Exploration 5: LaCrista Keller

1) On The Rainy River has got to be the story that has meant the most to me. I love how when the chapter started off O'Brien was saying that he had never told this story before because he was afraid of the embarrassment that came with the story. They way that he describes how he's feeling and how he wants to run away and not have to worry about going to war hit me hard. "The man who opened the door that day is the hero of my life." ( O'Brien, p. 45) I absolutely love that quote because this man was a man of few words, he never bothered to ask O'Brien why he was there or what his story was and in the end helped O'Brien realize that he can't run away from war, he must go.

2) The character that I have connected with the most would have to be Tim O'Brien. I know that most people will say that they connect with the main character but I honestly have. I feel as though O'Brien and I have the same personality, we hide things that we think are an embarrassment (even if they are not), when the going get tough I run just like O'Brien did when he figured out that he was drafted for the war and when things happen only because we were careless it haunts us for the rest of our lives. I could only imagine the fear he had when he figured out that he couldn't run and had to go to war, I run when there's the slightest bit of an issue but his issue was way bigger than any one I have ever dealt with.

3)I would love to discuss the love that the main character had for Martha. The way that he obsessed over her picture and when he was thinking about tying her to the bed and toughing her knee all night. I honestly found the whole situation between the main character and Martha extremely disturbing. There was a lot of obsession on a girl that never loved him back and he was even aware of that but still thought he had a chance, until the day Jimmy Cross died because of him thinking about Martha and not watching out for Jimmy.

4) The writing that really stuck out in my mind would have to be "Like when Azar blew away Ted Lavender's puppy. "What's everybody so upset with?" Azar said. "I mean, Christ, I'm just a boy."" (O'Brien, p. 35) This passage has stuck with me throughout the book so far. The fact that Azar said that he was just a boy is so true. This boys were sent to fight a mans war, but again they were just boys and everyone expects boys to make a mistake every once in a while. But not the boys that were sent off to war, if you made a mistake you could have gotten someone killed or even yourself killed.