Duty vs. Conscience Theme Analysis

By 1969, public sentiment is turning against America’s presence in the Vietnam War, especially among young people. Drafted Americans (people whom the government forces to fight in the military, or else be thrown in prison) desert the army or flee the draft notice in greater and greater numbers, in order to avoid fighting and dying for a cause they don’t believe in. Although O’Brien morally objects to the Vietnam War and makes plans to flee the draft, he finds himself dragged into service by a begrudging sense of obligation, suggesting that one’s sense of nationalistic duty may compel them to contradict their conscience and participate in something that opposes their better judgment.

Like much of the country, O’Brien finds the Vietnam War morally reprehensible and makes plans to desert, demonstrating that his conscience firmly opposes participating in what seems to be an evil war. O’Brien’s father served in World War II, and most of the men in his town either fought in World War II or the Korean War; O’Brien thus idolizes war as a child and pretended to be soldiers with his friends, fighting like their fathers did. However, by the time O’Brien has graduated college—when he receives his draft notice—he and his friends have read about politics and history and seriously question the ethics of the Vietnam War, holding long conversations about it into the night. However, O’Brien finds these elaborate ethical conversations difficult to sustain “when the town’s draft board were calling me to duty, smiling so nicely,” suggesting that he already feels the pull of his community and their expectation that he do his duty and fight. O’Brien finds himself caught between these two forces. The night before he leaves for basic training, he writes his moral protests on scraps of cardboard and “declare[s] the war evil, the draft board evil, the town evil in its lethargic acceptance of it all.” However, he quickly feels foolish and tears them up. He leaves for basic training in Washington, but soon realizes he must honor his conscience, desert the army, and flee to Sweden, which harbors American deserters and will not extradite them to the U.S. He pulls together enough money for a bus ticket into Canada, plots the route he will take through Ireland and into Sweden, and even gets as far as buying his tickets in Seattle. He prepares letters for his friends and family, explaining that his conscience firmly and ardently opposes participating in the Vietnam War, and that he hopes they will not be too ashamed of him.

However, when it comes time to actually flee, O’Brien’s sense of duty prevents him from doing so, even though desertion seems morally justified. That is, his sense of duty overrides his conscience. While sitting in a hotel room in Seattle, trying to summon the courage to take the bus to Canada, O’Brien is so anxious that he vomits. He looks through his plans and his letters again and he decides to burn them. He states, “It was over. I simply couldn’t bring myself to flee.” Despite O’Brien’s moral opposition to the Vietnam War—as well as his desire not to die for an unworthy cause—he feels beholden to his country and the expectations of his community. He reflects, “Family, the home town, friends, history, tradition, fear, confusion, exile: I could not run.” That is, his sense of duty to the place he grew up, the people and the culture that raised him—who all expect him to go to war—compels him to ignore his conscience and instead do as he’s told. O’Brien begrudgingly accepts his role and returns to basic training, though for the remainder of his time there he feels “restless and hopeless,” heavy with a particular sense of dread. His sense of duty overpowers his conscientious objections to participating in the war.

O’Brien feels as though his duty to his country drags him into a horrific and purposeless war, ultimately suggesting that each person’s sense of duty to their country may actually serve a negative function, drawing them into actions they know are wrong. O’Brien’s time in Vietnam is as horrific and senseless as he expects, made worse by the fact that serving never feels like his own choice. He reflects that, with the pressures of his community and family and the patriotic history of his Minnesota town, “in the end, it was less reason and more gravity that was the final influence,” implying that he feels passively pulled into fighting an evil war by a “sleepwalking default.” O’Brien’s friend and fellow soldier Erik echoes Obrien’s feeling of passivity, suggesting that duty is less based in conviction than fear. He argues they are going off to fight “not because of conviction, not for ideology; rather it's from fear of society's censure […] Fear of weakness. Fear that to avoid war is to avoid manhood.” Erik’s observation implies that duty has little to do with one’s conviction that their country is doing the right thing—rather, it’s often based in a fear of being rejected by that country or shamed by one’s peers. In O’Brien’s account, one’s sense of duty to their country can actually be a negative influence rather than a positive one, leading a person to defy their conscience in order to please or pacify their community. Rather than fighting from a righteous conviction, duty compels soldiers like O’Brien to fight because everyone else is and because society expects it, regardless of one’s own morality or conscience.