Antithesis

"Rather, they were too frightened to be cowards" (page 23). "I was a coward. I went to war" (Page 61). Most people think that going to war is a courageous, not a cowardly one. In the book however, it states that going to war is cowardly. The brave action would be to desert the army which ultimately saves many lives. It saves the life of the person and all of those the person might be forced to kill. Tim O'Brien (author) states that a coward goes to war so a brave person would not. There are too many lives lost in senseless wars. O'Brien uses the antithesis to show the difficulties of choosing to answer to the draft or reject it. If a person rejects it and runs away, the person will be shunned by society and they cannot return to their home or family. If the person goes to war, the person could die. There isn't much of a choice.