Going After Cacciato: Chapter 12 Summary & Analysis

The chapter continues the events described in Chapter Eight. Paul Berlin continues keeping watch. He wonders how it’s possible to be brave when “biles” are flowing through his body. He thinks back to his childhood, when he first became conscious that he needed to learn how to be brave. As a child, Berlin was frightened by everything—noise, the dark, tunnels, etc. He remembers that he once nearly won the Silver Star—a military medal for valor. He still believes that he has the bravery necessary to win one. There is, he believes, a Silver Star “twinkling somewhere inside him.”