12. New Beginnings

"Speaking of Courage" posed a few new ideas to me. When the war had ended and the soldiers returned to their hometowns, everything had changed a great deal. Life had moved on without them. Norman Bowker came home and was still stuck in the place he was when he left. He was not completely aware of how different things would be. "He felt invisible in the soft twilight," (144). Norman felt alone upon his return. He didn't know his place and where he fit in. Coming back home after being gone for so long would be extremely difficult. You would have to completely start over from scratch. I think it would be very sad to come home and feel completely forgotten like no one even cared you had been gone so long. This was a time too that the soldiers probably needed close friends to confide in so that they could talk out some of their feelings of guilt and sadness. Instead they came home and had to keep everything to themselves. No one would ever understand what they went through and what they saw. It would be an extremely troubling life I would think.