In TTTC, Tim O’Brien has his characters constantly questioning their morality. In the historical fiction novel, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, the main character Tim, is morally wrong in his decision of joining the war because his reasons for leaving depend on others and go against his beliefs. The main character in TTTC ends up in a moral split and chooses the wrong path for himself because his choice is dependent on others. Tim gets a draft for the Vietnam War and realizes he has two options. To either fight in a war he doesn’t approve of or run off to Canada living in fear and leaving everyone with disappoint because of him. Tim decides to go to war, an honorable choice, but one made for all the wrong reasons. Following the “good …show more content…
Tim ignores his instrumental purpose and universal/ethical orientation when he decides to go to Vietnam because it goes against his personal interests and beliefs. Tim knows he is not fit for war, “I was no solider. I hated Boy Scouts. I hated camping out. I hated dirt and tents and mosquitoes. The sight of blood made me queasy, and I couldn’t tolerate authority, and I didn’t know a rifle from a slingshot.” (“Rainy River” Pg. 39-40) Tim believes that he isn’t cut out for the battlefield, that he will most likely die, and so he is against going off and fighting because he just has no personal interest in it. His personal interest also goes hand in hand with his belief in fighting, “There should be a law, I thought. If you support a war, if you think it’s worth the price, that’s fine, but you have to put your own precious fluids on the line.” (“Rainy River” Pg. 40) Tim’s own personal beliefs keep him away from the war. Tim is a scholar not a fighter and he believes that nobody should be stuck in a situation, such as the war, if they don’t want to. Tim holds himself back from going off to Vietnam and the environment gives him another choice to consider, an eight-hour drive to Canada. Instead Tim goes against everything that he puts his confidence into and ruins his life. Tim’s choice results in him being unhappy “…and then to Vietnam, where I was a solider, and then home again. I