows that O’Brien didn’t agree with the war, which would also mean that he wouldn’t to go. The word hated demonstrated that O’Brien had mixed feelings even before he even decided to go to war because he didn’t want to take the risk and cross the river into Canada. The phrase “a month after graduating from Macalester College” says O’Brien was fresh out of school and was pretty young in his 20’s. All in all O’Brien demonstrated that the war was wrong and he shouldn’t have gone. A scene that demonstrates this similarity O’Brien’s perspective is the scene where Muhammad Ali’s draft exemption was denied in Louisville
A scene that demonstrates the similarity in O’Brien’s perspective is the scene where he admits this story will cause embarrassment for everyone so he kept it personal until the story was written. O’Brien when writing this text still has flashbacks of what went on in Vietnam, and had been hiding the story for twenty years. When drafted for the war he was a young graduate from college and he didn’t know what the war was about. The quote from “On the Rainy River” that shows similarities to Muhammad Ali’s perspective is “In June of 1968, a month after graduating from Macalester College, I was drafted to fight a war I hated. I was twenty one years old. Young, yes, and politically naive.” (O’Brien 50) The phrase “I was drafted to a war I hated” from the quote shows that O’Brien didn’t agree with the war, which would also mean that he wouldn’t to go. The word hated demonstrated that O’Brien had mixed feelings even before he even decided to go to war because he didn’t want to take the risk and cross the river into Canada. The phrase “a month after graduating from Macalester College” says O’Brien was fresh out of school and was pretty young in his 20’s. All in all O’Brien demonstrated that the war was wrong and he shouldn’t have gone. A scene that demonstrates this similarity O’Brien’s perspective is the scene where Muhammad Ali’s draft exemption was denied in Louisville