Similarities Between Tim Osrickland And The Vietnam War

The Vietnam war had its controversy. Many families were getting split apart. Left and right, people were getting taken away from their loved ones. Hundreds or maybe even thousands of people died during the war. The stories â€Å"On the Rainy River† and â€Å"John Strickland: Draft Dodger† both represent the controversy during the Vietnam War. Both Tim OBrien and John Strickland had to leave their loved ones because they got drafted. Tim OBrien went to the war and hated himself for that, while John Strickland escaped to Canada. In †On the Rainy River† and â€Å"John Strickland: Draft Dodger† Tim OBrien and John Strickland both demonstrate the similarities between their perspectives on the Vietnam War. One similarity between Tim OBrien’s and John†¦show more content†¦That was their form of patriotism and it was their country. So what are we bombing them for?(John Strickland, 107)† John Strickland hated the war, he did not like how America was â€Å"waging war† on adolescents with guns. He didn’t want to support a country that was making young adults fight in a war. John Strickland could not understand why America would want to fight a war in Vietnam. Both Tim OBrien’s and John Strickland’s perspectives on the war were similar because they both disagree with the war. One difference between Tim OBrien’s and John Strickland’s perspectives on Vietnam is that Tim OBrien was afraid to run away from the war and John Strickland was not. A scene that demonstrates this difference in Tim OBrien perspective is when he went to war. In this scene, he is describing what he remembers of the day when he went to Vietnam. He hated himself for going. He said, â€Å"The day was cloudy, I passed through towns with familiar names, through the pine forests and down to the prairie, and then to Vietnam, where I was a soldier, and then home again. I survived, but it’s not a happy ending, I was a coward. I went to the war†(Tim OBrien, 67). Tim OBrien was ashamed of himself for going to the Vietnam War. He survived the war but was not happy at the end. He called himself a â€Å"coward† because he did not have the courage in himself to run away from the war and escape to Canada.