The Road After Rainy River

This passage and chapter truly mark a difference in O’Brien’s storytelling. Up until this point, most stories and images were presented on a television screen. There are actors, environments, scenes, and directions. He then brings interaction to the viewer. “You’re twenty-one years old, you’re scared, and there’s a hard squeezing pressure in your chest.” He wants you to imagine, or rather relate to his circumstances.

I feel it was very effective for his audience. Most people will come to a point in their lives where a choice of possibly great consequence arises. O’ Brien didn’t attempt to give direction to our choices, but he did want us to relate. Now, the book isn’t a bunch of war experiences, but rather the road he took on the rainy river. The chapter set a new tone for the book, a much more invested tone. You care about where O’Brien is because you might be there; you might have made the same choice on Rainy River sometime in your life.

As I read that, I connected it with my future. I am at that same age and I feel the time on Rainy River approaching. O’Brien used this chapter and this passage specifically very well to get an emotional response from the reader.