Everyone is forced to make difficult choices. When he receives his draft notice, Tim O'Brien is suddenly confronted with one such decision. In his novel, The Things They Carried, O'Brien explains his uncertainty of whether to run to Canada or serve his country in the Vietnam War. As neither option is wholly ethical or agreeable with O'Brien conscience, he is forced to choose from two undesirable situations. Keeping this in mind, it becomes clear to the reader that there was no correct choice. Therefore, the reader is forced to agree with O'Brien's decision to enlist in the Army.

O'Brien did not wish to be an American soldier in the Vietnam War. He considered himself to be "too good for this war (41)", bitterly asserting that the board should draft "some dumb jingo in his hard hat (42)." Certainly not him. He was an intelligent scholar, "president of the student body...