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- Through his symbolic wading into the lake and putting his head under and tasting the water, readers understand that Bowker sort of died in Vietnam and cannot recover because he cannot find meaning in his life after the war.
www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/t/the-things-they-carried/summary-and-analysis/speaking-of-courage
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Because of and in spite of this belief, Bowker has an active emotional life, an intensity of feeling about the atrocities he experienced in Vietnam, especially Kiowa's death. These feelings are not directed out toward the world as anger, but instead are turned in upon him, and they become self-loathing and extreme survivor guilt.
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In his letter, Bowker told O’Brien that he had read his first book, If I Die in a Combat Zone, and that the book had brought back a great deal of memories. Bowker then suggested that O’Brien write a story about someone who feels that Vietnam robbed him of his will to live—he said he would write it himself but he couldn’t find the words.
Mar 11, 2022 · Norman Bowker is a soldier in Alpha Company, a unit of the U.S. Army in the Vietnam War, in The Things They Carried. Bowker blames himself for the death of a fellow soldier and hangs himself after the war.
He'll never be able to talk about his harrowing experience in Vietnam, and when he tries to communicate through O'Brien as a last-ditch effort, O'Brien fails him. Shortly thereafter, Bowker kills himself.
He replays several key events from his time in Vietnam, including the death of Kiowa, in his head, as if he was talking to his father or his ex-girlfriend. Norman shows the difficulty of returning home to a placid American existence after the violence and chaos of serving in Vietnam.
Through his symbolic wading into the lake and putting his head under and tasting the water, readers understand that Bowker sort of died in Vietnam and cannot recover because he cannot find meaning in his life after the war.
Norman Bowker, for example, thinks that he was as brave as he thought he could have been, but that even that much bravery was not enough to save his friend. Such commentary provides us insight not only into Kiowa’s death but also into Bowker’s emotions. Read an in-depth analysis of Norman Bowker.