Speaking of Courage

             "Speaking of Courage" is a short story written by Tim O'Brien. O'Brien was born in Austin, Minnesota, and graduated from Macalester College. In 1968, he was drafted and served with the U.S. Army in Vietnam, where he attained the rank of sergeant. In the story the character Paul Berlin comes back to his hometown in Wisconsin after the Vietnam War. Berlin struggles to fit back into his normal life before the war. Coming back from the war the young solider sees the world in a different light. Berlin has an external and some internal conflicts. His external conflict is not finishing Frenchie Tucker's mission. His internal conflicts are wishes he had been more courageous and he could talk about the war and his feeling of shame and terror with his dad.
             Paul Berlin's external conflict is not finishing Frenchie Tucker's mission. Frenchie Tucker was ordered to go down the tunnel, while down inside the tunnel he was shot in the neck by enemy fire. So Berlin was ordered to finish friend's mission but he could not.
             ".... you close your eyes like a mole and follow the tunnel walls.... lose all sense and are dragged out by the heels ...." (O'Brien 971). He couldn't finish the mission because of his internal fear of getting shot like Frenchie Tucker caused him to not move externally. Berlin didn't want to die but at the same time wanted to be a solider so he froze.
             One of Paul Berlin's internal conflicts is he wishes he had been more courageous and won the medal for valor. " ' Seven,' he would have said, ' though none of them were for valor.' " (968). Berlin won a lot of medals but didn't win the medals for courage. He didn't win any for courage because he didn't finish Frenchie Tucker's mission. Berlin believes if he would have been braver and finished the mission he
             ...

More Essays:

APA     MLA     Chicago
Speaking of Courage. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 04:03, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/80861.html