Speaking of Courage

Reading this chapter, the word courage doesn't exactly come to mind. I believe choosing to call this chapter, "Speaking of Courage", was a way to lighten the tension, like the way he decided to start his story.

"Let me tell you about the time I almost won the Silver Star."

It's maybe used to brush aside the event as 'not a big deal'. Similar to the way they use military slang to degrade somethings of their emotional value. It's contradictory  that the chapter is called this because war stories can usually be seen as full of valor and soldiers sacrificing themselves for each other. In this story it's not the case, it's about how a veteran deals with the death of his comrade and consequently, himself.

The name of the chapter can be seen as ironic to what we usually expect from war stories. It's used to show how soldiers may deal with tension by making a situation lighter. When Ted Lavender died, they didn't grieve his death or have a good-bye ceremony but instead they smoked his drugs. They don't allow themselves to show any form of emotion because it breaks this whole idea that they're supposed to be tough and unbreakable killing machines.

Memoir Critique

The memoir I selected was Brown Bear: My Childhood Friend.

I really enjoyed this memoir because it brings up my own childhood memories, I remember when I was about 6 and I also had a stuffed bear that I carried around with me, it was a best friend to me and as I grew up I moved on to other things, I outgrew my bear and this memoir personifies the bear a little and depicts as a lonely soul and it made me feel a little sad. The narration is realistic, everybody, in my opinion, should be able to relate to the narration and have some form of nostalgia.

The narration is innocent at first and meant to evoke some nostalgia of our favorite childhood toys and it did that for me, I also remember throwing my bear at a fan and pretending he was flying and much to my mom's displeasure, feeding him baby food. 

In the end, the message is that not all things are forever, but it's good to treasure them in our memories. We'll always grow and our interests and desires will change as well and that's not necessarily a bad thing. The author does a good job of reflecting back on their memory realistically and with good insight.