Blog 11: DW

The book In Country by Bobbie Ann Mason is certainly a war story involving the Vietnam War and those who fought in it, but it can also be seen as a story about the search for knowledge and discovering who you are. The story is about a girl named Samantha Hughes and shows the effects that the Vietnam War had on not only the people who physically were there and fought, but also the impact it had on their loved ones. Sam becomes very interested in the war and whishes to learn more about it and her father who died in the war. She does many things to learn as much about the war that she can, like reading her father's diary and talking to local veterans. She also does things to try and imagine what it was like for soldiers in the war like camping in the swamp and watching the TV show MASH. There is a lot of pop culture in the book, like MASH and music by the Beatles and Bruce Springsteen. The TV show gave a visual of what war was like, even though it was about the Korean War. The music was used to express emotions and effects that the war had on people during and after the war.

The way that In Country is set up helps draw attention to the aftereffects that the war has on those involved. The first and third sections of the book are set in the present as Sam, her uncle Emmett, and her grandmother Mawmaw are driving from their home in Kentucky to the Vietnam War memorial in Washington D.C. Having the majority of the story take place after the war shows its lasting effects that it has on everyone. Emmett, who actually fought in the war, has a very hard time re-assimilating back into civilian life and cannot hold a job. It also affects Sam directly because she lost her father in the war, but she also wants to learn more about the war for her own knowledge about it and to know what the soldiers went through over there. This aspect of the book shows the perspective of a girl who didn't fight in the war which is a perspective that isn't usually presented in a war story. Rarely are the lives of family members or close friends examined after the war, where this book makes it not only about the changes in the life of a family member, but about a child who has lost her father to the war.