Tim O Brien On The Rainy River Summary

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In Tim O’Briens On the Rainy River, the main character Tim describes in gruesome detail his summer job working at a meat packing plant as a pig declotter. However, his description can indirectly be taken as a deeper meaning of what his recently received draft notice means to him. He begins by stating that the assembly line of pigs is more correctly a “disassembly line”(2). This could represent how even though the war and the draft come across as articulated and structured, there is nothing organized about it. Tim fears that in becoming a soldier, he will lose himself despite the ferocity of the war. This could result from Tim's moral convictions towards the war, agreeing that sometimes war is necessary, but opposing the circumstances of the
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