It truly takes a lot of courage to think and accept about what happened in war. War is very complicated especially for after affects. I guess it took Bowker a lot of courage because he knows his father is expecting many metals out of him; when Bowker just want to go back home to tell his war stories.
The layers of narration in “Speaking of Courage” can be seen as a technique that the characters use to deal with survivor’s guilt. “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. O’Brien and Bowker illustrate how speaking or not speaking about war experience affects characters. 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.
