The Things They Carried Courage Essay
Speaking of Courage and The Things They Carried Being from a military town, people talk about war and the effects it has on people regularly. People that are not around military people probably have no idea what happens when a soldier comes home from war; they may read about one soldier in the news but they do not see the effects first hand. Tim O’Brien tries to show people the guilt people have, the death involved in war, and the things they will always carry with them in his novel The Things They Carried. While everyone goes through these things during war, not everyone goes through them the same way and O’Brien shows this in many of the stories but mostly in “The Things They Carried” and “Speaking of Courage.”
When returning from war, …show more content…
Norman Bowker carried the guilt of being unable to save Kiowa for the rest of his life. After Speaking of Courage was written, “Norman Bowker...hanged himself in the locker room of a YMCA in his hometown in central Iowa” (O’Brien SC 149). For some people, like Bowker, they reach a breaking point where they cannot handle their own thoughts and memories anymore. By adding this information to the book, O’Brien brings light to the ever growing number of people who have returned from war and cannot cope with their memories. Most people do not realize the effect war has on a person simply because they have never been to war, but they also do not try to reach out to a veteran and help them. Hopefully by adding this story of Bowker, people can try to change the way they view veterans and maybe even try to help them get through their struggles. In both The Things They Carried and Speaking of Courage, O’Brien includes death, guilt, and descriptions of the things people carry with them. Even though they all are about the same topic, each chapter gives the reader a different perspective of how people deal with war, during or after. Each person had to deal with each of the topics, but how they did so was always different. O’Brien tries to show people life after war may be just as difficult as life during
When returning from war, …show more content…
Norman Bowker carried the guilt of being unable to save Kiowa for the rest of his life. After Speaking of Courage was written, “Norman Bowker...hanged himself in the locker room of a YMCA in his hometown in central Iowa” (O’Brien SC 149). For some people, like Bowker, they reach a breaking point where they cannot handle their own thoughts and memories anymore. By adding this information to the book, O’Brien brings light to the ever growing number of people who have returned from war and cannot cope with their memories. Most people do not realize the effect war has on a person simply because they have never been to war, but they also do not try to reach out to a veteran and help them. Hopefully by adding this story of Bowker, people can try to change the way they view veterans and maybe even try to help them get through their struggles. In both The Things They Carried and Speaking of Courage, O’Brien includes death, guilt, and descriptions of the things people carry with them. Even though they all are about the same topic, each chapter gives the reader a different perspective of how people deal with war, during or after. Each person had to deal with each of the topics, but how they did so was always different. O’Brien tries to show people life after war may be just as difficult as life during