The Disheartening Detachment In Tim O 'Brien's Speaking Of Courage'

The Disheartening Detachment of a Soldier When a person loses someone very close to them they become unstable. They start to wonder is there anything I could have done to prevent their death and, if there was, that guilt will follow them until they learn to accept it. They start to feel detached from their surroundings and push people that are close to them away. Norman Bowker, the main character in the short story “Speaking of Courage” by Tim O’Brien, lost his close friend in Vietnam, faced the realities of war, and believes no one will understand the torment he went through since they did not experience what he did, as a result, he feels detached from his home town. Tim O’Brien describes Bowker’s detachment from his home through the descriptions
The story starts out with Bowker saying “the lake had drowned his friend, Max Arnold,” (132) and that he feels weird driving around the lake once again because “now Max was just an idea”(133). The event of his friend drowning in the lake makes Bowker feel detached with his hometown because now it is as if he is back in Vietnam, since he lost such a close friend there too. When Bowker says Max is just an idea this solidifies the notion that he feels alone in his town due to the lack of old friends he can talk or hangout with. Also, Bowker cannot seem to get away from Vietnam. Everything he sees around the lake subtly hints to his time there. While driving, he observes two young boys “hiking with knapsacks and toy rifles and canteens” (133). Bowker uses allegory of two young boys playing soldier to revert back to his own experience in the war. He observes these two boys playing soldier and tries acquiring their attention, “He honked going by, but neither boy looked up” (133). When none of them look up, even when he passed by multiple times, this symbolizes how Bowker’s life playing soldier is over. Now it is time to move on, but he cannot which emphasizes the detachment he feels towards his