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Ana P. Ries
Summer School
6-24-08
On the Rainy River Worksheet

2) Connect to your life
I would be willing to fight a war under just about any circumstances. I was actually originally planning on enlisting in the war. I am willing to fight in any situation where it seems worthy by my standards, and even on a few that I do not believe in if they are not that far from mine. War is highly beneficial in just many factors, mainly that the human population is far to high, there will always be those who disagree till death, and also for the main fact that people tend to unit once there is a direct threat, yet the greatest reason for war is that it forces people to make decisions. What do you support, stand for, protect? You can't go through your whole life just drifting, you need to learn how to make big decisions. Make big decisions quickly. People need to know where they stand, so they can actually commit to their goal on what they see the world should be. A situation where I won't fight would be a harder question, as I am willing to jump into any dramatic situation. I plan to be a psychologist in the military, so I can help those with PTSD. I don't care whether they are my enemy or not. I find it hard to care about situation or trivial things in life, my core interest is to see how people think, what makes them tick, how they handle a situation, so any even that would put me in such a situation I would be grateful for.

3) Story 4 square
3 Predictions:
1) A young student will be force to make a decision about the war.
2) During the war he will have regrets about what he has done, possibly go crazy.
3) OR he will become a traitor and try to escape the draft.
3 Words to Clarify
1) Reticence:
Where one is reserved and keeps thought to thyself.
2) Pipe Dream:
A daydream or fantasy that will never happen.
3) Imperative:
A urgent necessity or duty.
3 Questions and Answers
1Q) Why is he so against going to the war?
2A) O'Brien is against going to the war since he feels there is no need to shed certain blood for uncertain reasons.
2Q) Why did he have a hard time getting dates that summer?
2A) He worked at a meat packing plant and therefor had picked up a seemingly permanent smell of pig.
3Q) Why didn't he decide to live the life of a traitor in Canada?
3A) He decided he couldn't live knowing that everyone back at home would talk bad about him.
Summary of Story
- The narrator looks back on his life and tells a story about how when he was young he was given a draft to a war he didn't support and felt that he should have to go to since he wasn't a war hawk, he was a dove, how he was queasy at the sight of blood and such. During that summer he works at a meat packing plant where he sprays the blood clots off the dead pig bodies, which gets me to question how he was supposedly so queasy at the sight of blood, and then in the end he snaps inside he says and runs away for a bit to a small retreat near the Canadian border where he stays for a few days with an old man. While he is with that old man he doesnt ask questions and becomes the narrators hero. At the last day at the retreat the man takes him out to the river, right near the border, where he could just jump and be on the other side and escape, yet he breaks down and cries and ends up going home, and in the end to the war.

4) Active Reading Skill Builder Worksheet
(See attached papers)

5) Literary Analysis Skill Builder Worksheet
(See attached papers)

6) Words to Know Skill Builder Worksheet
(See attached papers)

7) Selection Quiz Worksheet
(See attached papers)

cool Thinking Through the Literature:
1) I admire the narrator for finally deciding not to be a traitor. Although I a bit unhappy with his original intention to run away, so therefore since he already abandoned the nation in his heart, he is now a traitor, and also a coward since he didn't follow his plan. The only thing that stopped him wasn't the fact that what he was doing was wrong, but that people would talk bad about him behind his back. As they had a right to do if had done such a think. Under such circumstances, I don't think much of him.
Comprehension Check Questions
1) The narrator drives up to the Canadian border since he planned on running away from the draft he was issued.
2) Elroy Berdahl helps him by simply being there and not asking any questions to force him to lie and such. Berdahl also rows a boat up to the borders edge so that all he has to do is jump and swim a short distance and he would be able to migrate to Canada.
2) He is a coward not for the fact that he was fighting in the war itself, but for the fact that he made a decision to become a traitor and run away from the draft, and that he didn't follow through that decision. So yes, he is a coward for not following through with his plan.
3) Berdahl saved him in the sense that he was there if he needed help, and he didn't shun him for what he planned to do. The man simply accepted him for who he was and was there for him. He showed support of what he planned to do, either wait that it could be. Yet mostly for rowing the boat out there so that he could simply swim a short distance to the other side, and for ignoring his tears.
4) The description is added for two main purposes. One of the excuses of the narrator for not wanting to enter the war was that blood made him queasy, yet here he was working hours on end spraying the blood clots off of the dead carcasses and disembedded parts of these slaughtered pigs. This proved that he wasn't as peaceful and violence sensitive as he ranted about. Another purpose could have been to force the readers to feel empathy towards him. Yet I see it simply as evidence that he was just a coward.
6) No, I feel he fails the test. He made a dramatic decision to become a traitor to his nation, then after that he couldn't even go through with such a decision since he was to much of a coward. He failed a test of his loyalty, and a test of his own determination.
7) If he had done what he had originally planned to do, he would have been forced to live a hard life and through many struggles, but at least he would have had the courage to do that. Elroy would have simply ignored it, being in such the state he was in. He would continue to look the other way till he was on the other side, and as O'Brien would look back at him, he would continue to see Elroy's back for a long time till Elroy would finally pack up and head back, and in doing so would still neglect to look back at the traitor, simply accepting the situation.
cool Yes. The government should actually demand that each citizen work in the military for at least two years to be a full citizen with full rights. If a government is going to give you rights, allow you to make decisions and vote, to protect your rights, to pay up so your lazy family can live it's life on welfare, struggle to stabilize the economy and numerous other things, you should fully be compelled to fight for them. Although you should have the option to say no, and continue to live there, you just wouldn't be able to vote, or use welfare and such.
9) Vocabulary in Action
1) Grandma says that long before Dad was drafted, he was so preoccupied with the Vietnam War that he couldn't focus on his schoolwork.
2) Dad believed in the imperative of defending one's country, but he didn't understand how the Vietnam War connected to freedom at home.
3) He found the tangled web of Vietnamese politics difficult to fathom.
4) In the United States, there was no consensus about the war; hawks said one thing, and doves said another.
5) My grandfather understood Dad's reluctance to fight in that war; he used to say "War is Hell," but that was only a platitude.
6) After receiving his draft notice, Dad stayed up all night holding a lonely vigil.
7) Since Dad was usually so cheerful and talkative in the morning, his impassive at breakfast the next day made my grandfather feel sad.
cool To Grandma he seemed calm, but that was mearly pretense, for he was troubled.
9) He kept his face reticence so that Grandma could not observe his feelings.
10) When Grandma asked if he would soon be oversea to fight, he nodded in consensus.
10) 10 Questions and Answers
1Q) What was the purpose of this story?
1A) The purpose of this story was to try and connect us to that struggle that so many of those who where drafted had to go through.
2Q) When did all this take place?
2A) The story is set to take place during the Vietnam's war in 1968.
3Q) Where did he stay while he prepared to cross the Canadian border?
3A) He stayed at the Tip Top lodge near the Canadian border.
4Q) Who did he call his 'hero' and 'saved his life?'
4A) He credited Elroy Berdahl, the owner of the Tip top lodge, for such an achievement.
5Q) How did Berdahl become his hero?
5A) Berdahl became his hero because he didn't ask questions when the boy stayed at his lodge and how he had rowed him over to the edge of the American border.
6Q) Why did Berdahl help him?
6A) Berdahl probably sensed that he was a coward through and through and
knew that he didn't have the guts to do what he wanted to, and was
tired of watching the boy waste his life so thus he decided to take the
boy out and draw attention to him his own weakness.
7Q) Should he have turned back and enlisted? Or would it have been better
to cross the border?
7A) No, since on the inside he was already a traitor he should have at least
have gone through with his decision and at least not be a coward to
himself.
8Q) Could he have made it in Canada?
8A) No, he would have failed on so many levels, if he can't even make it
through in one nation, what makes him think he could do so much better in a new one? The fact is, Canada has a lot of laws too, and he
probably would have had to end up running from those too at some
point in time.
9Q) In the end, why didn't he cross?
9A) Although he was a coward, he could live with people knowing just how
much of a coward he was and to talk bad about him behind his back.
10Q) Although he went through the war, do you think his parents know?
10A) Most likely he lied about the ordeal and simply said that he needed a
break before the war, but most likely they will know what he really did and that he is a coward.