In speaking of courage It reflects how Bowker felt he needed affirmation from others to truely feel courageous. Though Norman was well aware of all that he had accomplished throughout the war, he was unable to get all that he carried with him off of his chest. He thought about telling his high school sweetheart.. his dead best friend.. his father.. even the employee at the A&W rootbeer stand. He could not say it, though. "There was nothing to say. He could not talk about it and never would." (153) This inability to communicate reflects a serious issue facing many soldiers, which, in its own way can be looked at as a fault in his courage.
O’Brien deals with his memories and his guilt by writing stories about his fellow soldiers. At the same time that these stories make the experience of the war present for O’Brien again, they also distance him from the horrors. He writes in the past tense, differentiating between his present self and the self that fought in the war. Bowker, on the other hand, is unable to use the act of telling to negotiate
