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- Bowker connects "O'Brien" the soldier with O'Brien the writer. He operates as a figment of O'Brien's imagination, allowing him to move between the war and storytelling, providing a purpose and a story for O'Brien to tell.
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Character Analysis Norman Bowker. Bowker arrives in Vietnam operating within a schema of World War II soldiering. He believes, according to O'Brien, that what marks men as courageous are medals and service awards.
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Kiowa - The Things They Carried: Character Analysis | Norman...
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The main character of “Speaking of Courage” is Norman Bowker. Unusually for the book, this story is set after the war, and depicts Norman driving around a lake near his parents’ home on a lonely 4th of July evening in the 1970’s, longing for someone to talk to about the war.
Get everything you need to know about Norman Bowker in The Things They Carried. Analysis, related quotes, timeline.
- Tim O'Brien
- 1990
- Tim O’Brien. The narrator and protagonist of the collection of stories. O’Brien is a pacifist who rationalizes his participation in Vietnam by concluding that his feelings of obligation toward his family and country are stronger influences than his own politics.
- Jimmy Cross. The lieutenant of the Alpha Company, who is responsible for the entire group of men. Cross is well intentioned but unsure of how to lead his men.
- Mitchell Sanders. One of the most likable soldiers in the war. Sanders strongly influences the narrator, O’Brien. He is kind and devoted, and he has a strong sense of justice.
- Kiowa. O’Brien’s closest friend and a model of quiet, rational morality amid the atrocities of war. Kiowa’s death, when the company mistakenly camps in a sewage field, is the focal point of three stories.
Character Analysis. We know more about Bowker at peace than we do about him at war. At war, we know that he's gentle, but carries a thumb that Mitchell Sanders cut off a VC soldier and gave to him. The only other personal thing he carries is a diary.
Norman Bowker couldn't stand it anymore, and he blames himself for Kiowa's death because he feels like he's a coward for letting go when he just couldn't hold onto the boot for another second.
Read an in-depth analysis of Norman Bowker. “Speaking of Courage” explores the way that telling stories simultaneously recalls the pain of the war experience and allows soldiers to work through that pain after the war has ended.