I wanted to change my stance on whether Tim O'Brien's character was a coward in "On the Rainy River." By my logic, O'Brien would actually be constricting himself by moving to Canada, where his actions would be largely dictated by possible poverty and a lack of relations. By going to the war, if he survives, he has a greater range of freedoms.

Similarly, if the imagery be considered, I think it is intentional that the woman with the Umbrella is carrying a copy of Plato's Republic, a book throughout which Plato's Socrates voices his opinion on one having obligations to the state because it is a sort of parent to the individual. If O'Brien were to swim across the river he would go through a sort of literary rebirth, and be left an astranged child in a new country, orphaned.

If we look at Hemingway, and the way duty was emphasized, he would be abandoning his duty. O'Brien, doubtless, feels the war was wrong, but seems also to have realized the futility of his "one man stand" against something as nebulous as a war. I agree that the plan seemed childish, if not completely a farce.