Notes

There isn’t much to say about Notes. It provides a back story on Speaking of Courage. Norman Bowker could not ease back into society after the war. It was too difficult for him. The person that he was before he joined the war was gone. That person killed in Vietnam, went AWOL, MIA I guess. Bowker couldn’t hold a steady job or keep himself occupied. It was like he was just drifting in this world. He couldn’t figure out what to do with his self. How could he? He had been killing people for what seemed like forever. He had no purpose now and he wanted people to know that. He wanted O’Brien to write about a horrible experience that one soldier had that kept him from moving on. If you can’t move on then what do you do with yourself? Norman Bowker committed suicide, didn’t tell anyone what he was planning, no suicide note. I think he didn’t want to give anyone a chance to save him since he couldn’t save Kiowa. This was his way of feeling better about it.