In the chapter Speaking of Courage and the chapter notes, I appreciate the interpretation of how O’Brien wrote the chapter. I believe the 3rd person narrative and how it might open your eyes to more veterans who might need help, and the chapter is not about what veterans who speak out ask for help. The chapter talks about our character Norman who has had a traumatic experience when he was sent off to Vietnam and fought in the war. At the end of the chapter you are left possibly a little confused and wondering why the chapter was even written to begin with, and kinds leave you with the sad facts the norman could not overcome his struggle with, maybe depression, or PTSD or even any other amount of mental illnesses.

Towards the end of the chapter the story takes a turn and you find out the norman hung himself in a YMCA where at the time was a place to help males get the skills they need and be educated enough to be able to recover from anything or just help to get them back up on their feet and get them the attention and the people they need. Witch is a very different YMCA we have today witch is just your local gym to go play basketball. I believed if Norman were able to open up his feeling about the experience he went through maybe there could have been a good amount of help he could have got but like most people he rather keep his secrets or how he feels to himself because he believes no one else will understand since they were not there and did not experience what he had to go thought, so instead he had to deal with everything that happened and with such traumatic experiences I don’t doubt Norman is the only veteran or maybe even war service member who would not want to expose his feelings to people who would not understand.

I believe thew worse part about the whole thing is Norman was alone he didn’t have much, to begin with, and with a mental illness such as his own, it would be more than understandable to slowly feel like you may be losing everything else. If there is anything to take away from this story is that even if people have experiences that you may not have gone thought or may not care much because it did not affect you is one, selfish because even if you didn’t know what to do you should be able to recognize when someone might need help physically or mentally and instead of brushing off any possibility of them showing signs they may need help, two, you should try and reach out to people no matter what even if they don’t want to help you need to be able to be the bigger person even if they may not want help. I think if Norman had anyone there for him then he might have been able to overcome the effects of his experience.