Speaking of Courage
In the literary work, Speaking of Courage, Tim O’Brien highlights the trying struggle of a post-war solider attempting desperately to integrate himself back into American society. Paul Berlin’s trials and tribulations exemplify the “dominance of a citizen culture in the United States,” as mentioned by Dr. Decker in class. American society does not allow for the soldiers we have sent off to fight to return as warriors.
While Speaking of Courage is based on Paul’s experience after the Vietnam War the effect of the citizen culture can be seen throughout history. Americans are not generally known to have an imperial, blood thirsty nature. We choose to “conquer” the world using business or other non-violent means. In the case of the Vietnam War, our government was f...
A characters courage is not measured by how an action will be accepted by others, but by how their actions stay true to themselves even in the face of a pressured surrounding. Colin McDougall’s The Firing Squad a story about a young soldiers attempt at redemption and George Orwell’s Shooting an Elephant an essay about Orwell’s days in a British colony where he was called to handle the situation with an aggressive elephant are two pieces of literature that demonstrate the effects of courage. Courage takes many forms and in these two great pieces of literature it can be measured by looking at the characters and how they use courage and lack of courage as a driving factor in different ways throughout their story’s.
Norman Bowker was a soldier who embodied the damage of a long term war after it was over. During the war Bowker was a quiet and a humble soldier, and the death of his friend Kiowa brings a huge impact to his life after the war. In the chapter Speaking of Courage, time has past by and Bowker had returned to Iowa. Bowker drives his dad’s Chevrolet around the lake, and realizes he has nowhere to go. He thinks about multiple things as he drives around the lake like thinking about his highschool girlfriend, his friend drowning in the lake, and also thinks about his father where he would bring home medals from the war. As the sun goes down he imagines telling his dad that he did not have the courage to save Kiowa and was imagining that his father
Speaking of Courage, is a featured story in The Things They Carried. This particular story is a post-war insight into the life of a young Vietnam Veteran. The main character Norman Bowker returns to his hometown after the war had ended. With himself he brings home countless amounts of experiences, memories, and thoughts that place him in a setting abstract from what he remembered as "home." Norman finds himself driving around the seven-mile lake in his father's Chevy reflecting on the past and thinking of hypothetical situations. He drives twelve times around this lake, thus eighty-four miles of thoughts ran through his head.
To contrast truth and fiction, the author inserts reminders that the stories are not fact, but are mere representations of human emotion incommunicable as fact. O'Brien's most direct discussion of truth appears in Good Form. He begins with, "It's time to be blunt," and goes on to say that everything in the book but the very premise of a foot soldier in Vietnam is invented. This comes as a shock after reading what seems to be a stylized presentation of fact. In the sequence of Speaking of Courage, followed by Notes, O'Brien adds a second dimension of truth to a story so vivid that the reader may have already accepted it as the original truth.
In John Marsden’s Tomorrow When the War Began, the quote from David Seabury “Courage and convictions are powerful weapons against an enemy that depends upon only fists and guns”, is evident throughout the novel with the character’s various successes. Conviction (willpower) is very strong in the main characters, as the stakes are high with their entire town invaded leaving very few free. This conviction is also essential for courage, which as Ellie explains in the book, can only be found amidst fear. “I guess true courage is when you're really scared but you still do it” p.25. There are various frightening moments in this book, like when the ride on mower was used like a bomb or having to rescue Lee using heavy machinery. These are all moments the characters used their will to survive to propel them to do something that they were terrified to do. The characters also face daunting themes head on despite the previous stress. This is courage, found within conviction, and it has proved to be a good weapon against those with physical weapons.
Today, we have a lot of veterans who are coming home from war that are being displaced. In this chapter it talks about a Vietnam War soldier named Norman Bowker who arrives home from the war. In the chapter, Speaking of Courage from the book ‘The Things They Carried’ written by Tim O’Brien, Norman feels displaced from the world and everyone there. A returning soldier from the Vietnam War is driving around a lake on the 4th of July in his fathers big chevrolet, but then realizes he has nowhere to go. He starts to reminisce about his father, ex-girlfriend, and his childhood friend. Norman talks about all the medals he had won. He starts to think about his fathers pride in those badges and he starts to have a recollection about how he had almost own the silver star but blew his chance. He continues to drive around the lake again and again. He continues to imagine telling his father about the story of how he almost won the silver star, but failed to do so. This paper will analyze Speaking of Courage with the new criticism/formalism lens.
Trudeau, Noah Andre. Gettysburg A Testing of Courage. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc, 2002. Page 268.
“Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction,” declared John F. Kennedy, President and World War ll hero. This means if you go out and do something brave but it doesn’t have a purpose it is pointless. A lot of courage is shown in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, To Kill A Mockingbird, Schindler’s List, and The Merchant Of Venice.
The United States became frustrated with the death of wounded prisoners in Vietnam War. This is so deleterious John F Kennedy sends a warning to the west. Tim O’Brien Story about Vietnam could have been a biography because he played a role and it is based on a somewhat a true Story. O’Brien didn’t go through with this because of what he wrote is what he did see, what could have happened, and what he kept from being told. In the book simple themes guilt, shame, and innocence play a vital role in the soldier’s life.
Undaunted Courage is a very detailed account of what Ambrose considers the most important expedition in American history, Lewis and Clark’s exploration of the west. Ambrose attempts to project Thomas Jefferson’s vision of a country that stretches from sea to shining sea, of an open road to the west, of an “Empire of Liberty”. Ambrose repeatedly shows how important the expedition was to the United States and especially to Thomas Jefferson by giving examples of the powers given to Lewis by Jefferson in order to complete the expedition. Lewis is given a letter of credit signed by Thomas Jefferson
There is a fine line between what American society looked like during World War II and contemporary America. The dilemma is that society has gone from patriotism and a fight for liberty to “everyone walking around with a chip on his or her shoulder” (Carr 2). This two distinct differences on America culture and society is manifested in, Howie Carr’s “Take $2000 and Call Me in the Morning” and Ronald Reagan’s speech, “The Boys of Point du Hoc”.
When we are first getting introduced to O’Brien we see this constant thought of double standards and cliches in American culture. One way he addresses his issue with American war stories is when he states “A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things they have always done.” (O’Brien, pg.65) As we are introduced to each character in the novel we are forced to see their shortcomings beyond the title of bravery we grant them. This ideas leads to questioning how we choose to romanticize war stories and how this
“The Vietnam War was arguably the most traumatic experience for the United States in the twentieth century. That is indeed a grim distinction in a span that included two world wars, the assassinations of two presidents and the resignation of another, the Great Depression, the Cold War, racial unrest, and the drug and crime waves.” (Goldstein 1). The Vietnam War is widely regarded as one of the most traumatic experiences in all of American History. Innocent boys trudged through the mud, the heat and the fear that came along with fighting in Vietnam. Tim O’Brien paints a picture of how difficult and traumatic Vietnam was for the soldiers who experienced it in his book, The Things They Carried. Throughout the course of the book the elements of fiction: plot, character and setting all act to serve the purpose in conveying O’Brien’s theme of his work which is revealed to be at the conclusion: a message of universal immortality. In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried setting is the most crucial element in understanding theme, followed by character then lastly plot.
Works Cited and Consulted: Crane, Stephen. The Red Badge of Courage. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. Canada; 1976. Gibson, Donald B. The Red Badge of Courage: Redefining the Hero.
To society, participating in war was courageous, but to Tim O’Brien, he considers this to be cowardly. On page 57, he ties courage in with his decision, saying, “I would not be brave. That old image of myself as a hero, as a man of conscience and courage, all that was just a pipe dream.” In comparison, this is ironic to what society thinks of going to war. To Tim O’Brien, he relates courage to his own personal thoughts and beliefs. Since he chose against his morals to go to war, not only is he a coward to himself, but it shows that he also has no courage in himself to do what he believes is right. For him, it takes more courage to believe in himself and his beliefs rather than to surrender and go to war. Consequently, the societal standpoint on war forces two decisions upon those who are against the war. It gives them the choice to either take guilt from society by refusing to go to war, or take guilt in oneself for refuting their own beliefs, to either have courage in yourself, or to give in. From O’Brien’s perspective, he chose to have guilt in himself, because it’s more convenient than taking guilt from