In “Speaking of Courage” as well as other chapters in the book, O’Brien illustrates not only solider’s fear during the war but solider’s courage as well. In the chapter “Speaking of Courage,” O’Brien tells the story of Norman Bowker. A solider who I consider to be courageous. O’Brien writes about the time when Norman failed to save Kiowa from the sh*t field. Many would say that his action is not courageous and is the reason he didn’t even receive the “Silver Star” award. However I think that Norman was courageous for trying to save Kiowa regardless of the situation and place he was in, and for other things he did during and after the war. This chapter is set up as a post-war story. We begin to see Norman’s life when the war is over and his ability to deal with it. The war changed him and unfortunately Norman couldn’t move on once the war was over. Norman also kept things after the war, one thing I believe he kept was courage.
Although we see a non-courageous Norman for not saving Kiowa’s life and for killing himself, we see a courageous Norman in other aspects of the war. Norman earned 7 medals during the war, tried to save his friend Kiowa, and did his best to live his life as normally as he could after the war was over.
Norman needed other people to talk to about his accomplishments in order to feel courageous. If he had gotten that, he might not even have killed himself. As readers, we see more guilt, fault, and shame in the war more than courage. I believe that O’Brien portrays courage as accomplishing something that may be hard and making the right decision. Doing what is best no matter what the outcome may be (killed himself) is truly an act of courage.
Some soldiers carry courage with them through the war and continue to build on it based on experience. O’Brien shows more courageous/cowardice moments throughout the book. He shows this when O’Brien goes to war regardless of the way he was feeling, when Curt Lemon gets his tooth pulled regardless of his fear of the dentist, and when O’Brien kills one of the enemy soldiers. Although these are all different situations, all show how one person chooses to do what is right, and makes them courageous no matter how much they didn’t want to do it/regretted it.
We don’t really know if this story is all true, but I think that it was courageous of O’Brien to include it in his novel in remembrance of Norman and Kiowa.
