Analysis Of Speaking Of Courage

Close Analysis: Speaking of Courage The narrator of the “Speaking of Courage” chapter is Tim O’Brien. The purpose of the story is to express Norman Bowker’s feelings of guilt and regret regarding Kiowa’s death and his inability to find a meaningful use for his life after the war.

The protagonist of the story is Norman Bowker. Bowker’s motivation is to be a productive citizen of society, rather than driving around aimlessly, reminiscing about his war experiences. Bowker cannot be a productive citizen of society until he accepts that he tried his best to save his friend, but failed. Bowker must accept that no amount of courage could have saved Kiowa from the muddy banks of the Song Tra Bong River. Bowker must stop blaming himself for Kiowa’s

His guilty conscience makes his emotionally unstable. O’Brien describes him tone as “jumping from self-pity to anger to irony to guilt to a kind of feigned indifference” (156). Bowker wishes to share his experiences with someone but feels as if he cannot communicate his feelings. Shortly after, Bowker hangs himself. Bowker’s guilty conscience implies that he has a strong sense of morality. Bowker is under the impression that courage is measured by the number of medals awarded. He believes that all instances of death in war must be the fault of another person. This is understandable, considering that Bowker had spent most of his adulthood serving in the military. Because of this, Bowker feels as if there must be blame assigned concerning Kiowa’s death and eventually blames himself for the incident. Bowker follows the rules that are set for him and the rules that he sets for himself. Norman Bowker’s character acts as a symbol for all of the veterans who had difficulty adjusting to a normal setting after returning home. Norman Bowker also symbolizes guilt, a major theme in this novel. Bowker’s suicide represents his inability to cope with the guilt that he felt. Bowker’s overall role in the story is

How the cold worked into your bones. Sometimes the bravest thing on earth was to sit through the night and feel the cold in your bones. Courage was not always a matter of yes or no. Sometimes it came in degrees, like the cold; sometimes you were brave up to a point and beyond that point you were not so brave. In certain situations you could do incredible things, you could advance toward enemy fire, but in other situations, which were not nearly so bad, you had trouble keeping your eyes open. Sometimes, like that night in the shit field, the difference between courage and cowardice was something small and stupid” (147).

The passage above represents the way Norman Bowker defines courage. Bowker was “brave up to a point and beyond that point [he] was not so brave” (147). Bowker attempted to rescue his friend Kiowa; however, he was unable to do so. Bowker justifies his inability to save Kiowa by blaming the “goddamn awful smell” (143) of the Song Tra Bong River. In this case, Norman Bowker believes that the difference between courage and cowardice was the awful smell that supposedly prevented him from saving his