Personal Response

A person’s capacity to strive for their goals is very much dependent on the conflicts in one’s life. These conflicts affect the choices that are available to an individual and the choices which present themselves generally conflict. No matter which choice is made, there can be some negative repercussions. In order to make a decision, one must first overcome the conflicts presented by ourselves and the people around us.

In the short story “On the Rainy River,” Tim O’Brien is forced to deal with his conflicting choices. He has to choose between running to Canada and going to the Vietnam War. If O’Brien does what he wants, his fear is that his family and the community he comes from will despise him. If he does what will make them proud, then he will hate himself and he may actually die in the War. I can relate myself with O’Brien in the fact that I have been faced with choices that have similar consequences to his, although mine have never been life threatening. My decisions had to do with my future career and lifestyle. What I want is to become a part of the music industry through either recording or broadcasting. My conflict, like O’Brien’s, had to do with my parents. Either I do what I want or I make my parents proud and go to University to get a prestigious job. In the short story, O’Brien runs away from his hometown and the decision he must make until he is forced to decide at the Canadian border. I can again relate myself to him in this instance. The difference is that he physically ran away while I just hid my ideas. My parents would ask what I wanted to do with my life and I would elude their questions. I did this because I was afraid that my parents would not like my choice of career. Once I started grade twelve, however, I was forced to choose. My conflict was resolved with much less drama then I thought. My parents were more than welcoming towards my ideas of doing what I want to do. The only issue they actually had is that I had not told them sooner so they could get acquainted with what it takes to get into the recording industry. I believe that in O’Brien’s situation, his parents would have also accepted his plans for the future and his imaginings of their disappointment towards him were fictional.

What I think this suggests is that our ability to pursue our goals is mostly affected by our internal conflicts. Although what other people think can be a factor, most of the time what we believe these people are feeling is just imagined by us. If these thoughts are not just imagined, then the affect they have on our decision making is huge unless we can cause ourselves to not care what others think. Therefore, to overcome the conflicts which affect our goals we must overcome our own fears and thoughts of personal failure.