Speaking of Courage

     Speaking of Courage is by far the most powerful chapter of the entire book thus far. Though other chapters focus on the dark, painful sights of death, this one goes deeper into the heaviest thing any of these soldiers carried, emotion. O’Brien describes this lost soldier stuck in his thoughts unable to share his feelings with anyone feeling so lost and alone in an endless loop of contradiction. Beyond the emotions, Bowker is experiencing is the drive itself and the metaphor O’Brien created by having Bowker circle a lake trapped in its endless loop. The circle is representing the pain Bowker is feeling and can’t express getting himself stuck in this constant loop of second-guessing and sadness.
 
     Like no other chapter in this book Speaking of Courage expresses the real horror that many of the soldiers returned home with. The emotional weight they carried combined with the stark differences of home life and war created these people who felt as though they no longer had a place in society their purpose was served, and everyone forgot about them. Bowker describes it as having no one to talk to not even those he is close to because suddenly they all feel so distant. Even those who are willing to hear him out Bowker cannot speak to because they don’t know what he saw they don’t know what Vietnam was like. Speaking of Courage takes this feeling that a real man had and attempts to present it to the general public, but it does not do the feeling justice the reader can only get a taste for the true weight being humped by those in Vietnam.

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