Apart from a war novel, this book could be thought of as a coming-of-age story. It follows the investigation that Samantha Hughes goes on to learn more about her father's life who served and died in Vietnam, discover more about what the war was really like, and through this discovery also find her self-identity. Sam does research on the war, talks to local veterans, and re-connects with her grandparents in an effort to find out as much as she can. After reading her father's diary that she received from her grandparents she starts to see how intense and horrible the war really was. She attempts a few times to put herself in the soldiers position and camps out for a night at a swamp to see how they dealt with living in the jungle. This experience and her talk with Emmett the following day help put things into perspective for her about the war, and also about herself and her relationships with her boyfriend, mother, and uncle.
This book is split up into three parts, the first and the last are in present tense and tell of Sam's journey from Kentucky to Washington D.C. to see the Vietnam memorial with Emmett and her grandmother. On their journey we realize the significance of the time and setting of this book. It took place in 1984, only two years after the memorial was built and about ten years after the end of the war. Around this time talk of the war had slowed down, and many of the Veterans children were coming-of-age and begining to question what really happened in the war. We see that it took several years for this small town in Kentucky to start to accept the long lasting effects that the war has had on the veterans and their family. Many were still resistant to accept effects such as Agent Orange and PTSD.
The music, bands, celebrities and tv shows mentioned in the book also contribute to the setting. Music from the albums of Beatles and Bruce Sprintsteen brought up themes and issues about the war. Also the show MASH that Sam and Emmett watched regularly every night and bonded over symbolized the Vietnam War even though it was really about the Korean War.
Overall this book gives us a good look into the idea of the life-long effects of the Vietnam war and how it didn't end when they pulled the troops out of Vietnam, it carried on for a generation.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Apart from being considered a war novel, this book could be thought of as a coming of age story. The book follows the quest that Samantha goes on to uncover the truths about Vietnam, and also learn more about her father that died in the war before her birth. In the begining of the book we see examples of how Sam is a typical teenage girl. For example she is concerned about things like appearance. She makes note of Mamaw and her "barrel hips and rolls of fat" (4). We also see examples of how she wants to grow up when she starts to become interested in older men. Another sign of her yearning to grow up is her desire to always run. There are several times in the begining that we see she wants to get out and explore the world. In the first section of the book, Sam is "at a crossroads" (17) between childhood and adulthood.
ReplyDeleteIn the second part of the book is when she really begins her journey. She becomes obsessed with the Vietnam war, and starts to slowly discover things about her father and Emmet. At the end of the second part of the book she reaches a turning point when she spends the night in the swamp. Emmet finds her the next day at tells her "You will never know". After this moment Sam begins to see things clearer.
In the last section of the book, Sam finally reaches peace with herself and with her curiosity about the war when she visits the memorial. She ends up finding her name on the wall and this brings her closer to her father and connects her to him in the way she needed and was so desperately searching for through out the story.
The popular culture in this book greatly symbolized some of the major themes that society was going through at that time period. For example, Bruce Springsteen was a voice against the war. He sang for the honor and dignity of every American. In his song 'Born in the USA' he sang about how the war was unjust and noted on how it was fought mainly by the working class. His lyric 'no where to run ain't no where to go' symbolizes how many soldiers were stuck after the war and couldn't live a normal life. Other popular culture that was important in representing the time period was the birth of MTV, and gossip magazines like People. The Beatles were another band spoke of in the book and they represented the peace, love, drug, and anti-war movement that was happening during that time period.