Courage And Cowardice In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

Dravlyn Hoskins
English 11
Mroczkiewicz
May 5 2023
Courage and Cowardice in The Things They Carried
The Things They Carried has many characters who could fit the bill of both courage and cowardice such as Tim O’Brien, Norman Bowker, and Jimmy Cross.

A person that could be suitable for being both courageous and cowardly is LT Jimmy Cross. He is in love with a girl named Martha, and spends the majority of the chapter “The Things They Carried,” daydreaming about Martha. At times, he neglects his troop to go daydream about Marta. In the first chapter the book says,” He pictures Martha’s smooth young face, thinking he loved her more than anything, more than his men, and now Ted Lavender was dead because he loved her so much and could not stop

He could be considered courageous because he went through the war and that’s courageous in itself. In “Speaking of Courage,'' Norman Bowker is reliving the memories of the war; the chapter states how Bowker reminds himself of the story of Kiowa's death. Also, he blames himself for Kiowa being buried. At one point Bowker thinks to himself, “The smell was simply too much, and how he backed off . . . He wished he could explain some of this. How he had not been braver then he ever thought possible, but how he had not been so brave as he wanted to be.” On the other hand, Norman Bowker could be described as cowardly. In “Speaking of Courage,” he had the choice to tell several people about his experiences. However, he chose to keep them to himself, which led to not finding a meaningful purpose in life. Bowker choosing to hang himself was a cowardly move. He had the opportunity to talk to several people, such as his father, the guy at the A&W, and Sally Gustafson. However, the weight of the war was a lot to bear, and he most likely thought nobody would understand him. These are all reasons why Norman Bowker could be called courageous or