Cowardly Courage: Perseverance in War

Cowardly Courage

Famous U.S. Army commander Omar N. Bradley once stated, "Bravery is the capacity to perform properly even when scared half to death." Bradley believes courage is something more than having the ability to face hardships, but rather it is the ability to persevere in times of uncertainty. Similarly, in the postmodern text, The Things They Carried, the author, Tim O'Brien, attempts to come to terms with his past actions and fears through the first person narrative, exploring the world of combat through personal recollections of war stories aimed towards the naive American public. In the novel, O'Brien portrays the typical young American soldier thrusted into the front line during the Vietnam War with severe emotional

and physical burdens. In a specific passage towards the beginning of the novel titled "On the Rainy River", O'Brien attempts to atone for his past actions by confessing an undisclosed story. Throughout the passage, O'Brien utilizes unique syntax, repetition, and comparisons to suggest that one must practice daily acts of courage and not let the Hollywood fantasy of courage cloud this message.
O'Brien employs the use of a syntactical feature called "the textual stutter" in an attempt to disclose his shameful confession in this personal paragraph.

Five times O'Brien employs the textual stutter; for example, "For more than twenty years I've had to live with it, feeling the shame, trying to push it away, and so by this act of remembrance, by putting the facts down on paper, I'm hoping to relieve at least some of the pressure on my dreams" to explain how difficult this memory is to discuss. O'Brien's slow and hesitant diction, marked by pauses through the use of commas, exemplifies the difficulties most people have with disclosing shameful memories. As a result of the textual stutter, O'Brien fragments his sentences in his text; such as, "To go into it, I've always thought, would only cause embarrassment for all of us, a sudden need to be elsewhere, which is the natural response to confession" to show hesistation. The use of fragmented sentences serves to lengthen O'Brien's passage, indicating that O'Brien wants to stall for time because he feels remorse about his past actions. O'Brien's use of the textual stutter and fragmented sentences creates parallelism in his text, giving the reader an opportunity to feel empathy towards O'Brien's embarrassment. O'Brien's use of unique syntax and parallelism within his text conveys the message that one must practice daily acts of courage to build up courage for moments like

this.
O'Brien continues by employing the use of repeating negative nouns in an attempt to announce his shameful confession in this personal paragraph.

He uses the same diction, with different variations of the word "shame" to indicate his unwillingness to reveal his disgraceful actions, emphasizing indignity and ignominy. Seven times O'Brien reiterates different variations of shame; for example, "To go into it, I've always thought, would only cause embarrassment for all of us, a sudden need to be elsewhere, which is the natural response to a confession." O'Brien's uneasiness about revealing his story highlights the difficulty most individuals have with confessions. The usage of embarrassment is an indication of his fear to come to terms with past actions; in this particular case, O'Brien wants to squirm and hide, highlighting his nervousness and discomfort. The use of repeated words such as confession highlights the process that one must face guilt and humiliation with a confession. O'Brien uses embarrassment and shame in this sentence to highlight the fact that he lacked the courage to disclose his story. As O'Brien continues, he employs the use of another word related to shame; for example, "For more than twenty years I've had to live with it, feeling the shame, trying to push it way, and so by this act of remembrance, by putting the facts down on paper, I'm hoping to relieve at least some of the pressure on my dreams." O'Brien implies that one must come to terms

with past actions and openly confess, or the guilt will continue to control one’s life. Here, O'Brien evokes an unpleasant memory from his past, which he tries to atone for by this confession. He uses this opportunity to emphasize guilt and remorse in order to openly disclose his shame to help alleviate the pressure that is building up inside him. In another instance, O'Brien states, " All of us, I suppose, like to believe that in a moral emergency we will behave like the heroes of our youth, bravely and forthrightly, without thought of personal loss or discredit." Emergency, a word O'Brien uses to exemplify what a typical person might have done if they were in his situation, alludes to a hero in an attempt to justify his past actions. Similar to a hero, O'Brien thinks his actions were right and understandable in the past, but now, he sees his former self as deluded. O'Brien further explains that his "conviction" was in the past, realizing that he was a foolish teenager acting imprudently. O'Brien utilizes repetition to emphasize the shame involved in revealing a confession, which further solidifies his message, suggesting that one must practice daily acts of courage to prepare for bigger troubles in life.
O'Brien continues his intimate story by comparing courage to "a secret reservoir", "a secret hero", "the Lone Ranger", "inheritance", "interest", and "a moral capital" in an attempt to make courage tangible. O' Brien states, "If the stakes ever became high enough, if the good were good enough-I would simply tap a secret reservoir of courage that had been comparing courage to accumulating inside me over the years", which associates courage with glamorous Hollywood movies that display total bravery and valor in times of need. By comparing courage to a secret reservoir, O'Brien implies that courage compiles inside us and that it should not be displayed unless the stakes were high enough. O'Brien uses this comparison to emphasize that this is not the case, and by using this comparison, he subtly implies that one should not let Hollywood fantasies stop little acts of courage. O'Brien continues to emphasize this argument by comparing his past self to "a secret hero" and a "Lone Ranger", which emphasizes Hollywood's absurd portrayal of a hero. He continues by saying, "Courage, I seemed to think, comes to us in finite quantities, like an inheritance, and by being frugal and stashing it away and letting it earn interest, we steadily increase our moral capital in preparation for that day when the account must be drawn down". O'Brien uses words like "quantities" in an attempt to make courage concrete. He then further relates this specific quantity of courage to "inheritance", "interest", and "capital" to compare it to a bank account. Things that are inherited and earn interest typically do not require any thought or action since it just sits there, and O'Brien makes this comparison to justify his lack of action in the past. O'Brien realizes that he is a coward for leaning on this theory, which offered him hope for future endeavors. O'Brien applies these comparisons to emphasize that in order to gain courage, one must practice daily acts of courage and not let Hollywood fantasies cloud this message.
Courage is defined as the ability to perform an action that petrifies someone. Likewise, in Bradley’s quote, he realizes that true courage is the ability to perform even when scared to death. In O’Brien’s passage he attempts redress his past actions. O'Brien's use of unique syntax, repetition, and comparisons serve to highlight the argument that one must practice daily acts of courage and not let the Hollywood fantasy of courage cloud this message.