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Summary Of The Chapter 'Speaking Of Courage'

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We all have our highs and lows. For the men who served in Vietnam the lows outweighed the highs. Looking through the psych lens at the chapter “Speaking of Courage” shows the fact that the Vietnam War devastated many soldiers mentally. The soldiers that made it home from the war were mentally scarred for life. Norman Bowker kept his feelings bottled up inside and never shared them with anyone. When he tried to share his feelings he was shot down and felt rejected. In this chapters, "Speaking of Courage", the psych lens can be applied because the character Norman Bowker and the author Tim O'Brien can be viewed in a way that uncovers inner problems. This chapter looks into the death of Kiowa, and the effect it has on every individual in their
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Things They Carried By Tim O Brien: A Literary Analysis

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Readers, especially those reading historical fiction, always crave to find believable stories and realistic characters. Tim O’Brien gives them this in “The Things They Carried.” Like war, people and their stories are often complex. This novel is a collection stories that include these complex characters and their in depth stories, both of which are essential when telling stories of the Vietnam War. Using techniques common to postmodern writers, literary techniques, and a collection of emotional truths, O’Brien helps readers understand a wide perspective from the war, which ultimately makes the fictional stories he tells more believable.

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Norman Bowker's Life In The Things They Carried

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Returning home from war is never an easy transition for a soldier, no soldier embodied that truth more than Norman Bowker. Bowker is a Vietnam War veteran from the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien who struggles with his life and mental health after the Vietnam War. Bowker is troubled by his memories- most specifically one memory- that he cannot forget or forgive himself for. Bowker was a man who had to fight for his life every day he was in Vietnam, there was always a chance the Viet Cong would attack. Bowker lost friends and lost fellow soldiers every day in Vietnam, he even lost his best friend to the war.

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In Soldier from the War Returning, Thomas Childers writes that “a curious silence lingers over what for many was the last great battle of the war.” This final battle was the soldier’s return home. After World War II, veterans came back to the United States and struggled with stigmatized mental illnesses as well as financial and social issues. During the war, many soldiers struggled with mental health issues that persisted after they came home.

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During the Vietnam War the soldiers, whether or not they wanted to be there, many of them developed mental illnesses. The things they would experience would cause burdens on them for the rest of their lives. “Ted Lavender, who was scared, carried tranquilizers until he was shot in the head outside the village of Than Khe in mid-April.” (The Things They Carried) Lavender carried tranquilizers until he died, because he was scared.

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Ptsd In The Things They Carried

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The chapter “Speaking of Courage” focuses on the toil of Norman Bowker when he returns home after the war. O’Brien uses hypothetical conversations to reveal how Norman feels others would react if he revealed his sheltered war experiences. Norman

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Norman Bowker's 'Peace At War'

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This quotes shows how broken Norman was when his best friend died. Norman always blamed himself because he felt like that is all he could do to show Kiowa his peace. In no way could Norman blame anyone else for what happened so he blamed himself which affected Tim because Tim believes it wasn’t his fault at all. Norman writes a letter to Tim telling him to write a story about how he let Kiowa get away and die. Norman wrote a letter to Tim expelling how war has changed him, “what you should do, Tim, is write a story about a guy who feels like he got zapped over in that sh*thole.

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The True Weight of War “The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’Brien, brings to light the psychological impact of what soldiers go through during times of war. We learn that the effects of traumatic events weigh heavier on the minds of men than all of the provisions and equipment they shouldered. Wartime truly tests the human body and and mind, to the point where some men return home completely destroyed. Some soldiers have been driven to the point of mentally altering reality in order to survive day to day. An indefinite number of men became numb to the deaths of their comrades, and yet secretly desired to die and bring a conclusion to their misery.

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Tim O Brien Theme Of Loss

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Located in Vietnam, soldiers suffered mentally and physically during the span of the Vietnam War. At points, the emotional luggage was even more of a burden than the physical nature of war. War cannot be simply narrowed down to a definitive answer. The human experience is much broader and more complicated than that. The stories told reflects the entangled lives of the soldiers.

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