In the chapters “Speaking of Courage” and “Notes” by Tim O’brien, he describes the life and struggles that his friend, Norman Bowker, goes through after he returns home from Vietnam. He experiences many different emotions and things in his time back, ranging from relief and belonging to depression and loss. I think that his feelings and actions at home  make him a very sympathetic character, because the reader sees how the war changed him and the world around him. From being left behind by his community to feeling the regret of watching his friend and fellow soldier die, we see how the war changed the lives of soldiers in a very bad way.

The first way that we see how the war affected him was the way that the life moved on without him. All of Norman’s friends from high school, his girlfriend, and many others had all moved on with their lived without him. It is stated in the chapter, on pg 133, that “Most of Norman’s other friends were living in Des Moines or Sioux City, or going to school somewhere, or holding down jobs. The high school girls were mostly gone or married. Sally Kramer, whose picture he had once carried in his wallet, was one who was married.” This shows how his life has been impacted heavily by the war since almost everyone had left him behind and carried on with their lives. He no longer had any friends with him and the girl that he once loved was now happily married with another man. The fact that his life changed so much and he could do nothing about it since he got drafted into the war makes the reader feel so much sympathy for him.

Another way that the reader is able to sympathize with Norman is that we get to see how watching one of his close friends die during the war affected him for the rest of his life. Norman’s friend, Kiowa, died right in front of him during a huge storm while they were sleeping. Norman often blamed himself on Kiowa’s death and felt like he should have done something about it, even though in reality, there was very little he could’ve done. Kiowa was likely to die whether or not Norman tried to help him. Even though that is the case, we can see it deeply affect Norman multiple times throughout the chapter, since he felt like he did not act with courage, and had he done that, Kiowa might still be alive. This helps the reader feel a lot of sympathy towards Norman. We know that had he done more to help Kiowa, there was a good chance that both men would have died. And yet still, the regret Norman had about not doing more about it and being traumatized it for the rest of his life shows just how much Vietnam changed him. That is why Norman should be thought of as a sympathetic character.