"Speaking of Courage"

In “Speaking of Courage”, Tim O’Brien tells the story of Norman Bowker’s post war life. He tells how Bowker tried to live after the war, trying to live with some guilt for Kiowa’s death. Throughout the story, Bowker imagines conversations, explaining how he almost won the Silver Star. He was speaking of courage, some courage that was lost for having Kiowa slipped into the mud, into the war, into death. Bowker tried to speak and explain how and why the courage was lost in the shit field. This speaks of courage because very few people would want to try and speak about such a thing that seems to be guilt and embarrassment for not being able to do anything.

Tim O’Brien said that he was a coward for going to war. He was a coward for doing what the others wanted, and expects him, to do. Everyone expected him to go to war. So he went, not standing up for what he obviously wanted, which was not to go to war. He did not want to be embarrassed and be pointed out as the guy who didn’t go to war. So he went.
The courageous thing in “Speaking of Courage” is to forget embarrassment and how Bowker failed to save Kiowa and talk about it. “On the Rainy River”, O’Brien (the narrator) went to war because he would not have been able to survive with the embarrassment of not going. Bowker couldn’t do anything about Kiowa, but just trying to talk about it is courageous because he’s not afraid of the embarrassment.

I think O’Brien’s portrayal of what is courageous is doing what you think is right and not being embarrassed. Embarrassment is something that holds everyone down. O’Brien’s portrayal of what is not courageous is doing what everyone expects and wants you to do even if you don’t want to do it.