Today we have many veterans coming home from war and being displaced. This chapter is about a Vietnam War soldier named Norman Bowker who returns home from the war. In the chapter "Speaking of Courage" from the book "The Things They Carried" written by Tim O'Brien, Norman feels displaced by the world and everyone who lives there. A soldier returning from the Vietnam War is driving around a lake on the Fourth of July in his father's big Chevrolet, but then realizes he has nowhere to go. He begins to remember his father, his ex-girlfriend and his childhood friend. Norman talks about all the medals he's won. He begins to think about his father's pride in those badges and begins to have a memory of how he almost possessed the silver star but squandered his chance. It keeps going around the lake again and again. He keeps imagining telling his father the story of how he almost won the Silver Star, but couldn't. This article will analyze Speaking of Courage through the new lens of criticism/formalism. There is a lot of irony in this chapter. Much of the irony provided in this chapter has to do with the title and the actions Norman takes. “He would explain how it was still raining and how the clouds were glued to the field, and how the mortar rounds seemed to come straight out of the clouds” (141). Norman uses “He would” meaning if he talked to anyone, he would say so. Since Norman has someone to talk to, he doesn't talk. This example shows irony because the chapter is called Speaking of Courage, but Norman doesn't speak at all. ““Well, you see, it never stopped raining,” he would say. “The dirt was everywhere, you couldn't escape from there.” He would have... middle of paper... Rman's story. Sally symbolizes mainstream America. He represents mainstream America because when the soldiers came home no one wanted to know what happened. In this chapter you have identified many different literary terms that help you see the book from a new perspective. I used the lens of criticism/formalism in the Speaking of Courage chapter, you can find the deeper meaning of the text using this lens. As we analyze this chapter we can see the irony in the fact that he doesn't actually speak. Also when we analyze this chapter we can identify the symbolism of Norman almost winning the silver star and we can recognize the symbolism of Norman's ex-girlfriend and friend. After examining Speaking of Courage, we now found the deeper meaning Tim O'Brien focused on in the chapter that we would not have noticed without analyzing it using the lens of criticism/formalism.