Andrew Schroeder Jr.Mr. Zook

English 30-1May 19, 2015

The Acquiescence of Destiny

The computer monitor deep within the inimical heart of Siberia lit up with five blaring red pixels

as sirens wailed overhead, officers scrambled with terror-stricken faces, and the weight of the world was

shouldered by one man who refused to be guilty of initiating WWIII. Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav

Yevgrafovich Petrov was forced into the army at age seventeen by his dissatisfied and financially

handicapped parents—an action that would irrevocably change the outcome of history. Serpukhov-15, an

early missile detection station where Petrov was stationed, alerted his unit of an apparent launch from the

US mainland during the Cold War on September 26, 1983. Incredulous and horrified, Petrov had to

choose between notifying his superiors, which would provoke retaliation, or declare it a computer

malfunction. With fifteen minutes before the American missiles crested the Russian horizon and all data

denying a malfunction, Petrov was resolved that he would not initiate WWIII. As the mushroom clouds

failed to cast their macabre shadows, Stanislov, neither awarded or reprobated for his action, received a

less sensitive job and experienced a mental breakdown soon after—his life irrevocably changed by the

events of one night. As demonstrated by Stanislav, significant events often possess the potential to rob an

individual of their destiny while in other cases it can strengthen resolve to pursue a specific course of

action. Commenting on the responsibility of shame as a motivational factor in war and the effects of

significant events on a person’s destiny, Tim O’Brien’s On the Rainy River is the heartfelt confession of a

man who feared the mortifying denigration of his name more than the saturnine grave. With sincere trust,

brutal honesty, and vivid imagery O’Brien reveals the untold story of his internal conflict as he struggled

to reconcile himself with the expectations of his country and his own sense of justice in the face of the

Vietnam War. As demonstrated through Tim O’Brien in On The Rainy River, significant events have the

capacity to substantially and irrevocably affect an individual’s ability to determine their own destiny by

fortifying their resolve, inducing paralyzing irresolution, and finally demanding the acquiescence of

destiny.

Initially O’Brien is determined that he will not participate in a war that is fought for ambiguous

reasons where even the supposed facts are shrouded by a blanket of uncertainty and is resolved to

abandon the draft notice and escape to Canada. Enumerating on the myriad of reasons he is opposed to

the war he describes his doubt surrounding the character of Ho Chi Minh and his suspicions concerning

the destruction of the USS Maddox, affirming that the imperative of a war should be beyond any doubt in

order for it to be adequately justified. Before receiving the draft notice, O’Brien is revealed to be

detached, unconcerned and naive as his opposition consists merely of intellectual protest. While ringing

bells for McCarthy and composing a few columns for the newspaper, he does not perceive any direct

threat to his life. His sentiments regarding the war are accurately described when he says, “Stupidly, with

a kind of smug removal that I can’t begin to fathom, I assumed that the problems of killing dying did not

fall with in my special province” (2). Completely confident in his future, he receives the untoward draft

notice with deep indignation—he esteems himself to be above participating in the war based on his

academic history. With titles such as Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude, president of the student body,

and Harvard undergraduate, his hubris does not allow him to believe that he could be summoned to war,

particularly a war in the inimical, mosquito infested, wetlands of the Vietnamese environment. These

musings serve to convince O’Brien that the war will not thwart his control of his destiny. Attempting to

describe the turmoil within him, the author recounts his macabre experience working at an Amour

meatpacking plant in Worthington Minnesota where he was responsible for declotting the congealed

blood caught in the throats of the pig carcasses. With disgust he reminisces on the long hours in the foul

and humid factory saying, “As a carcass passed by… the brush would whirl and water would come

shooting out and you’d hear a quick splattering sound as the clots dissolved into a fine red mist” (3-4).

Not only does the vivid imagery that describes this experience provide negative motivation to avoid the

war but it also foreshadows the massacres and the gruesome war-torn country of South Vietnam.

Paralyzed and confused with an ineluctable decision before him, he is caught in a catch-22 with no way

out. With Canada becoming a tantalizing prospect, he begins to consider the impact of such an action and

fears his name being traduced being the community he would leave behind. Describing his intense shame

as such a prospect he states, “It was easy to imagine people sitting around a table down at the old Gobbler

Café on Main Street… the conversation slowly zeroing in on the young O’Brien kid, how the damned

sissy had taken off for Canada”(5). After days of considering his situation, something ruptures within

him, and despite his previous concern regarding his reputation, his resolve to make for Canada prevails as

he is determined to create his own destiny.

With his foot on the gas and emotions running high, doubt begins to assail O’Brien on his way to

the Canadian border and he is affected by paralyzing indecision-he cannot muster the willpower to cross

the border that separates one life from another. Incoherent, frenzied, and a queer feeling in his stomach he

chances upon the Tip Top Lodge; an old, dingy, and neglected fishing resort on a peninsula jutting into

the Rainy River. His state of mind is revealed when he reflects that the lodge appears to being leaning like

a cripple, evidence of his preoccupation with war and injury. Substantiating the transition from hard

resolve to wavering indeterminacy, he has serious misgivings concerning the lodge and considers driving

back. Describing the proprietor of the lodge as his saviour, Elroy Berdahl-sharp, penetrating eyes and

formidable silence, offered O’Brien “exactly what I needed, without question without any words at all.

He took me in. He was there at the critical time—a silent, watchful presence. (7). With such an

unobtrusive, and reticent character, it is ironic that Elroy could be of use to anyone, much less be

described as a saviour. Six days of vexation and mental turmoil ensue, revealing the affect the draft card,

and indirectly the Vietnam war, has had on O’Brien’s ability to determine his destiny by stimulating

doubt and hesitation. Days melt into each other and time has lost all meaning as nights are endured

incessant worry and days are occupied with vomiting and dizzying sorrow. Recounting this experience,

O’Brien comments, “There were times when I thought I’d gone off the psychic edge. I couldn’t tell up

from down I was just falling, and late in the night I’d lie there watching weird pictures spin through my

head…”(8). He is extremely agitated by his inability to comprehend the absence of control over his

destiny. Twenty-one years old, with normal ambitions and dreams, a passion for baseball, hotdogs, and

cherry cokes, he cannot reconcile himself with being on the margins of exile, caught in a catch-22 with

shame bearing down on him in every direction. Emphasizing the role shame plays as a motivation in war,

O’Brien explains that words were no longer sufficient to describe his problem stating that, “What it came

down to, stupidly was a sense of shame. Hot, stupid, shame. I did not want people to think badly of me”

(9). For someone so intelligent and logical it is incredibly ironic that emotions could hold so much power

over him. On his final day at the lodge, O’Brien must make his decision: will he tap into the reservoir of

courage that had been accumulated over the years or will he acquiesce his destiny in fear of his name

being traduced?

On the sixth day, a symbol alluding to creation in the Christian bible, Elroy takes O’Brien out

onto the Rainy River to stand vigil as his destiny is determined. The setting, described as sunny and cold,

with brittle October air, and a stiff breeze from the north, reflect the difficult decision O’Brien must

make. As they draw closer to the border, O’Brien is gradually is convinced that Elroy orchestrated the

excursion to provoke him into collapsing the probability wave that represented his future and define one

clear destiny. With the two options spread before him, he breaks into heaving sobs in recognition that he

can no longer defer the inevitable. Looking up from his tear-stained hands, O’Brien realizes that he has

acquiesced his control over his life and Canada becomes an impossible fantasy. Helpless and despondent,

he begins to imagine a stadium filled with thousands of spectators, witnesses of his decision. He describes

a kind-faced women who held a copy of Plato’s Republic amidst a diverse crowd of onlookers. The book

is significant because in it Plato describes the three aspects of man. There is a rational part which seeks

truth and is responsible for philosophical inclinations, a spiritual aspect that desires honour and expresses,

anger and indignation, and there is the appetitive part which concerns itself with the base lusts of men.

These ideas are symbolic of O’Brien’s struggle to seek truth and honour in his life and supress the

appetitive aspect of avoiding shame. With one final attempt to be courageous he grips the edge of the boat

and wills himself to jump, “And right then I submitted. I would go to war-I would kill and maybe die—

because I was embarrassed not to” (14). After the fortification of his resolve to escape the war and the six

days of paralyzing indeterminacy, O’Brien has collapsed the probability wave representing all possible

futures and has surrendered himself to be a victim of life’s significant events. “(I understood that I would

not do what I should do… I would not be brave” (13).

Similar to how Stansilov’s destiny was irrevocably changed by the decision during the

Cold War, O’Brien’s destiny is forever changed by the draft notice he receives calling him to war. As

demonstrated through Tim O’Brien in On The Rainy River, significant events have the capacity to

substantially change an individual’s ability to determine their own destiny by increasing their resolve,

causing paralysis, and finally by demanding the acquiescence of destiny. Initially O’Brien is determined

that he will escape to Canada, but when doubt begins to assail him he is paralyzed—caught in a catch-22.

When the final decision comes he surrenders to being a victim of life’s significant events and ultimately

becomes a coward in doing so.