Norman Bowker struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder after the war. He constantly relived traumatic memories, which caused confusion and pain. He had difficulty adjusting to civilian life and holding a job due to his strict military schedule. These issues were compounded by past failures and the guilt Norman felt over being unable to save his friend Kiowa during the war. Ultimately, Norman's untreated mental health issues led him to take his own life, unable to cope any longer.

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Harold Sowards
C. Oeding
7 November 2013
“Norman’s story”
The war never truly ended for Norman Bowker. He kept reliving the bad parts in his
thoughts causing him confusion and pain. The schedule got to him and kept him from moving
on in life. These mixed with his past failures and worries ultimately got to him, and caused him
to crack, this all represents Post-Dramatic Stress Disorder.
During the war, Norman tried to rescue Kiowa at the shit field. However, when he let go
of him and let him sink into the field, it changed Norman’s personality and his character. He
kept feeling the regret of letting his friend die and the shit field eventually became manifested in
his thoughts and was placed on his hometown lake.
Just like when Kiowa died in the shit field, Norman already experienced a tragic event
when his friend Arnold drowned. This comes into effect when Norman continuously travels
around the lake and thinks back to his death. It was his first brush with not being able to save
somebody and after he lost Kiowa, they both got caught up in his thoughts and made him feel
guilty.
The revolution around the lake brought back a lot of memories for the struggling
Norman, has it brought back his fail at a past relationship. Sally Kramer, was his one true love,
although it isn’t exactly manifested in this story, it shows through in the chapter “Speaking of
Courage”. This is mainly true because he keeps reliving the conversations that he had with her
and ones that he could have had.

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His dad also played an important part in this story, as a primary role model. His dad was
in a war before him and could be one of the factors that had Norman go into the war. In
“Speaking of Courage”, the illusion that was made to him not winning the Silver Star and the
shame that was brought with it, was in large part due to the fact that he thought he had to be
courageous like his dad, and if he didn’t how upset his dad would feel. He kept thinking of ways
that he’d be able to tell his dad, and how he’d casually play it off, which showed that he already
had a preset mind about how it was going to go.
In the chapter,”Notes”, Norman never could really recover from the war. Soldiers get in a
detailed schedule that dictates their lives. When he leaves the war, no matter what job he gets, it
wasn’t has structured as the war, which causes him to get restless. This is why he couldn’t stay
working at most of those jobs, and why he constantly found himself making revolutions around
the lake and going to the YMCA.
His silence in “Speaking of Courage” is represented well has the whole chapter is based
on his thoughts instead of actual speaking. This shows that in some part that he feels he can’t
talk to anybody else, because they wouldn’t understand what happened unless they were there.
He loses a coping method that most people use to get over tragic events. It ties into the chapter,
“Going After Cacciolo”, because his suicide doesn’t have a note to explain what is going on.
This shows that he truly didn’t want to talk to people about his problems, and they would go with
him to the grave, his burden couldn’t be lifted.
However, he does overcome some of his fears. In the chapter, “Speaking of Courage”, he
finally quits traveling around the lake after twelve revolutions, which to me represents one year
has passed in his thoughts since the war has ended and he let his buddy drown. The ironic thing
is that the setting of this chapter is set on July 4th, so it shows patriotism as well, as Norman

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should be getting a sense of pride because he helped fight to get this freedom, but all he thinks of
is Kiowa. To me the fact that Norman decides to go into the lake, shows that he overcame the
fear that he had since he was a kid, the ear infection and Arnold’s drowning, along with the new
fear that came with Kiowa’s death. It was a sort of redemption moment to me. The fireworks at
the end of the chapter, to me say that he overcame his fears and that was the victory celebration
that he was experiencing in his own heart while the rest of the town celebrated their freedom.
All of these factors in the end, got to Norman and he couldn’t bottle up his emotions no
more. The silence kept him from releasing the thoughts, the routines kept him from being able to
move on and function as a working member of society, the problems from before kept
manifesting in his thoughts of the present, and his memory kept bringing back the guilt. These
are all signs that point to Post-Dramatic Stress Disorder, and the fact that he committed suicide
shows that he could no longer deal with it, like so many other soldiers have done before.

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Works Cited
O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing
Company, 1990. Print.