What is the name of the short story about a Vietnam draft dodger?

May 15, 2008 1:09 PM

Help me remember the name of this short story about a draft dodger in Vietnam.

I read a story in high school about a young man who dodges the draft by escaping in the wilderness and trying to cross into Canada (???).

The passage I remember most clearly is about how the young man thought courage was something everyone had a fixed about of, and could mete out as it become necessary. He sadly realizes that though he thought he'd been saving his up for a big event, that he didn't have much to begin with. Or something.

I know this isn't much to work with, but let me know if you have any ideas of the title, author, or where I should look.

Thank you, hive mind!

posted by BusyBusyBusy to writing & language (8 comments total)

Sounds like something by Tim O'Brien.
posted by miles1972 at 1:29 PM on May 15, 2008

It is. It's "On the Rainy River" in The Things They Carried.
posted by gerryblog at 1:31 PM on May 15, 2008

Possibly "On the Rainy River," although in the end, he decides to go to war.
posted by uncleozzy at 1:32 PM on May 15, 2008

(Dang.)
posted by uncleozzy at 1:32 PM on May 15, 2008

At least I think it is.
posted by gerryblog at 1:33 PM on May 15, 2008

Definitely "On the Rainy River" by Tim O'Brien, in his collection The Things They Carried. One of my favorite books of all time.
posted by vytae at 1:45 PM on May 15, 2008

On the Rainy River is correct. The whole book is fantastic and devastating. The passage you are thinking of goes:

"Courage, I seemed to think, comes to us in finite quantities, like an inheritance, and by being frugal and stashing it away and letting it earn interest, we steadily increase our moral capital in preparation for that day when the account must be drawn down."
posted by nanojath at 7:50 PM on May 15, 2008

You all beat me too it, definitely remember that from the Things they carried.
posted by vegetableagony at 5:35 PM on May 25, 2008