Speaking of Courage

After typing a very long post and then my internet crashing, I am going to attempt this again. In the chapter titled “Speaking of Courage” (pages 131-148), a few thoughts popped into my mind. First off, this chapter was a dramatic shift from the previous one- a war story. To me, even though this chapter simply followed a man who just returned from Vietnam for a four hour period, I think it screams many lessons that can be learned. The first being, what doesn’t someone learn from a war. It seems that throughout this book, O’Brien is constantly talking about lessons and talents learned from being at war. Norman, the man in this chapter, talks of how he always knows what time it is because he can “feel” it. The second lesson we learn from this chapter is how the men who returned from the war were not the same ones who left their loved ones back at home. Unlike WWII when after the men returned from overseas there were big parties and an economic boom following, Vietnam was the complete opposite. Historically we know that the war was very controversial and extremely unpopular on American soil. He also know that the men who came back were not the same mentally as when the left. This concept is clearly explained in this chapter. Norman feels he has nowhere to go and doesn’t even know where to begin to get his life back on track. Because the war was unpopular at home, soldiers did not receive a warm homecoming as in previous wars, but instead kept there war stories and medals close to their heart and prayed for a somewhat normal life.