TTTC Chapter 4: On the Rainy River

On June 17, 1968, what was O'Brien doing before he received his draft notice on that same day?

He played golf

Why did O’Brien “ha[ve] the world dicked?” I think this means that O’Brien had his own life set ahead of him before the war.

Because he was Phi Betta Kappa and summa cum laude and president of the student body. He had a full ride scholarship for grad studies at Harvard.

In the summer of 1968, where did O'Brien work?

At a meat packing plant

How did O'Brien describe his job?

“like standing for eight hours a day under a luke-warm blood-shower”

How did O’Brien finally “crack?”

He “felt something breaking open in [his] chest,” and he went home to pack up and leave for Canada

What does the Rainy River symbolize for O’Brien?

Something that separated one life from another 

What kind of place did O’Brien pull up at so that he could lie low for a day or two? What is the name of the place?

An old fishing resort called the Tip Top Lodge

How did Elroy Berdahl treat O’Brien when O’Brien pulled up to his property?

Considerate, did not ask questions 

When O’Brien stayed at Elroy’s place, what was something Elroy never did to O’Brien? 

Ask O’Brien why he was near Canada in the first place

What was one adjective that O’Brien used to describe Elroy?

Sharp

Where was the Rainy River located?

Between Minnesota and Canada

Why did O’Brien join the war?

He felt pressured by his family and people from his hometown, he didn’t want them to view him as a coward

To address the concerns Elroy had regarding O’Brien’s finances, what did Elroy give to O’Brien?

An Emergency Fund with four fifties in it

Describe the micro setting of the Rainy River on O’Brien's sixth (last) day

• Sunny and cold afternoon

• Stiff breeze from the north

• Fast current

• “A vastness to the world, an unpeopled rawness”

• “Air had brittle scent of October”

• “Trees and the sky and the water reaching out toward nowhere”

How close was O’Brien from reaching Canada, when he was on the boat with Elroy?

20 yards