Speaking Of Courage By Tim O Brien: An Analysis

There are too many American veterans that are forgotten. It is very easy to place a flag on the lawn, stickers on a car and a quick thank you in passing for services rendered, but how many civilians actually know what that thank you is for? For sacrificing their time, doing what many Americans are not willing to do, exchanging hardship for holidays and of course protecting and ensuring this fine nation’s freedom. What is not thought of is the silent suffering that comes with the apparent glory and the inevitable aftermath of physical, mental and emotional turmoil.

In the moving short story Speaking of Courage by Tim O’Brien, a veteran, Norman Bowker, returns home, desperate to find someone to speak to, only to realize there really isn’t anyone who would understand “He was folded in the war; he was part of the waste”. As Norman contemplates sharing why he wasn’t “quite brave enough” to win that eighth medal he imagined “the feel of his tongue against the truth” the unspeakable truth.

As a society we tend to talk a good game and not follow through. Veterans need more than just verbal recognition for their sacrifice, they need help, they need remembrance.

From birth our culture is taught and groomed to fit into our society, to function like lucrative citizens as a whole.

A service member on the other hand, gets reprogrammed, broken down so they can be rebuilt. Rebuilt into what? A well oiled military weapon, groomed to fit into a military society, follow orders, and give up the comforts of civilian life for their country. The problem lies with the fact that the service members never get deprogrammed before being released back into society. Many veterans struggle with finding employment, feel socially awkward, and battle with adapting to civilian life, ultimately leading to

depression.
According to a Navy Veteran and business professional Dan Goldberg, and Gen. James J. Jones USMC (ret) there are over 722,000 unemployed veterans as of March 2014, but “By rapidly connecting them with the right groups, we can help them lead successful professional lives after leaving military service” as reported on Fox News. There are many programs available to veterans in the US, the problem lies in connecting the veterans to the necessary services and following through. Ensuring our veterans are not left to handle the pressure of unemployment, homelessness and depression alone. In a survey to Congress about homelessness in 2014, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development stated that there were “57,849 homeless veterans on a single night on January 2013” and “40% in unsheltered land”. Those numbers are overwhelming.
A larger challenge is produced when these matters are not resolved. Atkinson conveyed “Being unemployed was associated with a twofold to threefold increased relative risk of death by suicide, compared with being employed”, in an article for the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.

Our veterans survive the foreign war, only to come home and lose the one on American territory, and that is unacceptable. CNN reported on November 2013, that “Every day 22 veterans take their own lives” that’s one veteran every 65 minutes. The inner instability needs to be addressed, some sort of deprogramming before leaving the service. Many of the active duty community is afraid to seek psychological help during service, for fear of being discharged. But if a program of psychological sessions were to be implemented as part of the withdrawal method it may be beneficial.
A program that can reprogram the military mindset to conform to civilian life. It also may identify other underlying complications, and diminish the struggle of reinsertion into society. According to Pew Research Center as of December 2011, “The lingering consequences of a psychological trauma are particularly striking: The probability of an easy re-entry drops 82% for those who did not experience a traumatic event to 56% for those who did, a 26-point decline”. I think that with proper support and employing a structure that focuses on these concerns before they are discharged from service may help these numbers decrease and make the merging of veterans into society less complicated. Perhaps a more proactive approach in providing constructive quantifiable reinforcements and support when they return home can go a long way.