Bertrand Russell once said, “War does not determine who is right – only who is left.”  In Tim O’Brien’s short-story “On the Rainy River,” the main character, Tim, deals with the issues of whether the war he has been drafted into is right and if he should go to the war or be a coward and run away from the war.  The story takes place during the Vietnam War when Tim is drafted into the war.  Tim initially decides to run off to Canada to escape being drafted into a war he not only disagrees with, but is also terrified of, however he is unable to go through with his plan and ends up going to the war.  O’Brien successfully employs imagery to describe the predicaments Tim finds himself in at home, at the lodge, and on the river.

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            At his home, Tim contemplates whether the Vietnam War is a just war worth fighting and whether he should go to the war.  Tim begins by explaining how most people like to believe that, “in a moral emergency [they] will behave like the heroes of [their] youth…”  (O’Brien 39).  O’Brien writes this to relate to his readers and let them imagine how they would react to a moral emergency.  Tim continues on to vividly explain how he used to believe courage could be built up in a “reservoir” of courage.  O’Brien uses the imagery of a reservoir to illustrate how Tim once believed courage could be stockpiled and used only when needed.  When Tim receives his draft notice he explains how he, “open[ed] up the letter, scanning the first few lines, feeling the blood go thick behind my eyes.”  (O’Brien 41).  The imagery of the “blood going thick behind his eyes” is intentionally used by O’Brien to demonstrate the feeling of being drafted into a war.  “I remember a sound in my head.  It wasn’t thinking, just a silent howl.”  (O’Brien 41).  The “silent howl” heard by Tim allows the reader to imagine what would be going on in one’s head after receiving a draft notice.  The imagery O’Brien uses while Tim is at home is clearly used for the dramatic purpose of allowing the reader to enter the mind of someone who has just received a draft notice and imagine the thoughts that would be going through their head.

            While Tim is at the lodge he has already decided to run away from the war.  Imagery is used at the lodge to give readers an insight into where Tim is and what he is thinking.  While initially arriving at the Tip Top Lodge, Tim describes it,

“Actually it was not a lodge at all, just eight or nine tiny yellow cabins clustered on a peninsula that jutted northward into the Rainy River.  The place was in sorry shape.  There was a dangerous wooden dock, an old minnow tank, a flimsy tar paper boathouse along the shore…”  (O’Brien 47). 

O’Brien uses the imagery of “tiny yellow cabins” in “sorry shape” along a “peninsula that jutted into the Rainy River” to give readers a sense of where Tim was staying and the shape of the place where he stayed.  The details of the “dangerous wooden dock” and “flimsy tar paper boathouse” are used to show how run down the lodge actually was.  Tim then goes on to describe the keeper of the lodge,

“Elroy Berdahl: eighty-one years old, skinny and shrunken and mostly bald…  His eyes had the bluish gray color of a razor blade, the same polished shine, and as he peered at me I felt a strange sharpness, almost painful, a cutting sensation, as if his gaze were somehow slicking me open.”  (O’Brien 48). 

O’Brien brilliantly uses imagery to give the reader a clear idea of what Elroy looked like and how he made Tim feel.  The description of his “skinny and shrunken” shape gives the reader a general picture of Elroy while the dramatic description of his “razor blade” eyes offers insight into how Elroy makes Tim feel.  Tim feels as though Elroy is able to “slick him open” because Tim feels Elroy can see the pain and desire inside of him.  The imagery used by O’Brien describes clearly and colorfully the location of the lodge and the feelings Tim feels while at the lodge.

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            Later in the short-story Elroy takes Tim out on the river to “set him free.”  Imagery is used at this point in the short-story to describe the thoughts and feelings of Tim as he is about to depart into a new life.  As Tim and Elroy head towards Canada, Time describes it as, “…but then occurred to me that at some point we must’ve passed into Canadian waters, across that dotted line between two different worlds, and I remember a sudden tightness in my chest as I looked up and watched the far shore come at me.”  (O’Brien 55).   O’Brien describes a “dotted line” separating “two different worlds.”  Literally, O’Brien means the border line of the United States and Canada, but he is also stating the underlying truth of Tim departing his “old” world and entering his “new” one.  O’Brien also describes a “sudden tightness in his chest.”  This imagery is used to intensely describe the feelings Tim feels as he realizes he has just entered what could become his new life.  When Tim and Elroy reach 20 yards from the shoreline of Canada, Tim describes it, “That close– twenty yards—and I could see the delicate latticework of the leaves, the texture of the soil, the browned needles beneath the pines…”  (O’Brien 56).  The imagery used here visibly describes how close Tim was to entering his new life.  O’Brien uses this imagery as a way of literally and metaphorically describing just how close Tim actually was to his new life before he changed his mind.  As Tim changes his mind he describes it,

“…Canada had become a pitiful fantasy.  Silly and hopeless.  It was no longer a possibility.  Right then, with the shore so close, I understood that I would not do what I should do.  I would not swim away from my hometown and my country and my life.  I would not be brave.  That old image of myself as a hero, as a man of conscience and courage, all that was just a threadbare pipe dream.”  (O’Brien 57). 

Tim states that he would not “swim away from his hometown and his country and his life.”  The imagery of swimming away and the reality of it help give this metaphor its desired impact.  O’Brien intentionally uses this imagery to impact his readers with the gravity of the situation Tim finds himself in.  Tim also states that the “old image of himself as a hero” was not the reality he once thought it was.  O’Brien continues and expands upon his earlier comment about “reservoirs” of courage and “behaving like his hero from his youth.”  He develops his earlier statement and declares it a falsity based on his experience on the Rainy River.  O’Brien’s use of imagery while Tim is on the river is there to explain Tim’s thoughts and feelings and why he decided not to run away from the war.

            Throughout Tim O’Brien’s short-story “On the Rainy River,” O’Brien continuously uses imagery as a means of describing Tim, his surroundings, and his feeling while he is at home, at the lodge, and on the river.  O’Brien’s use of imagery strongly reinforces his character’s development and actions throughout the short-story.  An author’s use of imagery almost always results in a more compelling and thought-provoking story.