The Things They Carried: Norman Bowker

It made me so sad when I read that Norman Bowker hanged himself in 1978 at a YMCA. I wonder if his family even knew he felt so helpless and alone. It's so depressing to me that war can impact a person in such a negative way. I can't understand how soldiers come home from war and feel like they don't have a purpose in life or feel lost. How can going home make a person feel lost? I also don't understand how some soldiers make the transition from fighting war to coming home so easily while others struggle daily with the issue. I'm pretty sure that Norman Bowker struggled with the fact that he couldn't save his friend Kioawa, but at least he tried to help him. I understand that watching your friend die after doing everything you could to save them is a very traumatic experience, but I just wish that Bowker didn't feel like suicide was his only way out. Grief and depression are two very strong emotions, and it's awful to hear about times when they take over a person like Bowker and ultimately end their life.