The novel In Country was certainly a war novel that described the hardships soldiers had to face especially after they came home from the Vietnam War. However, the novel can also be seen as a coming of age novel for the main character Sam. Sam is a 17 year old girl whose father was killed shortly before she was born in Vietnam. The story follows her and her uncle Emmett who is also a veteran as she grows up and learns to come to terms with her fathers death and how the war affects Emmett. She has problems understanding why Emmett can't get a job and feels like she is supporting him. She notices how he seems to wander aimlessly with seemingly no purpose. By the end of the novel she learns that the war had a huge impact on Emmett and that it is taking him a long time to come to terms with the events of the war. The reason he seems so lost and can't hold down a job is because it has been taking all of his strength to keep from going crazy because of the war. He doesn't have the time or energy to find stable work. Most of what he does is to distract himself from the memories of the war. Sam also comes to terms with the actions of her father. She never knew her father but learns more about him from some pictures and a diary that her "Mamaw" gives her. After reading the diary she is sickened and disgusted by her father because it seems that he enjoyed "killing and getting even" with the Vietnamese soldiers. Fortunately, Emmett is able to explain that people acted like completely different people in war then at home. Sam should not judge her father based on a diary he wrote during the worst time of his life. Eventually, Sam is able to release most of her anger and come to terms with the affects the war has had on her life even though she was not directly a part of it.
The setting of this novel is in Sam, Emmett and Mamaw are on a road trip from their small home town in Kentucky to Washington DC to visit the Vietnam Memorial in 1984. This is significant because it shows that even though the war has been over for almost nine years it is still on many peoples minds and the effects are still being felt. There is still a lot of patriotism fever going around the country which is shown by Michael Jackson's Victory Tour and by Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA Show. The Vietnam war is still being sensationalized. Another cultural fixture that was constantly recurring in the novel was M*A*S*H. Even though the show was about the Korean war Sam and Emmett still bonded over it. Also, in constantly made Sam think about the Vietnam War and her father.
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The novel can be seen as a coming of age novel for the main character Sam. Sam is a 17 year old girl whose father was killed shortly before she was born in Vietnam. Over the course of the novel she learns to understand PTSD and how it affects the loved ones around her especially her uncle Emmett. She has problems understanding why Emmett can't get a job and feels like she is supporting him. She notices how he seems to wander aimlessly with seemingly no purpose. By the end of the novel she learns that the war had a huge impact on Emmett and that it is taking him a long time to come to terms with the events of the war. The reason he seems so lost and can't hold down a job is because it has been taking all of his strength to keep from going crazy because of the war. He doesn't have the time or energy to find stable work. Most of what he does is to distract him from the memories of the war. Sam also comes to terms with the actions of her father. She never knew her father but learns more about him from some pictures and a diary that her "Mamaw" gives her. After reading the diary she is sickened and disgusted by her father because it seems that he enjoyed "killing and getting even" with the Vietnamese soldiers. Fortunately, Emmett is able to explain that people acted like completely different people in war then at home. Sam should not judge her father based on a diary he wrote during the worst time of his life. Eventually, Sam is able to release most of her anger and come to terms with the affects the war has had on her life even though she was not directly a part of it. Sam also comes to terms with why her mother left her and moved to the city. She married Dwayne for a month before he left for the war. She never really grew to love him. After he died because she had no real attachment to him or the town she thought it would only be logical to leave and try and make a better life for her. She didn’t want to be stuck in the small town forever and ending up like everyone else in the town.
ReplyDeleteThe setting of this novel is in Sam, Emmett and Mamaw are on a road trip from their small home town in Kentucky to Washington DC to visit the Vietnam Memorial in 1984. This is significant because it shows that even though the war has been over for almost nine years it is still on many people’s minds and the effects are still being felt. There is still a lot of patriotism fever going around the country which is shown by Michael Jackson's Victory Tour and by Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA Show. The Vietnam war is still being sensationalized. Another cultural fixture that was constantly recurring in the novel was M*A*S*H. Even though the show was about the Korean war Sam and Emmett still bonded over it. Also, in constantly made Sam think about the Vietnam War and her father.