Blog 11 FY

In Country written by Babbie Ann Mason is a war novel revolving around a seventeen year old girl named Samantha. Surprisingly, the novel focuses on a young girl who never even fought in Vietnam as the protagonist of a story about Vietnam. I think this book can be though of as a coming home novel. The book is set in the 1980's well after the war took place, yet Vietnam is still very much on Sam and her brother Emmett's minds. The book is mysteriously titled In Country even though it is set in the United Sates. I think this is a reference to the fact that the war never truly left the veterans minds. As we have seen they are always thinking back to their war experiences through flashbacks or drunken stupors. In this sense its almost like they are constantly fighting the war and never really come home. This is one of the reasons for the trouble veterans have adjusting back to normal life. "He was looking to get his ass and head rearranged. You talk about somebody with problems. Even the V.A. would know hes got problems (pg. 122). This quote is from the fight Pete and Earl had, and shows how much trouble vets had adjusting to regular life. Although Jim tries to throw a party for all the veterans it gets out of hand and the turnout is not great. I just dont think that many soldiers want to relive there war experiences together like Jim does. Instead they prefer a life of solitude where they can forget all the horrors of the past and try to move on. Even at a happy celebration the vets cant get along because the war had such a big effect that their lives never have the same normality to them as before. Emmett is also shown to have trouble adjusting to regular life. Although he has a beautiful girl waiting for him and willing to be with him he ignores her most of the time thinking he is not good enough. He even says that its difficult to be with women because they weren't over there in Vietnam so they could never understand. Also he does not want to hold a steady job even though we are shown that he has received many offers from employers. Instead he prefers to work on unnecessary housework which frustrates Sam. Emmett probably feels like he cant work again for a while because he is trying to resolve his past, despite the war being long over. This just shows that the Vets all live in the past, which is one reason for the difficulty they have in adjusting to the present.

Since this is the 1980's popular culture plays a huge role in the book. The role of popular culture stands out so much that it almost takes a dominating position in the book. There several references to some culture icon, whether it be a musician or a brand, in every chapter. I think the constant references serve to show how the country had moved on from the Vietnam war. In the seventies the prime focus of the country was on fighting the war and all the peace protest movements against the drafts. All this is largely forgotten and that is why Mason puts such a focus on pop culture. It shows how quickly people forget about the past. At the time people really didnt care about the veterans or the war anymore. I think this is one reason why Sam always says that she wants to go back to the sixties. That was a time when the Beatles were still together and the country had not yet been effected by the war. Also I think that pop culture is used to show the transitional phase Sam is experiencing. "They are at a crossroads: the interstate with traffic headed east and west, and the state road with north-south traffic. Shes in Limbo, stationed right in the center of this enormous amount of energy" (pg. 17). In this way Sam's life is between Vietnam in the present. On one hand she is trying to find more information on her father, on the other she is focused on the life of a teenager and all the pop culture that goes with being young. The way the novel is written where it shifts between talking about the difficulty of the war to whats on HBO is like Sam's life where she desperately tries to ask Emmett and his veteran friends about the war on one page, and is talking about McDonald's and Pepsi on the next. This can also be used as a symbol of her age where she is not quite an adult,and yet not quite a child either. Like she said "Shes in Limbo". In this way the pop culture is her childhood while Vietnam and her interest in her father is like adulthood, she is stuck in the middle.