The Things They Carried: Speaking of Courage

The Things They Carried: Speaking of Courage [P.151 - 152] - commentary

The passage on pages 151 and 152 from The Things They Carried, Speaking of Courage is of the character Norman Bowker wanting to have the courage to speak up of the death of Kiowa.

Both Tim O'Brien and Norman Bowker illustrate in this passage the effects of speaking and not speaking about the war on people. This relates to the pain of war experience yet not being able to get past it even after the war has ended. O'Brien is able to deal with these memories by writing them into stories. However, Bowker is still unable to talk about the trauma in which the war has given him. Ironically, that is why he drives around silently. This is contradictory to how the author really is, because he is writing about a man who is unable to speak out to an understanding audience and leave the memories behind, while O'Brien is writing to an understanding audience in order to leave everything behind and gain peace. This clearly results in the difference of their future path, while Bowker will be almost suicidal.

Tim O'Brien continuously mentioned the rounds in which Norman Bowker drives around the lake in order to illustrate this man's state of loss and lost; loss of two things: one is a friend, the other is the silver star which if he were to save Kiowa he would be able to gain back both a friend and a silver star to make his father proud. Round eleven and twelfth were important rounds, because during these two it shows us a lot of what is going through Bowker's mind. Tim O'Brien does this effectively. On the eleventh revolution, Tim O'Brien tells the story of Bowker's imaginary conversation about Kiowa's death to his father, who is a figure which Bowker wants to tell due to the experience his father's had, and also the fact that he assumes his father would be proud enough already because of the seven medals he has already brought home. O'Brien mentioned how "He could not talk about it and never would", yet within Bowkers' mind there were many ifs, "if it had been possible" and what he "would've" said and explained. This contrast emphasizes to the audience Norman Bowkers utter urge to speak, yet cannot.

In the twelfth revolution that Norman Bowker drives, he ends up wading into the sea. Tim O'Brien described it as such, that from