The Silver Star

In The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, Norman Bowker character portrays the life of a war veteran from Vietnam and comments on his family's, especially his father's, expectations from him as a soldier: "If I could have one wish, anything, I'd wish for my dad to write me a letter and say it's okay if I don't win any medals" (O'Brien, 34). In the story "Speaking of Courage," Norman is back home from the war in Vietnam. Norman keeps mentioning how he almost won the Silver Star if it hadn't been for the smell. The situation is revealed that winning the Silver Star would've entailed saving Kiowa from being completely submerged in the sludge of the "shit field." However, it seems as if not winning the Silver Star was much more regrettable to Norman than not saving his friend: "Norman Bowker remembered how he had taken hold of Kiowa's boot and pulled hard, but how the smell was simply too much, and how he'd backed off and in that way had lost the Silver Star"(147). Although his father does commend him for winning seven other medals in the war, Norman has it engrained in his mind that it will never be good enough.
In the subsequent story/chapter "Notes" the author reveals that the story of Norman Bowker was true, and that the story "Speaking of Courage" was written at his request. As a veteran, Norman Bowker felt as if there was no destination in life, symbolized by him orbiting around the lake in his hometown in the car. There was an emptiness of life at home; people would never understand the hardships he had faced, nobody could imagine the horrible smell of the "shit field." It is revealed that in 1978, Norman Bowker hanged himself in the locker room at the YMCA in his hometown in Iowa. Norman Bowker's character emphasizes the hardships, regret, and mental scars of war on our veterans.