The Things They Carried Chapters 16-18

What year was the chapter "Speaking of Courage" wrote?

1975

Who suggested O'Brien write the Chapter "Speaking of Courage"?

Norman Bowker

How did Norman Bowker die?

He hanged himself in the locker room of a YMCA in his hometown

What did Bowker send O'Brien before he killed himself?

a long, disjointed letter in which Bowker described the problem of finding a meaningful use for his life after the war

Describe Bowker's life after the war...

He had worked briefly as an automotive parts salesman, a janitor, a car wash attendant, and a short-order cook at the local A&W fast-food franchise. None of these jobs, he said, had lasted more than ten weeks. He lived with his parents, who supported him, and who treated him with kindness and obvious love. At one point he had enrolled in the junior college in his hometown, but the course work, he said, seemed too abstract, too distant, with nothing real or tangible at stake, certainly not the stakes of a war. He dropped out after eight months. He spent his mornings in bed. In the afternoons he played pickup basketball at theY, and then at night he drove around town in his father's car, mostly alone, or with a six-pack of beer, cruising.

What did Bowker do to himself in the middle of his letter to O'Brien?

He scolded himself for complaining too much;

God, this is starting to sound like some ******* vet crying in his beer. Sorry about that. I'm no basket case— not even any bad dreams. And I don't feel like anybody mistreats me or anything, except sometimes people act too nice, too polite, like they're afraid they might ask the wrong question . . . But I shouldn't bitch. One thing I hate—really hate—is all those whiner-vets. Guys sniveling about how they didn't get any parades. Such absolute crap. I mean, who in his right mind wants a parade? Or getting his back clapped by a bunch of patriotic idiots who don't know jack about what it feels like to kill people or get shot at or sleep in the rain or watch your buddy go down underneath the mud? Who needs it?

What was Tim O'Brien's first book called?

If I Die In A Combat Zone

In Going After Cacciato, what name did O'Brien use instead of Norman Bowker's real name?

Paul Berlin

Why didn't "Speaking of Courage" fit into Going After Cacciato?

Going After Cacciato was a war story; "Speaking of Courage" was a postwar story.

Describe Bowker's Suicide....

He'd been playing pickup basketball at the Y; after two hours he went off for a drink of water; he used a jump rope; his friends found him hanging from a water pipe. There was no suicide note, no message of any kind. "Norman was a quiet boy," his mother wrote, "and I don't suppose he wanted to bother anybody."

What did O'Brien feel the need to clarify?

to make it clear that Norman Bowker was in no way responsible for what happened to Kiowa. Norman did not experience a failure of nerve that night. He did not freeze up or lose the Silver Star for valor.

Chapter 16 Summary

O'Brien says that "Speaking of Courage" was written at the request of Norman Bowker who, three years after the story was written, hanged himself in the YMCA. O'Brien says that in 1975, right before Saigon finally collapsed, he received a seventeen-page, handwritten letter from Bowker saying that he couldn't find a meaningful use for his life after the war. He worked several short-lived jobs and lived with his parents. At one point he enrolled in junior college, but he eventually dropped out. 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. O'Brien explains that when he received Bowker's letter he thought about how easily he transitioned from Vietnam to graduate school at Harvard University. He thought that without writing, he himself might have been paralyzed.

While he was working on a new novel entitled Going After Cacc-iato, O'Brien thought of Bowker's suggestion and began a chapter titled "Speaking of Courage." But, following Bowker's request, he did not use Bowker's name. He substituted his own hometown scenery for Bowker's and he omitted the story of the sewage field and the rain and Kiowa's death in favor of his own protagonist's story. The writing was easy, and he published the piece as a separate short story. Later, O'Brien realized that the postwar piece had no place in Going After Cacciato, a war novel, and that in order to be successful, the story would have to stand on its own in truth, no matter how much the prospect frightened O'Brien. When the story was anthologized a year later, O'Brien sent a copy to Bowker, who was upset about the absence of Kiowa. Eight months later Bowker hanged himself. A decade later, O'Brien has revised the story and has come to terms with it—he says the central incident, about the night on the Song Tra Bong and the death of Kiowa, has been restored. But he contends that he does not want to imply that Bowker did not have a lapse of courage that was responsible for the death of Kiowa.

What are the soldiers doing at the start of chapter 17?

The men are crawling through the field looking for Kiowa

Who radioed in and reported the MIA on Kiowa?

Jimmy Cross

How did Jimmy Cross want his soldiers to be?

identical copies of a single soldier

How did Cross describe Kiowa?

a splendid human being, the very best, intelligent and gentle and quietspoken. Very brave, too. And decent. The kid's father taught Sunday school in Oklahoma City, where Kiowa had been raised to believe in the promise of salvation under Jesus Christ, and this conviction had always been present in the boy's smile, in his posture toward the world, in the way he never went anywhere without an illustrated New Testament that his father had mailed to him as a birthday present back in January.

What mistake does Cross say he made?

Instead of moving to higher ground for the night and ignoring the order from the higher ups, he allowed his men to camp near the riverbank where Kiowa had died

What does Jimmy Cross decide to do in response to Kiowa's death?

decides to write a letter to Kiowa's father saying what a good soldier Kiowa was

What does Azar say while searching for Kiowa's body?

Azar kept shaking his head. He coughed and shook his head and said, "Man, talk about irony. I bet if Kiowa was here, I bet he'd just laugh. Eating shit—it's your classic irony." "Fine," said Norman Bowker. "Now pipe down." Azar sighed. "Wasted in the waste," he said. "A shit field. You got to admit, it's pure world-class irony."

Who found Kiowa's rucksack?

Mitchell Sanders

What did the search for Kiowa's body remind Cross of?

In a funny way, it reminded him of the municipal golf course in his hometown in New Jersey. A lost ball, he thought. Tired players searching through the rough, sweeping back and forth in long systematic patterns. He wished he were there right now. On the sixth hole. Looking out across the water hazard that fronted the small flat green, a seven iron in his hand, calculating wind and distance, wondering if he should reach instead for an eight. A tough decision, but all you could ever lose was a ball. You did not lose a player. And you never had to wade out into the hazard and spend the day searching through the slime.

What river are the soldiers on?

Song Tra Bong

What did Cross decide to say in the letter to Kiowa's father?

In the letter to Kiowa's father he would apologize point-blank. Just admit to the blunders.

Explain the conditions of Kiowa's death...

it was in defensible ground from the start. Low and flat. No natural cover. And so late in the night, when they took mortar fire from across the river, all they could do was snake down under the slop and lie there and wait. The field just exploded. Rain and slop and shrapnel, it all mixed together, and the field seemed to boil. He would explain this to Kiowa's father. Carefully, not covering up his own guilt, he would tell how the mortar rounds made craters in the slush, spraying up great showers of filth, and how the craters then collapsed on themselves and filled up with mud and water, sucking things down, swallowing things, weapons and entrenching tools and belts of ammunition, and how in this way his son Kiowa had been combined with the waste and the war.

Who found Kiowa's body?

Norman Bowker

How did Kiowa die?

He sunk into a muddy field after the river flooded under heavy shrapnel

Who did the soldiers have pull Kiowa's body out of the mud?

Dobbins and Kiley

What feeling did Azar get from seeing Kiowa's body?

Guilt for making jokes about Kiowa while searching for his body

What does O'brien say is always present whenever a man dies?

Blame

Chapter 17 Summary

The morning after Kiowa's death, the platoon wades in the mud of the sewage field with Jimmy Cross leading the way. Cross thinks of Kiowa and the crime that is his death. He concludes that although the order to camp came from a higher power, he made a mistake letting his men camp on the dangerous riverbank. He decides to write a letter to Kiowa's father saying what a good soldier Kiowa was.

When the search for Kiowa's body gets underway on the cold, wet morning, Azar begins cracking jokes about "eating shit" and "biting the dirt," and Bowker rebukes him. Halfway across the field, Mitchell Sanders discovers Kiowa's rucksack, and the men begin wading in the muck, desperately searching for the body. Meanwhile, Jimmy Cross finishes composing the letter in his head and reflects that he never wanted the responsibility of leadership in the first place—he signed up for Reserve Officers Training Corps without giving thought to the consequences. He blames himself for making the wrong decision, concluding that he should have followed his first impulse and removed the men from the field. He feels that his oversight caused Kiowa's death. In the distance he notices the shaking body of a young soldier and goes over to speak to him. The soldier too blames himself for being unable to save Kiowa and becomes determined to find the body because Kiowa was carrying the only existing picture of the soldier's ex-girlfriend.

After the platoon has spent a half a day wading in the field, Azar ceases his joking. The men find Kiowa's body wedged between a layer of mud, take hold of the two boots, and pull. Unable to move it, they call over Dobbins and Kiley, who also help pull. After ten minutes and more pulling, Kiowa's body rises to the surface covered with blue-green mud. Harrowed and relieved, the men clean him up and then try to take their mind off him. Azar apologizes for the jokes. Cross squats in the muck, revising the letter to Kiowa's father in his head. He notices the unnamed soldier, still searching for the missing picture. The soldier tries to get Cross's attention, saying he has to explain something. But Cross ignores him, choosing instead to float in the muck, thinking about blame, responsibility, and golf.

What does O'Brien say is the only true things in his book?

I'm forty-three years old, true, and I'm a writer now, and a long time ago I walked through Quang Ngai Province as a foot soldier.

What confession does O'Brien tell his readers?

twenty years ago I watched a man die on a trail near the village of My Khe. I did not kill him. But I was present, you see, and my presence was guilt enough. I remember his face, which was not a pretty face, because his jaw was in his throat, and I remember feeling the burden of responsibility and grief. I blamed myself. And rightly so, because I was present. But listen. Even that story is made up. I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth.

Chapter 18 Summary

O'Brien talks about the difference between real truth and story truth. He says he wants to explain the structure of his book. He says that he saw a man die on a trail near My Khe, but that he did not kill him. He then says that he made up this story. He says he wants us to feel what he felt and because of that, sometimes story truth is truer than happening truth. He says that what stories can do is make things present. Imagining Kathleen asking him if he's ever killed anyone, O'Brien envisions saying yes and then envisions saying no.