Speaking of Courage

[Emily Barnes]

Why do you think Norman Bowker stayed in his home town after the war
when no one wanted to hear about his part in the war, even his own
father? Do you think that he was trying to forget the war, or maybe
something else?

[Kevin]

Good question Emily, I think he stayed in his hometown after the war
because he feels that being close to his familiar surroundings helps
him to cope with his war time experience. He may also have stayed
there for the lack of noise and relaxing nature. "Now, in the late
afternoon, it lay calm and smooth, a good audience for silence, a
seven-mile circumference that could be traveled by slow car in twenty-
five minutes," (O'Brien 138). By being able to be in a familiar
surrounding Bowker is able to stave off most of the terror and fear
the war brought.

[Trey Smith]

I agree with part of what Kevin i.e. that Norman Bowker returns to and
stays at Worthington, Minnesota after the war
for the "familiar surroundings to...cope with his war time
experience." However I feel that the reason Bowker returns home
because he thinks that time had stood still, as if on pause, in
Worthington during his service in the alien world of Vietnam. He lists
events that happened on the lake shortly before the draft as if he
could pick up where he left off. He remembered that, "he had driven
around [the lake] with Sally Kramer...or other times with his
friends..." (O'Brien 138). His theory of mind is that although, "there
had not always been a war,...there had always been a lake," (O'Brien
138). According to this affirmation, the logic course of action is to
go back to the lake.

Bowker considers releasing the pause button and resuming his
relationship by stopping, "at Sally's house...and catching up on
things," (O'Brien 140). He realizes that this relationship cannot be.
Sally was happy, and, "there was really nothing he could say to
her," (O'Brien 139). Time had passed in Worthington, Minnesota; he
just missed it.

[Lindsey]

I agree with Kevin when he says, "he feels that being close to his
familiar surroundings helps
him to cope with his war time experience". Although driving around
and around a pretty much empty lake doesn't exactly count as coping, I
would imagine it being a lot better than being in some unfamiliar
place. On the other hand, Bowker might have been better off starting
completely over. Going to a whole new town, new friends, new job, new
everything to kind of erase his past. Obviously Bowker needs someone
or something to talk to about his experiences at war to get them off
his chest but doesn't feel content telling them to anyone in the town
as he says "The town could not talk, and would not listen" (O'Brien
143). I think Bowker stayed in his home town mainly because he had no
where else to go and felt like no one could understand him no matter
where he went.

[Ben]

I also agree with Kevin that Norman would stay in his home town. I
believe that while he may be upset that no one even his own family is
interested in what he did in the war. I think that not discussing the
war will help Norman move on as symbolized in O’Brian’s narration of
when Norman returned home “For a moment he’d almost pulled over, just
to talk, but instead he’d pushed down hard on the gas pedal’ (O’Brian
139). This is a clear indication of how Norman wants to return home
and start a new life, while leaving what happen in the past behind him.

[Katelin]

I agree with part of what Kevin said. I believe that Bowker stayed in
his hometown to become more comfortable with his past. No one wants to
talk with him about the war, but i think it makes it easier to cope
with the experiences because he does not have to remember the horrible
experiences he had faced. Kevin also brings up the point that his
surroundings are familar to him and i think that it gives him a sense
of safety and he had quite a few memories, "back in high school, at
night, he had driven around and around it with Sally Kramer" (O'Brien
138). The memories may have given him a feeling of happiness and a
want to stay there.

On Feb 19, 2:48 pm, Emily Barnes <emilyrobinbar...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Rolph Recto]

Good question, Emily - I definitely thought of the same question as I was reading. The answer, or what I perceive the answer is, actually comes up in the next chapter, "Notes". Perhaps O'Brien did not make "Speaking of Courage" a character study but more of a character sketch.

The most obvious reason why Bowker stays in his home town is that he cannot do otherwise. The first sentence of "Speaking of Courage" makes this reason clear: "The war was over and there was no particular place to go" (O'Brien 137). Thus, Bowker didn't really stay in his home town after the war so much as he couldn't leave: The town is all that he's known. He can name all the landmarks that he passes by as he endlessly and mindlessly orbits the lake. He sees an old girlfriend, and remembers his old friend Max (who drowned in the lake) ruminating about God. Yet there is the unmistakable sign that life in the town has moved on without him. Almost everyone he knew have moved away; his old girlfriend is now married; and he couldn't even figure out how to work the ordering system in Fat Mama's Burgers, a place which he obviously frequented before the war. Also, as I've mentioned before, Bowker was unable to connect with anybody. He had gone through an experience that was so removed from the sleepy life of the town that no one could relate to him, and thus seemed uncaring. He felt as if the town "had been hit by nerve gas, everything still and lifeless, even the people. The town could not talk, and would not listen" (143). His situation is almost the polar opposite of Mary Anne, the "Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong" - while she left her home and found herself settling comfortably in a foreign land, he leaves a foreign land only to return to his home, alienated.

To answer your second question, Emily: It is clear that Bowker did not stay in his home town to forget about the war. In fact, the driving conflict in the story is that he cannot communicate his feelings about Vietnam, and, in particular, Kiowa's death. He felt guilty, which made him listless and purposeless after the war. In his own words: "there's no place to go. Not just in this lousy little town. In general. My life, I mean. It's almost like I got killed over in Nam...Hard to describe. That night when Kiowa got wasted, I sort of sank down into the sewage with him...Feels like I'm still in deep shit" (156). Perhaps it is this inability to find a cathartic release that eventually drove him to suicide. In this way, Bowker is most like Varnado Simpson from the My Lai video. Both are are unable to make meaningful connections after their experiences in Vietnam - both are unable to exorcise the demons of their pasts. 

--
Rolph Recto 

Louisa County High School

"And when your sorrow is comforted (time soothes all sorrows) you will be content that you have known me. You will always be my friend. You will want to laugh with me. And you will sometimes open your window, so, for that pleasure... and your friends will be properly astonished to see you laughing as you look up at the sky! Then you will say to them, 'Yes, the stars always make me laugh!' And they will think you are crazy. It will be a very shabby trick that I shall have played on you..."

[Zoe Kopin]

I agree with Trey, that Bowker "returns home because he thinks
that time had stood still." I believe that Bowker was simply trying
to erase his memory of the war, by going back to where he was before
he went to war. By going back to a place that was familiar to him,
Bowker was able to push his memories of war to the back of his mind.
I also believe that Bowker returned to his home town because he hoped
that he would gain recognition for his achievements in the war,
although he had not formally been recognized. He speaks many times
throughout the chapter about how he "...almost won the Silver
Star" (O'Brien 141). He hoped that someone would give him credit for
what he almost did.

> > something else?- Hide quoted text -
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[Casey]

I agree with Zoe and Trey that Bowker had hoped time had stood still
and he could just forget about the war and press play on his home life
again. Bowker came home in hopes to forget about the war, but the
interesting bit is that he can't forget. The people of his town, along
with his family do not really want to hear about what happened during
the war, but he can't get it out of his head. All the stories he wants
to tell them play over and over, especially his failure,'"I almost won
the Silver Star"' (O'Brien 141). Even though Bowker attempts to get
rid of the war by coming home to the comfortable and typical hometown,
the war is a huge part of his life and wishes to incorporate it in the
monotonous days coating is this small town.

[Madison Stanley]

I agree with Rolph that Bowker stays because he believes there is no
where else to go. After the war, Bowker struggles to connect with
everyday life and the peace in America. He can not stop thinking about
the intenseness of war and what happened with his friend Kiowa because
the war was so much more engaging than real life. When he was in
Vietnam, he knew exactly what he had to do: to stay alive and honor
his country, but once he returns to America, he finds himself in a
never ending daze caused by his inability to find life exciting or
full of purpose. He lacks the drive to move to another town and even
if he decided to, he would have no idea what to do in his new
location. Life seems like a never ending vacation to Bowker. Sure,
when one goes on vacation it is fun, but they eventually become bored
and ready to return to work and the same was true with Bowker. Coming
home was nice, but he finds it to be boring after time and in some
ways wishes he could return to work: to war.
In "Notes," O'Brien talks openly about the struggles Bowker had
with finding meaning for his life, which led to his inability to move
and even eventually his suicide in the YMCA. O'Brien describes how
Bowker lives a boring, slow life, where he doesn't work and sets
himself to mindless tasks, like driving around in circles. "I received
a long, disjointed letter in which Bowker described the problem of
finding a meaningful use for his life after the war... He spent his
mornings in bed. In the afternoons he played pickup basketball at the
Y, and then at night he drove around town in his father's car, mostly
alone, or with a six-pack of beer, cruising" (O'Brien 155, 156). Due
to his inability to adapt to post-war, calm life, Bowker lived in a
depressed state, where he felt useless and unable to escape, so he
stayed home where he was familiar and never had the drive to leave.

[Megan]

I agree with Trey about Norman Bowker's life being on pause; I also
agree with the last sentence of Lindsey's post. Norman Bowker stays in
his home town simply because he has "no place to go. Not just in this
lousy little town. In general. My life, I mean" (O'Brien 156). Bowker
feels as if he got "killed over in Nam" (156). He has no enthusiasim
to be home; this has something to do with no one wishing to hear his
stories. Bowker drives around and doing so brings back old memories of
his home town, but these memories are in the past; I think Bowker is
trying to live in the past. He's trying to forget the war and go back
to normal life, yet no one is helping him move on with his life. His
parents do support him, but they don't try to talk to him. No one
does. This lack of communication leads to Norman Bowker hanging
himself; he is lost in his own home town and has no where to turn to.

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